9 Women Who Changed Anthropology - Stuff Mom Never Told You

10/02/2017 9 Women Who Changed Anthropology | Stu Mom Never Told You
HOWSTUFFWORKS FOLLOW US
STUFF MOM NEVER TOLDYOU SEARCH
VIDEOS PODCASTS ARCHIVE BLOGS GALLERIES ABOUT MORE SHOWS
9 Women Who Changed

Anthropology
POSTED SEP 1, 2015
BY CAROLINE ERVIN
http://www.stumomnevertoldyou.com/blogs/9-women-who-changed-anthropology.htm 1/31
Alice Cunningham Fletcher

PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
You'd think the study of humans - all

humans, past and present - would be a
little more equitable when it comes to
gender. A er all, women are half the
humans. But don't let common sense
cloud your vision! Since the dawn of
anthropology as an o icial social-
science discipline, its members have
skewed male and white. Its
"informants," or the subjects being
interviewed by the foreign "experts,"
have also tended to skew male. Why
TODAY'S HEADLINES
10/02/2017 TODAY'S HEADLINES
9 Women Who Changed Anthropology | Stu Mom Never Told You
interview a bunch of women about what A Newly Surfaced

they do all day when you could just take Photo of Harriet
Tubman Is Going to
the men's word for it? Auction
Well, that setup just wasn't going to
work for the driven and brilliant women Fascinating, Fun and
Freaky: Our Best
of early-modern anthropology. Starting
Stories You Might
in the mid-19th century (the first wave of Have Missed This
so-called feminist anthropology), there Week
was a serious, unavoidable push to not
only include more women's voices in Decoding Your Desk:
What Does It Say
the study of other cultures, but also to,
About You?
you know, talk to women in those
SEE MORE HEADLINES
cultures.
But the women who led the charge in
the early days of anthropology weren't
perfect by any means. While some
helped open our minds to the meaning
of gender, many still held simplistic
views of other cultures.
Here are nine women whose work
changed the discipline.
Alice Cunningham Fletcher,

1838-1923
Alice Cunningham Fletcher

PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Born into an elite family but enduring a

"tough fight for life" early on, Alice
Fletcher had grown into an active
feminist and su ragist by the 1870s.
Through her archaeology training
(informal because gender) and work,
Fletcher became acquainted with
American Indians, eventually living with
the Omaha people for a while.
Combining her advocacy work and
interest in Native American cultures,
Fletcher made the now-controversial

MORE TO EXPLORE
move to push for allotment, or the
breaking up of tribal lands into
individual plots. She argued that
collective land owning blocked Native
WhyScientistsThink 9MoviesThat
Americans' progress and civilization AliensAreLikelyHuge HorrifyinglyKilled
Foxnew s.com PeopleInRealLife
(patronizing) and kept white people Looper.com
from respecting native peoples' rights to

the land (slightly more valid).
When she wasn't busy advocating for a
terrible land-ownership policy, she did Somethinginthe WhyYouShouldn't
OceanisEatingGreat StopEatingDairy
work to preserve aspects of the cultures WhiteSharks WhenYouHaveACold
Aol.com Veryw ell.com
she was observing. Together with music
scholar John Comfort Fillmore, Fletcher
collected the music of the Omaha,
writing it down in standard musical
America'sNewMega 20GreatOriginal'Star
notation rather than recording it (she BombisanAbsolute Trek'Moments
didn't trust the ol' cylinder Terror Tv line.com
Thew eek.com
phonograph). As one of the country's
first women anthropologists, she served
as Vice President of the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science and President of the American
Folklore Association, in addition to

helping launch the American
Anthropological Association.
Elsie Clews Parsons, 1875-

1941
Elsie Clews Parsons

PHOTO PROPERTY OF THE PARSONS FAMILY. CC BY-SA 3.0,
VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Elsie Clews Parsons was another high-

society anthropologist and
congressman's wife, but, thankfully, she
didn't advocate for any policies that
might take land away from American
Indians. Instead, against her mother's

wishes, she graduated from Barnard in
1896 and earned a doctorate in
education from Columbia in 1899. Seven
years later, this rabble-rouser published
a "radical" book advocating for
straightforward sex ed and discussions
of premarital sex and "trial marriages."
In 1912, Parsons penned an
ethnographic investigation of New
York's upper-crust women and their sex
roles, called "The Old-Fashioned
Woman." In it, she asserted that
"woman" itself was an outdated
category kept alive by equally outdated
rituals.
For the next several years, she traveled,
studied, stirred up adventure -- and
wound up shaping the field of
anthropology. She wrote articles about
cultures of Arizona and New Mexico,
collected folklore in the Caribbean,
funded students' research, took and
discarded lovers, and loudly opposed
restrictions on men and women working

together. Buds with famed
anthropologist Franz Boas, Parsons
taught Ruth Benedict and was a
predecessor of the supremely influential
Margaret Mead, so it makes sense that
she was concerned with gender roles
and society's e ect on people. She
focused heavily, too, on American Indian
culture. In 1939, she published "Pueblo
Indian Religion," a two-volume work
comprising a vast amount of research.
She was the first woman president of
the American Anthropological
Association, but she died before she
could deliver what would've been an
amazing inaugural address highlighting
anthropology's use as a tool of racism.
Maria Czaplicka, 1884-1921
Maria Czaplicka
BY MARIA CZAPLICKA [PUBLIC DOMAIN], VIA WIKIMEDIA
COMMONS
"flying" or "floating" universities

London and at Oxford
But she wasn't tied to a life at a desk or
behind a lectern. In May 1914, a er a few
years of working as a writer and an
assistant to wealthy women, Czaplicka
organized the mostly lady-run Yenisei
Expedition to Siberia to conduct
fieldwork and study the native cultures.
Her meta-analysis of literature on the
region, "Aboriginal Siberia: A Study in

Social Anthropology," was published
before the journey and served as the
foundation for her research. She and her
team spent more than a year gathering
information about native Siberians'
religious beliefs, photographing them
and collecting artifacts for the Pitt River
Museum back home in England.
Upon her return to England, she wrote
her personal take on her journey, "My
Siberian Year," but she never published
her fieldwork beyond a few articles.
A er leaving her post at Oxford in 1919,
Czaplicka faced a bleak financial
situation. She couldn't secure another
academic appointment, nor could she
find a scholarship for travel. In 1921, at
just 36, Czaplicka took her own life.
Ruth Benedict, 1887-1948
ca. 1900s --- Original caption: Ruth Benedict,

American anthropologist noted for her work on
Japanese culture during World War II. Head and
shoulders photograph. --- Image by Corbis
CORBIS
Anthropologist/poet Ruth Benedict

followed in her mother's footsteps to
earn her undergrad degree at Vassar in
1909, but it wasn't until she studied
under ol' Elsie Clews Parsons at the
New School for Social Research that
she was introduced to anthropology.
Thanks to the influence of Parsons and
Alexander Goldenweiser, Benedict
studied under Franz Boas at Columbia,

earning her PhD in 1923. Her thesis
zeroed in on North American Indian
cultures.
Benedict brought a fresh perspective to
the field. She viewed the cultures she
studied as the sum of many elements,
including intellectual, religious and
aesthetic. The prolific and curious
writer studied folklore, examined how
the personality of a culture defines its
members (culture is "personality writ
large") and rejected racist theories that
propagated inequality. Continuing her
focus on American Indians, Benedict
studied the Serrano, Zuni, Pima and
Apache peoples, in addition to tribes in
the Plains region.
While working as Boas's research
assistant, Benedict met student
Margaret Mead, and the two formed a
bond that would last a lifetime. Despite
her aversion to public speaking, the
fascinating and brilliant Benedict would
go on to work as a lecturer at Columbia,

earning a full professorship shortly
before her death.
Zora Neale Hurston, 1891-

1960
ca. 1950s, Florida, USA --- Zora Neale Hurston

(1903-1960) studied anthropology under scholar
Franz Boas. She wrote several novels, drawing
heavily on her knowledge of human development
and the African American experience in America.
She is best known for Their Eyes Were Watching
God. --- Image by CORBIS
CORBIS
ca. June 1935, Eatonville, Florida, USA --- Author

and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston sitting on a
porch in Eatonville, Florida with two musicians,
Rochelle French and Gabriel Brown. --- Image by
CORBIS
CORBIS
Perhaps most widely known as a deeply

talented Harlem Renaissance writer,
Zora Neale Hurston also trained under
Franz Boas as an anthropologist.
Studying at Barnard in the 1920s, she
was the only black student at the
school, and in 1928, she became the
first to graduate. When she pursued a
graduate degree at Columbia, Boas

encouraged her interest in African-
American folklore. It was this research
that informed her fiction, particularly
her use of dialect and "folk speech" in
works like "Their Eyes Were Watching
God." Hurston grew up in the town of
Eatonville, Florida, an all-black
community established in the wake of
the Civil War, and she returned home to
chronicle the folklore, sermons and
music she'd grown up hearing.
She didn't stay stateside, however. In
addition to her work in the Southeast,
Hurston traveled to the Caribbean to
study voodoo practices. Her major 1935
anthropological work "Mules and Men"
was the first collection of black folklore
by an African-American, male or female,
and "Tell My Horse" captured her
experiences in Jamaica and Haiti. She
also pioneered anthropological theories
and methods through her study of the
African diaspora, tracing cultural links

between black people in Africa and
those in Europe and the Americas.
Margaret Mead, 1901-1978
01 Jan 1934 --- Dr. Margaret Mead, Assistant

Curator of Ethnology at the American Museum of
Natural History, displays some of the trophy heads
that she brought back with her from New Guinea.
For two years, Dr. Mead had worked among three
tribes of headhunters, studying their customs and
gathering trophies. --- Image by
Bettmann/CORBIS
BETTMANN/CORBIS
1953 --- Original caption: Anthropologist Margaret

Mead is shown here with a Manus mother and child
in 1953 during a visit to the Admiralty Islands. ---
Image by Bettmann/CORBIS
BETTMANN/CORBIS
She built upon the work of her

predecessors, particularly Franz Boas,
Ruth Benedict and Elsie Clews Parsons,
but Margaret Mead's influence cannot
be overstated. Her research into
Polynesian cultures -- among other
things, uncovering a more relaxed
approach to premarital sex -- helped
jump start America's sexual revolution
and second-wave feminism. Lest you

think her sole focus was sex and gender,
allow us to fill you in: This woman was
also well-versed in education,
personality, nutrition, mental health
(and so much more) as they applied to
culture and relationships.
Born to progressive Quaker parents and
educated primarily by her grandmother,
Mead was encouraged from a young age
to not only observe the world around
her, but also to take detailed, extensive
notes. By the time the curious student
was at Barnard and taking a class under
Boas (she'd later get her master's and
PhD at Columbia under him), there was
no stopping her; she was born to be an
anthropologist.
In "Sex & Temperament," she explored
the roles of nature and nurture among
cultures in Papua New Guinea and
asserted that, yes, sex and gender are
two di erent forces. In "Coming of Age
in Samoa," her first and arguably most
important work, she pointed to relaxed

attitudes toward sexual exploration and
sex/gender roles as playing a beneficial
role in adolescent girls' development.
Through it all -- a career of travel and
discovery, three marriages and endless
controversy -- she maintained a lifelong
romance with her teacher, friend and
mentor Ruth Benedict. You can read
their love letters, but be forewarned:
You might have something in your eye
by the end of it.
Phyllis Kaberry, 1910-1977
UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 01: Dr.Phyllis

Kaberry. (Photo by Planet News
Archive/SSPL/Getty Images)
PLANET NEWS ARCHIVE/SSPL/GETTY IMAGES
Born in San Francisco and raised in

Australia, Phyllis Kaberry was
adventurous from the start. Her early
years spent exploring with her brothers
prepared her well for a career as a social
anthropologist. A er graduating from
the University of Sydney, Kaberry wrote
her 1934 master's thesis on the
aboriginal people of the islands o
Australia, including New Guinea, Fiji and
the Solomon Islands. She followed that

up by spending more than a year
conducting field research among the
Aborigines in Western Australia, an
experience that would shape her most
influential work, "Aboriginal Woman:
Sacred and Profane," written during
her time studying in London with
Bronislaw Malinowski. It was a badly
needed re-examination (or, you know,
viewing-as-human) of native women
that strove to portray them as actual
human people with actual feelings.
Thirty years a er its publications, fellow
scholars would hail it as the only
"pioneering study of the social position
of women" in Australia.
Not one to rest on one groundbreaking
event, Kaberry went on to receive grant
a er fellowship a er warm invitation to
conduct field work and lecture at
universities abroad. Some of her
happiest days were spent investigating
malnutrition among the people of the
British Cameroons (now parts of Nigeria

and Cameroon), where she became
BFFs with the local women, many of
whom complained about neighboring
tribesmen's cattle ruining their farms.
Kaberry apparently helped them drive
the interfering bovines from the land,
earning her the name "Queen Mother"
from the women. Her time in the region
inspired her book "Women of the
Grassfields," which examined women's
social and economic positions, in
addition to shining a light on issues of
infant mortality and malnutrition.
Oh, and in addition to serving as vice
president of the Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and
joining the University College, London
sta , she also had a quick wit and a
great sense of humor. She'd get a kick
out of relaying her African friends'
complaints about the lazy men of their
village when chatting with her own male
colleagues.
Mary Leakey, 1913-1996

Mary Leakey, 1913-1996
09 Sep 1959, Tanzania --- Husband and wife Louis

and Mary Leakey study fossilized skull fragments
which may belong to the "missing link" between
ape and man. --- Image by Bettmann/CORBIS
BETTMANN/CORBIS
UNITED KINGDOM - CIRCA 1948: Great Britain,

London. Mary Leakey. 1948 (Photo by Keystone-
France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
KEYSTONE-FRANCE/GAMMA-KEYSTONE VIA GETTY IMAGES
A fossil hunter extraordinaire, Mary

Leakey was interested in art and
archaeology from the get-go. Her father
(rad dad alert!) took her to see ancient
cave paintings in France, in addition to
museums where she participated in
archaeological digs (Caroline is jealous).
When her dad died and her mom moved
her back to London, Leakey, sick of
Catholic school, started taking
university classes in archaeology,

prehistory and geology. Three years
later, Leakey (nee Nicol) was already a
master of flint points and scientific
illustration, which worked out perfectly
for future husband (and the married-at-
the-time) Louis Leakey; he invited her to
come to Africa to draw the tools he'd
found (smooth).
She didn't give a hoot about pursuing a
formal education, which worked out
just fine; over the course of her career,
Leakey earned numerous honorary
degrees thanks to the incredible work
she (and husband Louis) performed
(although her son Richard credits his
mother for Louis's success too). In
Africa, she discovered Proconsul
africanus (found an intact skull in 1948),
Zinjanthropus boisei (aka
Australopithecus boisei [the discovery
of which, in 1959, earned her and Louis
funding from the National Geographic
Society]), Homo habilis (1960) and a

fossilized trail of early human footprints
stretching 89 feet long (1979).
One thing the trailblazing archaeologist
didn't like? Questions about her sex,
which she told a Scientific American
reporter had no bearing on her work. "I
was never conscious of it," Leakey told
her. "I never felt disadvantaged."
Pearl Primus, 1919-1994
1940s, USA --- Pearla Primus With Associates ---

Image by Joseph Schwartz/CORBIS
JOSEPH SCHWARTZ/CORBIS
6th November 1951: Pearl Primus and Kenneth

Spencer rehearsing at the Princes Theatre,
London. (Photo by Reg Birkett/Keystone/Getty
Images)
REG BIRKETT/KEYSTONE/GETTY IMAGES
Pearl Primus was a dancer,

choreographer, activist, teacher and
lecturer who helped bring African and
Caribbean dance to American
audiences. But first, she was a scientist.
The Trinidadian, who moved with her
family to New York at age 2, earned her
undergraduate degree in biology and
pre-med from Hunter College -- but

when no lab jobs would take black
applicants, she applied to the National
Youth Council, a New Deal agency that
installed her in the New Dance Group.
She'd found a passion, even if it meant
putting science on hold. Primus quickly
became a teacher and performed her
own work. She used dance to tell
painful stories of African-American lives;
performances in 1943 included "Strange
Fruit" (about lynching) and "The Negro
Speaks of Rivers" (depicting the lives of
black people along the Mississippi).
A er touring and founding her own
company, Primus received a scholarship
to study dance in Africa, married a
fellow dancer and became the director
of a performing arts center in Liberia. It
was a busy time, but in 1978, she earned
a PhD in anthropology (African and
Caribbean studies) from New York
University.
Her passions combined. In addition to

sharing African-American stories
through performance, she drew on her
research in the Caribbean and in
Nigeria, Ghana, Zaire and Rwanda.
Her right brain and le brain both in full
e ect, she was the perfect candidate to
participate in "The Black Tradition in
American Dance," a program that sought
to preserve and revive black dance.
PREV POST NEXT POST
Citation & Date
MORE TO EXPLORE
31BadassWomenBorninJanuary
StuffWeKindofLike
WhoinventedtheChristmascard?
Rec ommendedby
Ads by Google
Consulta CPF/CNPJ Online
Pendncias, Cheques e Protestos.Acesse e

consulte agora.
www.ccfacil.com.br
MORE FROM THE STUFF NETWORK
About Store
Shows Advertising
BrainStu CarStu
Privacy Careers
Ad Contact Us
Choices
Help
Terms
Stu of Genius Stu They Don't Want You

to Know
FW:Thinking Stu to Blow Your Mind
Copyright 2017
HowStu Works,
a division of InfoSpace
Holdings LLC Stu You Should Know Stu You Missed in History
Class

9 Women Who Changed Anthropology - Stuff Mom Never Told You

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

9 Women Who Changed Anthropology - Stuff Mom Never Told You

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

10/02/2017 9 Women Who Changed Anthropology | Stu Mom Never Told You

VIDEOS PODCASTS ARCHIVE BLOGS GALLERIES ABOUT MORE SHOWS

9 Women Who Changed

Alice Cunningham Fletcher

You'd think the study of humans - all

interview a bunch of women about what A Newly Surfaced

Alice Cunningham Fletcher,

Alice Cunningham Fletcher

Born into an elite family but enduring a

Fletcher made the now-controversial

from respecting native peoples' rights to

Folklore Association, in addition to

Elsie Clews Parsons, 1875-

Elsie Clews Parsons

Elsie Clews Parsons was another high-

Indians. Instead, against her mother's

restrictions on men and women working

Maria Czaplicka, 1884-1921

"flying" or "floating" universities

region, "Aboriginal Siberia: A Study in

Ruth Benedict, 1887-1948

ca. 1900s --- Original caption: Ruth Benedict,

Anthropologist/poet Ruth Benedict

studied under Franz Boas at Columbia,

go on to work as a lecturer at Columbia,

Zora Neale Hurston, 1891-

ca. 1950s, Florida, USA --- Zora Neale Hurston

ca. June 1935, Eatonville, Florida, USA --- Author

Perhaps most widely known as a deeply

graduate degree at Columbia, Boas

African diaspora, tracing cultural links

Margaret Mead, 1901-1978

01 Jan 1934 --- Dr. Margaret Mead, Assistant

1953 --- Original caption: Anthropologist Margaret

She built upon the work of her

and second-wave feminism. Lest you

important work, she pointed to relaxed

Phyllis Kaberry, 1910-1977

UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 01: Dr.Phyllis

Born in San Francisco and raised in

the Solomon Islands. She followed that

British Cameroons (now parts of Nigeria

Mary Leakey, 1913-1996

Mary Leakey, 1913-1996

09 Sep 1959, Tanzania --- Husband and wife Louis

UNITED KINGDOM - CIRCA 1948: Great Britain,

A fossil hunter extraordinaire, Mary

university classes in archaeology,

Society]), Homo habilis (1960) and a

Pearl Primus, 1919-1994

1940s, USA --- Pearla Primus With Associates ---

6th November 1951: Pearl Primus and Kenneth

Pearl Primus was a dancer,

pre-med from Hunter College -- but

Her passions combined. In addition to

PREV POST NEXT POST

Citation & Date

Consulta CPF/CNPJ Online

Pendncias, Cheques e Protestos.Acesse e

MORE FROM THE STUFF NETWORK

Stu of Genius Stu They Don't Want You

FW:Thinking Stu to Blow Your Mind

Você também pode gostar