Spencer MacCallum

Spencer Heath McCallum (born 1931), commonly known as Spencer MacCallum, is an American anthropologist, business consultant and author. He also is notable for his discovery of the pottery of the town of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico.

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. He is the grandson of Spencer Heath, inventor and Georgist dissenter. 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. He remains a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.

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. He details these ideas in his 1970 booklet "The Art of Community"; 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". He edited and published the book "The Law of the Somalis" by Michael van Notten which deals with the foundations of private law as it was in Somalia (see History of Somalia (1991-2006)).

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 MacCullum is director. 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.

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 Casa Grandes) ruins in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. McCallum is the author of many articles on Mata Ortiz, as well as 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 lives in nearby Casas Grandes and still plays a key role in Mata Ortiz affairs.