Elsie Clews Parsons

Elsie Clews Parsons was a pioneering feminist, an eminent anthropologist, and an ardent social critic. In Elsie Clews Parsons, Desley Deacon reconstructs Parsons's efforts to overcome gender biases in both academia and society. "Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Parsons's work resonates strikingly to current trends in anthropology."--George W. Stocking, Jr., Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "This is the biography of a woman so interesting and effective--a cross between Margaret Mead and Georgia O'Keeffe. . . . A nuanced portrait of this vivid woman."--Tanya Luhrmann, New York Times Book Review "A marvelous new book about the life of Elsie Clews Parsons. . . . It's as though she is sitting on the next rock, a contemporary struggling with the same issues that confront women today: how to combine work, love and child-rearing into one life."--Abigail Trafford, Washington Post "Parsons's splendid life and work continue to illuminate current puzzles about acculturation and diversity."--New Yorker

This classic study, first published in 1922, presents the writings of A.L. Kroeber, Robert H. Lowie, Clark Wissler, Paul Radin, Truman Michelson, and other prominent anthropologists.

Rather than the standard American story of an increasingly triumphant march of scientific inquiry towards structural phonology, Women, Language and Linguistics reveals linguistics where its purpose was communication; the appeal of languages lay in their diversity; and the authority of language lay in its speakers and writers. Julia S Falk explores the vital part which women have played in preserving a linguistics based on the reality and experience of language; this book finally brings to light a neglected perspective for those working in linguistics and the history of linguistics.