Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, (''née'' Waddington; born 1 September 1943) is a British
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
and academic.
Biography
Humphrey's father was the biologist
Conrad H. Waddington. Her mother was her father's second wife, architect
Margaret Justin Blanco White
Margaret Justin Blanco White OBE ARIBA (11 December 1911 – 1 November 2001) was a Scottish architect.
Early life and education
Margaret Justin Blanco White was born at 30 Pembroke Square, Kensington, London, on 11 December 1911. Her father ...
(daughter of the writer
Amber Reeves
Amber Blanco White (' Reeves; 1 July 1887 – 26 December 1981) was a New Zealand-born British feminist writer and scholar.
Early life
Reeves was born in Christchurch, New Zealand,
the eldest of three children
of Fabian feminist Maud Pember Re ...
); she has a younger sister, the mathematician
Dusa McDuff
Dusa McDuff Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Royal Society of Edinburgh, CorrFRSE (born 18 October 1945) is an English mathematician who works on symplectic geometry. She was the first recipient of the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics, w ...
, and an elder half-brother, the physicist C. Jake Waddington, by her father's first marriage to Cecil Elizabeth Lascelles.
Humphrey received a BA degree in Social Anthropology from
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...
. Her PhD, completed in 1973, was entitled ''Magical Drawings in the Religion of the Buryat''. She received the
Rivers Memorial Medal
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...
in 1999, and, in 2003, an Honorary Doctorate from the
National University of Mongolia
The National University of Mongolia ( mn, Монгол Улсын Их Сургууль, ''Mongol Ulsyn Ikh Surguuli'', abbreviated ''NUM'' or ''MUIS'') is a public university primarily located in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Established in 1942, it is ...
. Humphrey was awarded an honorary doctorate by the
University of Bolton
, established = 2004 – gained University Status 1982 – Bolton Institute of Higher Education
, type = Public
, endowment = £160,000 (2009)
, administrative_staff = 700+
, chancellor ...
in
2017 for her outstanding contribution to the field of anthropology.
Personal life
In 1967, Caroline Waddington married
Nicholas Humphrey
Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 27 March 1943) is an English neuropsychologist based in Cambridge, known for his work on evolution of primate intelligence and consciousness. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda; he was the fi ...
; they had no children and divorced in 1977. In 1986, she married
Martin Rees
Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...
.
Research and positions
Humphrey has conducted research in Siberia, Nepal, India, Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia), Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In 1966, she was one of the first anthropologists from a western country to be allowed to do fieldwork in the USSR. Her PhD (1973) focussed on Buryat religious iconography, and ensuing research topics have included Soviet collective farms, the farming economy in India and Tibet, Jainist culture in India, and environmental and cultural conservation in Inner Asia.
Between 1971 and 1978, she undertook research, holding a fellowship at
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...
and at a post at the
Scott Polar Research Institute. From 1978 to 1983 she lectured at the Department of Social Anthropology at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, before becoming a Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology in 1984-89, and 1992-96. Humphrey has held the posts of University Reader in Asian Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 1995–98; University Professor of Asian Anthropology, 1998–2006; Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, 2000; and Rausing Professorship of Collaborative Anthropology, 2006–10.
She co-founded the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU) in 1986 at Cambridge. She retired from her post as Sigrid Rausing Professor of Collaborative Anthropology at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
to become Voluntary Research Director of MIASU in October 2010.
She has been a Fellow of
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
since 1978. In 2010, she completed the manuscript of a monograph, jointly written with Hurelbaatar Ujeed, entitled ''A Monastery in Time: the Making of Mongolian Buddhism''. The book was the culmination of fieldwork and visits, from 1995, to Mergen Monastery in the
Urad Mongols
The Urad () is a Mongol tribe in Inner Mongolia, China. The name derives from the Mongolian language word "uran (means handy) + d" , meaning "craftsman" or "artisan."
The Urad originated in Hulun Buir. In early Qing dynasty, the group relocated ...
region of Inner Mongolia (China), where a distinctive form of Mongolian-language Buddhism has survived since the 18th century.
Honours
In the
2011 New Year Honours, Humphrey was appointed
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) 'for services to scholarship'.
Humphrey is an honorary fellow of
Robinson College, Cambridge
Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of bo ...
. In 2004, she was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
Work
* ''Karl Marx Collective: Economy, Society and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm''
taley Prize, School of American Research(1983)
* (ed. with Michael Carrithers) ''The Assembly of Listeners: Jains in Society'' (1991)
* (ed. with Stephen Hugh-Jones) ''Barter, Exchange and Value'' (1992)
* (ed. with Nicholas Thomas) ''Shamanism, History and the State'' (1994)
* (with
James Laidlaw) ''The Archetypal Actions of Ritual, illustrated by the Jain rite of worship'' (1994)
* (with Urgunge Onon) ''Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge and Power among the Daur Mongols'' (1996)
* (ed. with David Sneath) ''Culture and Environment in Inner Asia'' (1996)
* (with Piers Vitebsky) ''Sacred Architecture'' (1997)
his is a popular work* ''Marx Went Away, but Karl Stayed Behind'' (1998)
* (with David Sneath) ''The End of Nomadism? Society, the State and the Environment in Inner Asia'' (1999)
* (ed. with A. Tulokhonov) ''Kul'tura i Priroda vo Vnutrenneyi Azii'' ''(Culture and Environment in Inner Asia, in Russian)'' (2001)
* (ed. with David Sneath) (2002)
* ''The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism''
eldt Prize(2002)
* (ed. with Katherine Verdery) ''Property in Question: Value Transformation in the Global Economy'' (2004)
* (ed. with Catherine Alexander and Victor Buchli) ''Urban Life in Post-Soviet Central Asia'' (2007)
* (with Hurelbaatar Ujeed) ''A Monastery in Time: The Making of Mongolian Buddhism''
ssociation for Asian Studies: E. Gene Smith Book Prize Honorable Mention(2013)
References
External links
Caroline Humphrey interviewby
Alan Macfarlane
Alan Donald James Macfarlane (born 20 December 1941 in Shillong, Meghalaya, India) is an anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles on th ...
(August 5, 2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Humphrey, Caroline
1943 births
Living people
Academics of the University of Cambridge
Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge
Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
British anthropologists
British women anthropologists
Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge
British women scientists
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of the British Academy
University of Michigan faculty
People of the Scott Polar Research Institute
Spouses of life peers
Rees of Ludlow
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Reeves family