Spencer MacCallum

Spencer MacCallum
MacCallum at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Arizona, April 8, 2006, lecturing on the origins of Mata Ortiz pottery.
Born	December 21, 1931 (1931-12-21) United States
Died	December 17, 2020(2020-12-17) (aged 88) Casas Grandes, Mexico
Alma mater	Princeton University University of Washington
Known for	Work on Mata Ortiz pottery
Scientific career
Fields	anthropology

Spencer Heath McCallum (December 21, 1931 – December 17, 2020), commonly known as Spencer MacCallum, was an American anthropologist, business consultant and author. He was especially noted for his discovery of the pottery of the town of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Personal life[]

MacCallum graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelors in art history and received a Masters of Arts in social anthropology from the University of Washington. He specialized in studying the life, culture and stateless society of Northwest Coast Indians.^[1]

MacCallum was the grandson of Spencer Heath, inventor and dissenter from mainstream Georgism.

Career[]

In 1956, MacCallum and his grandfather founded the Science of Society Foundation, which published a number of works, including Heath's book Citadel, Market, and Altar. MacCallum was for many years an active researcher and lecturer for academic and business clients.^[2] He was a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.^[3]

MacCallum shared his grandfather's interest in multi-tenant properties where developers lease properties and are responsible for providing community services, thereby replacing the functions traditionally provided by the state.^[4] He details these ideas in his 1970 booklet The Art of Community, as well as his 2003 articles "The Enterprise of Community: Market Competition, Land, and Environment" and "Looking Back and Forward" (which describes the influence of his grandfather); and his 2005 article on stateless social organization "From Upstate New York to the Horn of Africa."

In 1971, Werner Stiefel of Stiefel Laboratories commissioned MacCallum to write a master lease form for Operation Atlantis, a project designed to create a new voluntary nation in international waters. Stiefel's vision aligned with the ideas introduced by Spencer Heath, so MacCallum was the ideal person to help him develop the "constitution" for the new form of governance.^[5]

Although Operation Atlantis was defeated by disasters both natural and man-made, the lease form took on a life of its own as the master lease for "Orbis," an imaginary settlement in outer space. This fiction was due to Stiefel's concern about calling attention to his plan for a new form of governance on the ocean.^[6]

In 2005, MacCallum also edited and published The Law of the Somalis by Michael van Notten. The book deals with the foundations of the Somali customary law (Xeer).

Through his grandfather, MacCallum met alternative currency theorist E.C. Riegel. After Riegel's death, MacCallum obtained all Riegel's papers, which now reside with the Heather Foundation, of which MacCallum was the director.^[7] During the 1970s, MacCallum re-published Riegel's books The New Approach to Freedom and Private Enterprise Money and collected his papers into a new book called Flight from Inflation: The Monetary Alternative.^[8]

In 1976, MacCallum discovered artisan Juan Quezada, who soon became the leader of the now-thriving pottery movement located in Mata Ortiz, a small town near the ancient Paquime (or Casas Grandes) ruins in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. McCallum was the author of many articles on Mata Ortiz and an introduction to the book, Portraits of Clay: Potters of Mata Ortiz. His efforts helped the pottery win acceptance as a contemporary art form and a legitimate folk art.

MacCallum lived in nearby Casas Grandes and played a key role in Mata Ortiz affairs. Additionally, MacCallum had assisted archaeological investigations in the region by providing a compound to serve as quarters and lab space. He also hosted writers and artists at his properties in Casas Grandes.

Bibliography[]

• Spencer H. MacCallum: "E.C. Riegel on Money", January 2008.
• Spencer H. Macallum: "Suburban Democracy vs. Residential Community". Critical Review, Vol 17, Nos. 3–4, 2006.
• Michael van Notten, Spencer Heath MacCallum: The Law of the Somalis, Red Sea Press, 2005.
• Spencer MacCallum: "From Upstate New York to the Horn of Africa", Liberty Magazine, May 2005, Volume 19, Number 5.
• Spencer H. MacCallum: "The Enterprise of Community: Market Competition, Land, and Environment", Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 17, no. 4, Fall 2003, 1–16, published by Ludwig von Mises Institute, Slightly amended by the author, June 2004.
• Spencer MacCallum: "Looking Back and Forward^{[permanent dead link]}", Lewrockwell.com, December 19, 2003.
• Rigoberto Stewart: Limon Real: A Free and Autonomous Region, Spencer MacCallum, English translator, 2002
• Spencer MacCallum: The Quickening of Social Evolution:Perspectives on Proprietary (Entrepreneurial) Communities, Independent Institute, The Independent Review, v.II, n.2, Fall 1997, 287–302. (Version revised by the author, 2004).
• Spencer Heath MacCallum, Jan Bell, Scott H. Ryerson, and Michael A. Williams: "The Pottery and Potters of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Kiva," Volume 60, Number 1, Arizona Archeological & Historical Soc., 1994.
• Spencer H. MacCallum, editor: E.C. Riegel, Flight from Inflation: The Monetary Alternative, San Pedro, CA, The Heather Foundation, 1979.
• Spencer Heath MacCallum: The Art of Community, Institute for Humane Studies, 1970.
• Spencer Heath MacCallum: "The Social Nature of Ownership," Modern Age (9:1, Winter 1964–65).

See also[]

• Spencer Heath
• E.C. Riegel
• Mata Ortiz
• Proprietary community
• Heathian anarchism

References[]

External links[]

• Mata Ortiz Calendar, formerly maintained by Spencer and Emalie MacCallum. Links to photos of Mata Ortiz pottery, news, exhibits, etc.