Annette Barbara Weiner née Cohen (February 14, 1933 - 7 December 1997) was an American anthropologist, Kriser Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, chair of the Anthropology Department, dean of the social sciences, and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. She was known for her ethnographic work in the

Trobriand Islands The Trobriand Islands are a archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main isla ...

and her development of the concept of inalienable wealth in social anthropological theory. Her dissertation studied the contribution of women to the economy of Trobriand society, which had been the site of Bronislaw Malinowski's renowned studies of the Kula exchange. She demonstrated that women's contributions were highly significant but largely erased from record because the cultural focus was on the distribution and exchange of valuables rather than its production. The dissertation was published in 1976 by University of Texas Press under the title: ''Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange''. It received intense attention and became a highly influential piece of feminist anthropology. In 1992 she published the book ''Inalienable Possessions: The paradox of keeping-while-giving'' at the University of California Press, in which she built on work by

Marcel Mauss Marcel Mauss (; 10 May 1872 – 10 February 1950) was a French sociologist and anthropologist known as the "father of French ethnology". The nephew of Émile Durkheim, Mauss, in his academic work, crossed the boundaries between sociology and ...

and Malinowski to present a theory of value and exchange in which there is a basic distinction between alienable and inalienable forms of wealth. Inalienable wealth is a kind of possession that is inalienably tied to its original possessor and which if given away retains some part of them, such wealth has the power to create lasting social divisions.Regna Darnell, Frederic Wright Gleach (eds.) 2002. Celebrating a Century of the American Anthropological Association: Presidential Portraits. U of Nebraska Press, 2002. pp. 285–288. A Guggenheim Fellow, She was also a founding member and president of the Society for Cultural Anthropology and president of the American Anthropological Association whose Distinguished Service Award she received in 1997. In her final presidential address to the AAA, "Culture and Our Discontents," Weiner argued that "a commitment to a global comparative perspective can provide an innovative postmodern frame" for the discipline.

Publications

* ''La richesse des femmes ou, Comment l'esprit vient aux hommes: Iles Trobriand'', 1983 * ''The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea'', 1987 * ''Cloth and human experience'', 1989 * ''Inalienable possessions : the paradox of keeping-while-giving'', 1992

References

External links

Anette Weiner Papers:
New York University Archives at New York University {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiner, Annette B. 1933 births 1997 deaths Jewish American social scientists Jewish anthropologists New York University faculty 20th-century American anthropologists 20th-century American Jews