Jeremy Boissevain describes his early movement into anthropology. This partly came from his standing between two cultures, Dutch and American. Later he was influenced by a pupil of Boas in Japan. The major influence on his work, however, was that of Edmund Leach and later of Frederik Barth, and this led him towards a transactionalist and competitive view of human cultures.

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane in Cambridge in 1983. Part of a 20 minute interview.