Honours 

Fellow, British Academy, 1996 

Honorary Fellow, Somerville College Oxford, 1997 

Order of the British Empire for services to Social Sciences, 2000

Honorary Member, Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the, Commonwealth, 2002

Emeritus Professor, Open University, 2002 

Alan Dundes Memorial Lecture, Berkeley, University of California, 2014

Rivers Memorial Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 2016

International Fellow, American Folklore Society, 2017

John Blacking Memorial Lecture (Royal Anthropological Institute), University  of Aberdeen, 2018

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Awards (see also Award icons 2022)

Folklore Society, short list Katharine Briggs Award 1992

British Academy, longlist  Book Award 2003

British Association for Applied Limguistics, short list 2003

Herskovits Award, Honorable Mention 2008

National Indie Excellence, Finalist ( visionary fiction) 2016, Finalist (religious fiction) 2017

New York Book Fair, Honorable  Mention (romance) 2016

Readers Favorite, 4 Awards (fiction and nonfiction) 2016

Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book,   Runner up 2016

Readers Favorite, Honorable Mention

Hungry Monster, Silver award, 2016

Literary Titan, Silver award, 2017

Book Excellence, Winner (friendship) 2017

Kirkus Reviews, one of top 25 of 2017

Author Show, Winner, ‘Fifty Great Writers You Should Be Reading’, 2017

Capital Fund Screenplay Contest, Genre Winner (sci-fi/fantasy), ​2017