Janet Bennion facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Janet Benson Bennion
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| Born | October 2, 1964 |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation | Professor of Anthropology |
Janet Benson Bennion (born October 2, 1964) is a Professor of Anthropology at Lyndon State College in Vermont, USA. She studies how people live in different cultures. Professor Bennion is known for her research on Mormon fundamentalist groups that practice polygamy, also called plural marriage. She is one of the top researchers who study plural marriage in North America.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Janet Benson Bennion was born in Vernon, Utah. She went to college and earned several degrees. She got her first degree in Anthropology from Utah State University. Then, she earned a master's degree in Social Organization from Portland State University. Finally, she received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Utah. She divides her time between her home in Vermont and a cabin in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana.
Awards and Recognition
In 1994, Professor Bennion received an award for her book, Women of Principle. This book was published by Oxford University Press. When the book came out, she was teaching anthropology at Utah Valley University. Later, when she began teaching at Lyndon State College, she received more awards. These included the Vermont Women in Higher Education Scholarship and the Carol E. Moore Merit Award.
More recently, she was recognized for her book Polygamy in Primetime. This book was published in 2012 by Brandeis University Press. It shares twenty years of her research. The book looks at the different ways plural marriage is practiced in the Intermountain West.
Professional Work and Research
For a long time, only a few experts, like Professor Bennion, studied plural marriage in North America. In her first book, Women of Principle, she wrote about women who joined a specific group. She found that some women were drawn to plural marriage because it offered support. It could help them find a community and economic stability.
Professor Bennion also found that women in some of these communities had important roles. They could hold positions of power and make decisions. They often managed their homes and raised their children. They also had strong support networks with other women.
In her book Desert Patriarchy, she studied women in a group in northern Mexico. Her latest book, Polygamy in Primetime, looks at four main plural marriage movements in the West. She found that some women in these families felt more satisfied than they might in other types of marriages. This book helps readers understand plural marriage beyond what they might see on TV shows.
Professor Bennion's early work included studying why women chose to convert to plural marriage. She also looked at the close relationships between co-wives. She has also written chapters in other books. Her work helps us understand different aspects of these communities.
Works
- The Polygamy Question (with Lisa Fishbayn Joffe), 2016, Utah State University Press. ISBN: 978-0874219975
- Polygamy on Primetime: Gender, Media, and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism, 2012, University Press of New England. ISBN: 978-1611682625
- Desert Patriarchy: Gender Dynamics in the Chihuahua Valley, 2004, University of Arizona Press. ISBN: 978-0816523344
- Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny, 1998, Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0195120707
- "History, Culture, and Variability of Mormon Schismatic Groups" and "The Many Faces of Polygamy: An Analysis of the Variability in Modern Mormon Fundamentalism in the Intermountain West", in Modern Polygamy in the United States: Historical, Cultural, and Legal Issues Surrounding the Raid on the FLDS in Texas, ed. Cardell Jacobson, 2011, Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199746385
- "Mormon Women in the 21st Century: A Critical Analysis of O’Dea’s Work", in Revisiting Thomas O’Dea’s The Mormons, eds. Jacobson et al., 2008, University of Utah Press. ISBN: 978-0874809206
- "Female Networking as a Factor of Female Status in Mormon Polygyny", in Mixed Blessings: A Study of Women in Fundamentalism, ed., Judy Brink, 1996, Routledge Press. ISBN: 978-0415911665
- As Janet Cannon: "My Sister, My Wife: An Examination of Sororal Polygyny in a Contemporary Mormon Fundamentalist Commune", 1992, Syzygy: Journal of Alternative Religion and Culture.
See also
- Mormonism and polygamy
