María Esther Álvarez de Hermitte (1921-1990), commonly known as Esther Hermitte, was a social anthropologist from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Early life and education

Hermitte studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...

. She completed a bachelor's degree in history and later specialized in

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

. After that she won a scholarship from the

National Scientific and Technical Research Council National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

, which was directed by

Bernardo Houssay Bernardo Alberto Houssay (April 10, 1887 – September 21, 1971) was an Argentine physiologist. Houssay was a co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating th ...

Field work

In 1958 Hermitte moved to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in the United States, where she assisted with the social systems courses. The following year she was sent to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

together with linguist R. Radhakrishnan and interpreter Alberto Méndez Tobilla to conduct field work with the

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

community of Pinola, Villa Las Rosas in the state of

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

. As a result of several years of work and subsequent analysis of "Social mobility in a bicultural community in Chiapas" and "Supernatural power and social control", Hermitte received a Master of Arts in 1965 and Philosophical Doctor in 1964. She received the Roy D. Albert Prize for her master thesis and the Bobbs Merryl Award for her doctoral thesis.

Publications

* ''Diario de campo'', 2 vols. Inéd 1960-1. * ''Movilidad Social en una comunidad bicultural'', Revista Latinoamericana de Sociología, Centro de Investanciones Sociales del Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 1968. * ''Poder sobrenatural y control social: en un pueblo maya contemporáneo'', Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, México, 1970. * ''El concepto de nahual en Pinola, México'', en Ensayos antropológicos en los Altos de Chiapas. McQuown & Pitt-Rivers comps., Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, México, 1989.

References

* Hermitte, M. Esther ''Poder sobrenatural y control social''. Buenos Aires: Antropofagia, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermitte, Esther 1921 births 1990 deaths Argentine anthropologists Argentine women anthropologists University of Chicago alumni University of Buenos Aires alumni 20th-century anthropologists Argentine expatriates in the United States