Final answer:
While the specific anthropologist known for investigating ritual and cultural performances isn't named, early 20th-century figures like Bronislaw Malinowski and students of Franz Boas including Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead are notable for their work in this area. Claude Lévi-Strauss's analysis of myths also contributed significantly to the understanding of cultural performances.
Step-by-step explanation:
The anthropologist known for investigating ritual and cultural performances, and who studied with E. E. Evans-Pritchard at Oxford, is not directly named in the provided materials. However, the approach of examining oral forms of culture as well as ritual and social practice to discern the underlying logic in culture traces back to the methods used by pioneering anthropologists like Bronislaw Malinowski. Malinowski is famous for his ethnography of the Trobriand peoples in 'Argonauts of the Western Pacific.' His investigation into their kula ring was seminal in understanding how cultural performances, such as ceremonial exchange, are fundamental to social status and relationships in Trobriand society.
Another influential figure in the study of cultural performances within anthropology is Claude Lévi-Strauss, whose work on collecting and analyzing myths as a way of studying cultures contributed to our understanding of the structures underlying cultural expressions. Similarly, anthropologists like Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, students of Franz Boas, advanced the study of cultural performances in terms of cultural personality studies and examinations of adolescence and child-rearing practices, respectively.
Anthropological investigations into cultural performances are a vital part of the field, revealing the multifaceted nature of human social activities and their meanings within different societies.