Elizabeth Colson
| Elizabeth Colson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 15, 1917 Hewitt, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | August 3, 2016 (aged 99) Monze, Zambia |
| Citizenship | American |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Social anthropology |
| Alma mater |
University of Minnesota Radcliffe College |
| Doctoral advisor | Clyde Kluckhohn |
| Known for | Study of the Gwembe Tonga |
| Influences |
Wilson Wallis Ruth Sawtell Wallis Clyde Kluckhohn Robert Marett Max Gluckman Meyer Fortes E.E. Evans-Pritchard Lucy Mair Raymond Firth |
| Notable awards | Lewis Henry Morgan Lecturer, University of Rochester (1973) AAA Distinguished Lecture (1975) Honorary Degrees, Brown University, Rochester University National Academy of Sciences (1977) |
Elizabeth Florence Colson (June 15, 1917 – August 3, 2016) was an American social anthropologist and professor emerita of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was best known for the classic long-term study of the Tonga people of the Gwembe Valley in Zambia and Zimbabwe, which she began in 1956 with Thayer Scudder, 11 years after she obtained her doctorate and while Scudder was a second-year graduate student. Dr. Colson focused her research on the consequences of forced resettlement on culture and social organization, the effects of economic pressure on familial relationships, rituals, religious life, and even drinking patterns.
Colson was born in Hewitt, Minnesota on June 15, 1917. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in anthropology from the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D in Social Anthropology in 1945 from Radcliffe College. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978. While at Radcliffe College, she experienced sex-discrimination in academia and would later work to eradicate this discrimination at the University of California. Her work was based on ethnography and focused on long-term, data supported research. Colson later became a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. She died in Monze, Zambia in August 2016 at the age of 99.
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