Helen Codere facts for kids

Helen Frances Codere (born September 10, 1917 – died June 5, 2009) was an American cultural anthropologist. She earned her first degree from the University of Minnesota in 1939. Later, she received her PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. There, she studied with the famous anthropologist Ruth Benedict.

Helen Codere is best known for her important work. She studied the Kwakwaka'wakw people. They live on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. These people were once known as the "Kwakiutl." Her teaching career lasted over fifty years. She taught at many universities. These included Vassar College and the University of British Columbia. She also taught at Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania.

About Helen Codere

Her Early Life

Helen Codere was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Soon after her birth, her family moved to Minnesota in the United States. She was a very independent person. She focused on her studies and career. She had a close friend named Marion Tait for many years.

Her Personality

Helen Codere loved living simply. She had a vacation home in Vermont. It was like the author Henry David Thoreau's simple life. Her friends called her a "renaissance woman." This means she had many talents and interests. She was known for her great sense of humor. She also had a strong and independent spirit. She loved reading the newspaper every day. And she was always ready for a hike.

Helen Codere's Career

Helen Codere held many important jobs. She worked for the American Ethnological Society. She also taught at several universities. From 1964 to 1982, she taught at Brandeis University. She was also the dean of the graduate school there. This was from 1974 to 1977. Her teaching jobs spanned five decades. She taught at Vassar College and the University of British Columbia. Other places included Northwestern University and Bennington College. She also taught at the University of Pennsylvania. She received many awards. These included fellowships from the Social Science Research Council. She also got one from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Helen Codere was one of the first women anthropologists. She held a senior teaching job at a university. In 1966, she helped edit a book. It was called Kwakiutl Ethnography by Franz Boas. After he passed away, she continued his work. She kept studying the Kwakiutl peoples. In 1951 and again from 1954 to 1955, Codere visited the Kwakiutl people. She lived with a family to learn about their culture.

Later Years

After retiring, Helen Codere lived in Concord, Massachusetts. She continued to volunteer at the local library. She also spent time with her close friend, Marion Tait. When Marion Tait passed away, Helen was very sad. She never fully recovered from the loss. Helen Codere died on June 5, 2009.

She was very generous. She donated all of her land to the Vermont Land Trust. This helps protect natural areas. She also gave most of her books to the library. These books went to the anthropology department. It was at the University of Vermont.

Her Important Works

Studying the Kwakiutl People

Helen Codere's first major book was Fighting with Property: Study of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare, 1792–1930. This book was also her PhD paper for Columbia University. In this book, Codere focused on the potlatch. A potlatch is a special ceremony. People give away gifts and show their wealth. She showed that potlatches were about being friendly and working together. This was different from what many people thought. At the time, many saw potlatches as wasteful.

In her book, she looked at historical records. These were about the Kwakiutl people from 1792 to 1930. Her work built on the earlier studies by Franz Boas. She found that a big change happened. The Kwakiutl started to use potlatches for social standing. They gave away property instead of fighting with weapons. They called this "fighting with property." This change showed how people can move away from violence.

Her work on the Kwakiutl was very important.

• First, it was one of the first studies in historical anthropology. This field looks at how cultures change over time.
• Second, most anthropologists at the time studied societies at one point in time. Codere's work focused on how culture changes.

Studying Rwanda

After her work with the Kwakiutl, she studied Rwanda. This was in 1959. She studied the Tutsi and Hutu people. It was a time of big changes and revolution there. She wanted to study how societies change. While in Rwanda, she had to communicate in two languages. These were Kinyarwanda and French.

She collected many life stories. She gathered forty-eight autobiographies. These were from Rwandan men and women. They were from different groups like Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa. They also had different ages and jobs. She used these stories to study social change. She focused on problems and tensions in society. She saw society as a "complex adaptive system." This means it's a group of relationships that change. Her studies showed how the caste system worked. They also showed how relationships between different groups were changing. She studied Rwanda's social structure as it was rapidly changing.