Elizabeth Colson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Elizabeth Colson
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| Born | June 15, 1917 Hewitt, Minnesota, U.S.
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| Died | August 3, 2016 (aged 99) Monze, Zambia
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| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | University of Minnesota Radcliffe College |
| Known for | Study of the Gwembe Tonga |
| Awards | American Association of University Women fellowship, (1942-1943) Lewis Henry Morgan Lecturer, University of Rochester (1973) AAA Distinguished Lecture (1975) Honorary Degrees, Brown University, Rochester University National Academy of Sciences (1977) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social anthropology |
| Doctoral advisor | Clyde Kluckhohn |
| Influences | Wilson Wallis Ruth Sawtell Wallis Clyde Kluckhohn Robert Marett Max Gluckman Meyer Fortes E.E. Evans-Pritchard Lucy Mair Raymond Firth |
Elizabeth Florence Colson (born June 15, 1917 – died August 3, 2016) was an American social anthropologist. This means she studied how people live in groups and societies. She was also a retired professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Elizabeth Colson was famous for her long study of the Tonga people. They live in the Gwembe Valley in Zambia and Zimbabwe. She started this important work in 1956. Dr. Colson looked at how being forced to move affected people's culture and how their society was organized. She also studied how money problems changed family life, traditions, and even daily habits.
About Elizabeth Colson
Elizabeth Colson was born in Hewitt, Minnesota, on June 15, 1917. She went to the University of Minnesota and earned her first degrees in anthropology. Later, she got her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology in 1945 from Radcliffe College.
She received a special award from the American Association of University Women in 1942–1943. In 1977, she became a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The next year, she joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her Early Life and Education
While studying at Radcliffe College, Elizabeth faced unfair treatment because she was a woman in her field. Later, she worked hard to stop this kind of unfairness at the University of California.
Her research was based on ethnography. This means she studied people and cultures by living among them. She focused on long-term studies, collecting lots of information. Elizabeth Colson became a retired professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She passed away in Monze, Zambia, in August 2016, at 99 years old.
Studying the Gwembe Tonga People
In 1956, a research group called the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute sent Elizabeth Colson to study the Gwembe Tonga. They wanted to know how building a big dam and power plant would affect them. She worked with Thayer Scudder to gather information from the people living in Gwembe.
Colson wrote a report called "The Social Consequences of Resettlement." In it, she described how the Gwembe Tonga reacted to being moved. People experienced big changes in their society. They felt anger towards the government. Their local leaders, who supported the move, lost trust. There were also general problems in their community.
This research helped experts understand more about people who are forced to move. It also helped with discussions about migration and refugee communities. Elizabeth Colson's work with Thayer Scudder on the Gwembe Tonga and their move is still important today.
