Marilyn Strathern facts for kids

Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern is a famous British anthropologist. She was born on March 6, 1941. She is known for her studies of the Mount Hagen people in Papua New Guinea. She also researched modern topics like reproductive technologies in the UK.

Marilyn Strathern held important positions at the University of Cambridge. She was the William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology from 1993 to 2008. She also led Girton College, Cambridge as its Mistress from 1998 to 2009.

Early Life and Education

Marilyn Strathern was born in North Wales in 1941. Her parents were Eric and Joyce Evans. She went to Crofton Lane Primary School and then Bromley High School. Marilyn was a great student. Her mother, who was a teacher, helped her a lot.

After school, she went to Girton College at Cambridge University. There, she studied Archaeology and Anthropology. She continued her studies and earned her PhD in 1968. In 1964, she married another anthropologist, Andrew Strathern. They had three children together.

Marilyn Strathern's Career Journey

Marilyn Strathern has had many important jobs during her career. Her work often focused on the people of Papua New Guinea. She also became an expert in feminist anthropology, which looks at how gender affects society.

Her career started in 1970 as a researcher. She worked for the New Guinea Research Unit at the Australian National University. Later, from 1976 to 1983, she taught at Girton College. She also taught at Trinity College from 1984 to 1985. Sometimes, she gave guest lectures in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

In 1985, she became a professor at Manchester University. She returned to Cambridge in 1993. There, she took on the role of William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology. She stayed in this position until she retired in 2008. From 1998 to 2009, she was also the Mistress of Girton College.

Studying Cultures in Papua New Guinea

Marilyn Strathern spent a lot of time studying the Hagen people in Papua New Guinea. Her research often looked at how gender is understood in different cultures. She questioned common ideas about what gender means.

In her work, she showed that ideas about gender can be different in various societies. For example, she explored how "collective" (group) and "personal" interests are linked to gender. She also looked at what "equality" truly means in different cultures. She asked if Western ideas of equality were always right.

Strathern's studies helped people think differently about many topics. These include reproductive technology, intellectual property, and gender roles. Her work showed that the world has many different ways of being. She believed that different parts of society are connected. They are not separate from each other.

Key Books and Publications

Marilyn Strathern has written many books and articles. She has published 44 journal articles and 57 book chapters. She has also written or co-written over 15 books. Her writings cover many topics. These include Melanesian culture and British culture.

Her books about Melanesia often focus on gender relations and legal anthropology. Her work on the UK looks at family relationships and new technologies. She once said that Partial Connections, written in 1991, was her favorite book to write. However, her most famous book is The Gender of Gift, published in 1988.

In The Gender of Gift, she used a new way to look at gender. She argued that women in Papua New Guinea were not being exploited. Instead, their definition of gender was simply different from Western ideas. She explained that gender is understood differently there than in the United Kingdom.

Other Important Books

• (with Andrew Strathern) Self-Decoration in Mount Hagen (1971)
• Women in Between (1972)
• No Money on Our Skins: Hagen Migrants in Port Moresby (1975)
• (ed. with C. MacCormack) Nature, Culture and Gender (1980)
• Kinship at the Core: an Anthropology of Elmdon, Essex (1981)
• The Gender of the Gift: Problems with Women and Problems with Society in Melanesia (1988)
• Partial connections (1991)
• After Nature: English Kinship in the Late Twentieth Century (1992)
• (with Jeanette Edwards, Sarah Franklin, Eric Hirsch and Frances Price) Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception (1993)
• Property, substance and effect. Anthropological essays on persons and things (1999)
• Commons and borderlands: working papers on interdisciplinarity, accountability and the flow of knowledge (2004)
• (ed. with Eric Hirsch) Transactions and creations: property debates and the stimulus of Melanesia (2004)
• (ed) Audit Cultures. Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy. (2000)
• Kinship, law and the unexpected: Relatives are always a surprise (2005)
• Relations: An Anthropological Account (2020)

Awards and Recognition

Marilyn Strathern has received many awards for her important work.

• In 1987, she became a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).
• In 1996, she was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
• In 2001, she received the title of Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. This was for her services to Social Anthropology.
• She won the Rivers Memorial Medal in 1976.
• She received the Viking Fund Medal in 2003.
• In 2004, she was awarded the Huxley Medal.
• She received the 30th Anniversary Independence Medal in 2005.
• In 2016, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

In 2000, an artist named Daphne Todd painted a portrait of Marilyn Strathern. This painting showed Marilyn with two heads on separate panels. It won an award in 2001.

Honorary Degrees

Marilyn Strathern has also received many honorary degrees from universities around the world. These are special degrees given to honor her achievements.

• Honorary Degree Sc. Edinburgh (1993)
• Honorary Degree Sc. Copenhagen (1994)
• Honorary Degree Lit, Oxford (2004)
• Honorary Degree Pol., Helsinki (2006)
• Honorary Degree, Panteion University, Athens (2006)
• Honorary Degree Sc., Durham (2007)
• Honorary Degree Philosophy, University Papua New Guinea (2009)
• Honorary Degree Social Sciences, Belfast (2009)
• Honorary Doctorate, Australian National University (2015)
• Honorary Doctorate, Harvard University (2019)

See also

• In Spanish: Marilyn Strathern para niños