Caroline Humphrey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Lady Rees of Ludlow
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|---|---|
| Born |
Caroline Waddington
1 September 1943 |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | St George's School, Edinburgh |
| Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge University of Leeds |
| Title | Sigrid Rausing Professor of Collaborative Anthropology |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Parent(s) | C. H. Waddington Margaret Justin Blanco White |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge Girton College, Cambridge Scott Polar Research Institute King's College, Cambridge |
Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, also known as Caroline Waddington, was born on 1 September 1943. She is a British anthropologist and a university professor. An anthropologist is someone who studies human societies and cultures.
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About Caroline Humphrey
Caroline Humphrey's father was a famous biologist named C. H. Waddington. Her mother was an architect, Margaret Justin Blanco White. Caroline has a younger sister, Dusa McDuff, who is a mathematician. She also has an older half-brother, C. Jake Waddington.
Caroline studied Social Anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge. She earned her first degree there. Later, she completed her PhD in 1973. Her PhD research was about "Magical Drawings in the Religion of the Buryat" people.
She has received several important awards for her work. In 1999, she was given the Rivers Memorial Medal. In 2003, she received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Mongolia. An honorary doctorate is a special degree given to someone for their great achievements. In 2017, the University of Bolton also gave her an honorary doctorate. This was for her amazing contributions to the field of anthropology.
Her Personal Life
In 1967, Caroline Waddington married Nicholas Humphrey. They later divorced in 1977. In 1986, she married Martin Rees.
Her Research and Work
Caroline Humphrey has traveled a lot for her research. She has studied cultures in many different places. These include Siberia, Nepal, India, Mongolia, and China. She also did research in Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
In 1966, she was one of the first Western anthropologists allowed to do fieldwork in the USSR. This was a very important opportunity. Her early research focused on the religious art of the Buryat people. Later, she studied many other topics. These included collective farms in the Soviet Union. She also looked at farming in India and Tibet. She researched Jainist culture in India. She also worked on protecting the environment and cultures in Inner Asia.
From 1971 to 1978, she was a fellow at Girton College, Cambridge. She also worked at the Scott Polar Research Institute. She taught at the University of Cambridge from 1978 to 1983. She then became a Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology.
She held several important professor positions at Cambridge. She was a University Reader in Asian Anthropology from 1995 to 1998. Then she became a University Professor of Asian Anthropology from 1998 to 2006. She was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2000. From 2006 to 2010, she was the Rausing Professor of Collaborative Anthropology.
In 1986, she helped start the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU) at Cambridge. She started it with Urgunge Onon. After retiring from her professorship in 2010, she became a Voluntary Research Director at MIASU.
She has been a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge since 1978. In 2010, she finished writing a book with Hurelbaatar Ujeed. The book is called A Monastery in Time: the Making of Mongolian Buddhism. This book was based on her visits and studies since 1995. She visited Mergen Monastery in Inner Mongolia, China. This monastery has kept a special form of Mongolian Buddhism alive since the 1700s.
Awards and Honours
In 2011, Caroline Humphrey was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). This honour was given to her for her great contributions to learning and knowledge. She is also an honorary fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. In 2004, she was chosen to be a member of the American Philosophical Society. This is a very old and respected group of thinkers.
Her Published Works
Caroline Humphrey has written or edited many books. Here are some of them:
- Karl Marx Collective: Economy, Society and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm (1983)
- (edited with Michael Carrithers) The Assembly of Listeners: Jains in Society (1991)
- (edited with Stephen Hugh-Jones) Barter, Exchange and Value (1992)
- (edited with Nicholas Thomas) Shamanism, History and the State (1994)
- (with James Laidlaw) The Archetypal Actions of Ritual, illustrated by the Jain rite of worship (1994)
- (with Urgunge Onon) Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge and Power among the Daur Mongols (1996)
- (edited with David Sneath) Culture and Environment in Inner Asia (1996)
- (with Piers Vitebsky) Sacred Architecture (1997)
- Marx Went Away, but Karl Stayed Behind (1998)
- (with David Sneath) The End of Nomadism? Society, the State and the Environment in Inner Asia (1999)
- The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism (2002)
- (edited with Katherine Verdery) Property in Question: Value Transformation in the Global Economy (2004)
- (edited with Catherine Alexander and Victor Buchli) Urban Life in Post-Soviet Central Asia (2007)
- (with Hurelbaatar Ujeed) A Monastery in Time: The Making of Mongolian Buddhism (2013)
