In the post-war climate of national self-determination and human rights, social anthropologists distanced themselves further from missionaries. They undertook fieldwork off the verandah, concerned themselves with theory, and practised a detached, secular, even scientific approach. Professional anthropologists documented rather than intervened in society; they were listeners rather than preachers and they built a network of social and intellectual capital that frequently excluded missionaries. In the late 1940s academic reviews like Bantu Studies (renamed African Studies) and Africa stopped carrying articles by missionaries. Many missionaries turned away from the politically sensitive discipline of anthropology to invest more time in the study of African languages. Yet the differences between missionary and academic anthropology were often more imagined than real and were often concerned with marking out territory rather than defining exclusive approaches. Many missionaries were trained in anthropology and several professional anthropologists had grown up in missionary homes, or supported the missionary cause. Professional anthropologists often intervened directly in the lives of the peoples they studied. Winifred Hoernle left the University of the Witwatersrand in 1937 to concentrate on welfare work. She and Schapera served as consultants to the King of Swaziland, who, in an attempt to infuse young people with discipline and respect, wanted to revive initiation ceremonies and induct a new regiment. Although missionaries opposed the (re)introduction of these ceremonies, the South African anthropologists, with the support of Malinowski, viewed them as a valuable reassertion of traditional values in the face of Westernization. Godfrey Wilson, as Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and husband of anthropologist Monica Hunter (the daughter of a missionary), preached an applied anthropology that, through controlled cultural change, aimed to improve the conditions of African mineworkers. Some anthropologists entered government service and some missionaries taught anthropology.
As Empire gave way to Commonwealth and missionary societies transformed into African churches, missionaries at last became an object of study for anthropologists. For some, this critical attention served to deepen the gulf separating the conflicting interests and approaches of academic and missionary anthropologists. For others, it merely drew attention to the shared values and common traditions of two streams in the field of anthropology. During these years some missionary anthropologists developed a notion of Christianity that was far more accepting of African beliefs and practices. Under the influence of cultural relativism, others came to see African forms of spirituality as religions in their own right. However, by this time formerly colonized peoples were taking charge of their own world and missionary anthropology was quietly slipping into the domain of history.