Barbara Freire-Marreco (1879–1967) was an English anthropologist and folklorist. She was a member of the first class of anthropology students to graduate from

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1908.

Biography

She was born to a family of St Mawes in Cornwall, originally from Portugal, and spent her childhood in

Horsell Horsell is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England, less than a mile north-west of Woking town centre. In November 2012, its population was 9,384. Horsell is integral to H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel ''The War of the W ...

, Surrey. Barbara married Charles Aitken during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, meeting while they were employed at the War Trade Intelligence Department. They eventually moved to the county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Her works were inspired by the lectures of John Linton Myres and

Henry Balfour ::''See also Henry Balfour (MP for Fifeshire)'' Henry Balfour FRS FRAI (11 April 1863 – 9 February 1939) was a British archaeologist, and the first curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institu ...

, after which she began a Classical education and achieved distinction in the field of anthropology. She remained a student of Balfour, and her education spanned a fellowship at Oxford and as a student of Professor Hobhouse at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

. Her papers were published in ''

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

'' and read before the

British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

. She took a position at the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed ...

to study for her diploma and remained associated with this institution when this was completed; a collection of her specimens held at the museum. She became a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1907. From 1909 to 1913 she held a research fellowship at Somerville College, Oxford where she researched 'the nature of authority of chiefs and kings in uncivilized society'. Her membership in the

Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore. It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...

from 1926 was preceded by articles in its journal, for which she continued to contribute 'Scraps of English folklore', correspondence, and a 1959 study of "processes of localization and relocalization" of folklore. The results of her fieldwork on the

Pueblo peoples The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Z ...

, collected in 1910 and 1913, was published by the authors of the Smithsonian's ''Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians''.

References

* ''A Life Well Led: The Biography of Barbara Freire-Marreco Aitken, British Anthropologist'' (2008) by Mary Ellen Blair

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freire-Marreco, Barbara 1879 births 1967 deaths First women admitted to degrees at Oxford English anthropologists British women anthropologists English folklorists Women folklorists Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford