Robert Francis Murphy (March 3, 1924 – October 8, 1990) was an American
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 professor of anthropology at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City, from the early 1960s to 1990. His field work included studies of the
Munduruku
The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu or
BMJ, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 ...
(Mundurucu) people of the Amazon and the
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...
people of the Sahara.
Family, education, career
Murphy, a
Far Rockaway, Queens
Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line ...
native, was a third-generation descendant of Irish immigrants. Raised in a " lace-curtain Irish" neighborhood, his mother, battling breast cancer, raised him and his four siblings single-handedly, while their father was largely absent. His mother died when Bob was 14.
He
enlisted
Enlisted may refer to:
* Enlisted rank
An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or ...
in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
during World War II, serving as a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
. He used the
G.I. Bill
The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...
undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...
, graduating in 1949. Murphy went on to earn his Master of Arts and PhD in
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He met his wife
Yolanda
Yolanda may refer to:
* Yolanda (name), a given name derived from the Greek ''Iolanthe''
Places
* Yolanda, California
* Yolanda Shrine, monument located at Barangay Anibong, Tacloban, Leyte
Film
* ''Yolanda'' (film), a 1924 film starring ...
in a
physical anthropology
Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct Hominini, hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly ...
course in graduate school, and they were married in
St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel is a chapel building of Trinity Church, an episcopal parish, located at 209 Broadway, between Fulton Street and Vesey Street, in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1766, it is the oldest surviving church building in Man ...
at Columbia University.
In 1952 the Murphys set out to do fieldwork for a year among the
Munduruku
The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu or
BMJ, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 ...
of the
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
in Brazil, where they studied, among other things, the dynamics of a patrilineal society with
matrilocal residence
In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain l ...
patterns. Bob taught at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
for several years before taking a professorship at Columbia. In the early 1960s, Bob and Yolanda, with their two small children Robert and Pamela in tow, trekked to the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
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, ...
to undertake a second fieldwork among the
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...
of
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languagesmatrilineal society with
patrilocal residence
In social anthropology, patrilocal residence or patrilocality, also known as virilocal residence or virilocality, are terms referring to the social system in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's parents. The concept of locat ...
patterns.
Murphy died of heart failure on October 8, 1990, at his home in
Leonia, New Jersey
Leonia is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 8,937,Julian Steward
Julian Haynes Steward (January 31, 1902 – February 6, 1972) was an American anthropologist known best for his role in developing "the concept and method" of cultural ecology, as well as a scientific theory of culture change.
Early life and edu ...
's
cultural ecology
Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment. Thi ...
approach in his early years, Murphy was an eclectic thinker who engaged Marx, Freud, Hegel, Simmel, and Schutz, and who incorporated ideas from diverse areas of anthropology theory —
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
symbol
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...
ic. Murphy wrote numerous articles and books, including:
*''The Trumai Indians of Central Brazil (Monographs of the American Ethnological Society)'' (1955) (based upon field notes of
Buell Quain
Buell Halvor Quain (May 31, 1912 – August 2, 1939) was an American ethnologist who, after graduating from University of Wisconsin–Madison and studying as a graduate student at Columbia University, worked with native peoples in Fiji and Brazil ...
)
*Tappers and Trappers: Parallel Process in Acculturation (1956) ''Economic Development and Cultural Change'' 4.
*Matrilocality and Patrilineality in Mundurucu Society. ''American Anthropologist'' (1956) Vol. 58 (3:3): 414–433
*''Mundurucu Religion'' (University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology) (1958)
*''The Structure of Parallel Cousin Marriage'' (1959)
*''Headhunter's Heritage: Social and Economic Change Among the Mundurucu Indians'' (1960)
*''Social Distance and the Veil'' (about Tuareg men's veiling practices) (1964)
*''The Dialectics of Social Life: Alarms and Excursions in Anthropological Theory'' (1971)
*''Robert H. Lowie (Leaders of Modern Anthropology)'' (1972)
*''Evolution and Ecology: Essays on Social Transformation'' (1978, co-authored with Julian H. Steward and Jane C. Steward)
*''American Anthropology, 1946–1970: Papers from the American Anthropologist'' (2002)
*''Women of the Forest'' (1974), co-authored with Yolanda (first author), now in a 30th anniversary edition (2004)
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
called ''Women of the Forest'' "a salute to women's liberation in a portrait of a fascinating primitive people."
Disability
In 1974, Murphy was diagnosed as having a benign but slow-growing
tumor
A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...
of the
spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...
that would unrelentingly lead to impairment of his
central nervous system
The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain and spinal cord. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity of all par ...
and greater loss of bodily functions over the next 16 years of his life; within two years, by 1976, he was
quadriplegic
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of motor and/or sensory function in the cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weakness or paralysis leading to partial or t ...
and used a wheelchair full-time. Murphy had the "rage to live", and began to edit his popular lectures on cultural anthropology for a new textbook, ''Overture to Social Anthropology'' (1979), later revised into second (1986) and third (1989) editions before he died. Murphy dramatically transformed his scholarly efforts into an anthropological study of
paraplegia
Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek ()
"half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...
, a major project funded by the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
Murphy was a charismatic and extraordinarily popular teacher among the students at Columbia. His wry sense of humor and appreciation for irony caught the imaginations of thousands of Columbia undergraduates, and he regularly taught large auditorium-sized classes, even when his condition forced him to use a motorized wheelchair and speak through a microphone. Murphy won teaching awards and numerous academic awards, and was a Fellow of the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...
in 1968.
Other publications
Murphy, Robert F.
*1970 Basin Ethnography and Ecological Theory. In ''Language and Culture of Western North America: Essays in Honor of Sven S. Liljeblad'', edited by Earl H. Swanson Jr., pp. 152–171. Pocatello: Idaho State University Press.
*1977 Introduction: The Anthropological Theories of Julian H. Steward. In ''Evolution and Ecology: Essays on Social Transformation'', edited by Jane Cannon Steward and R.F. Murphy, pp. 1–40. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
*1981 Julian Steward. In ''Totems and Teachers'', edited by Sydel Silverman, pp. 171–204. New York: Columbia University Press.
*1981 (Book Review) The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing by Michael Harner. Review author Robert Murphy
''American Anthropologist'', New Series, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Sep. 1981), pp. 714–717
*1986 Social Structure and Sex Antagonism. ''Journal of Anthropological Research'' 42 (1986), 407–416.
*1987 American Anthropology. In ''Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology'', edited by Herbert Applebaum. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Murphy, Robert, and Yolanda Murphy
*1960 ''Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society''. University of California Anthropological Records. Berkeley: University of California Press, 16(7):293–338.
*1986 Northern Shoshone and Bannock. In ''Handbook of North American Indians: 11. Great Basin'', edited by Warren L. d'Azevedo, pp. 284–307. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Fried, Morton, Marvin Harris, and Robert Murphy, eds.
*1967 ''War: The Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression''. Garden City, New York: Natural History Press.