Eleanor Leacock facts for kids

Eleanor Burke Leacock (born July 2, 1922, died April 2, 1987) was an important anthropologist. She studied how societies work, especially those where everyone is equal. She also looked at how the role of women changed over time. Eleanor was interested in ideas like Marxism and the feminist movement, which aim for fairness and equality.

Eleanor Leacock's Early Life and Education

Eleanor Leacock was born on July 2, 1922, in Weehawken, New Jersey. She was one of three daughters. Her mother, Lily Mary Battherham, was a mathematician. Her father, Kenneth Burke, was a writer and thinker.

Eleanor grew up spending half the year in Greenwich Village, New York. The other half was spent on her family's farm in New Jersey. She was surrounded by artists, thinkers, and people who wanted to change society. This taught her to dislike too much buying and owning things. She learned to love nature and hate unfairness. She also wanted to help create a more equal society.

Eleanor went to public schools in New York. Later, she earned a scholarship to a special high school called Dalton School. In 1939, she started studying anthropology at Radcliffe College. There, she learned about new ideas in anthropology. She also became very interested in the ideas of Lewis H. Morgan and Karl Marx. She joined student groups that wanted big social changes.

At Radcliffe, she met filmmaker Richard Leacock. They got married in 1941. After some rule breaking, she moved to Barnard College in 1942. She finished her studies there in 1944. She earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology.

Eleanor Leacock's Academic Career

After college, Eleanor traveled in Europe with her first husband. During this time, she started studying the Montagnais-Naskapi people. She looked at how their society changed because of the fur trade. In 1951, she got a grant to do fieldwork in Labrador, Canada. She even brought her one-year-old son with her. Her research helped show that owning private property was not always a part of every society.

Eleanor worked at the Bank Street College of Education from 1958 to 1965. She also taught at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. It was hard for her to find a full-time job in the 1950s. This was because she openly shared her strong political views.

For many years, she taught part-time. Then, in 1972, she became a full professor. She also became the head of the anthropology department at City College. She felt that the rise of the women's movement helped her get this job. Around this time, she also published an important introduction to a book by Friedrich Engels. In her introduction, she explained that the lower status of women started when societies became more complex. This happened with the rise of private property and governments.

In 1971, she did more important fieldwork in Zambia, Africa. This research helped her study how primary schools were changing. This was part of the efforts to become independent from colonial rule.

One of Eleanor's most important writings was an essay from 1983. It was called "Interpreting the Origins of Gender Inequality." In it, she talked about how men and women were treated differently. Eleanor believed that unfairness was linked to race, social class, and gender. She argued against the idea that these differences were simply due to biology.

Eleanor's work focused on five main areas. These included the role of women in equal societies. She also studied race and gender in schools. She looked at women's work in different cultures. Her studies also covered race, class, and gender in Samoa. She believed that women's roles became unfair under systems where men held most of the power. She saw marriage as a system of exchange and shared work. She also thought that women's work at home was often not valued enough.

Eleanor Leacock's career covered four major parts of the world. These were North America, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. She studied many different things. These included education, women's roles, and societies that lived by hunting and gathering.

Eleanor died from a stroke on April 2, 1987, in Hawaii.