First In Their Field

Women and Australian Anthropology

Julie Marcus

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Published 31-01-1989
ISBN 9780522844665
Pages 208
Subjects Society and culture: general Sociology & anthropology
Imprint MUP POD

Seven distinguished women writers look at the hitherto neglected professional contributions of another seven women—early anthropologists working in Australia.

The image of early women anthropologists in Australia has been one of Daisy Bates seated in the middle of nowhere, recording the habits and customs of 'a dying race'. A harmless eccentric, or a serious pioneer of field anthropology?

When anthropology began as a serious academic discipline in Sydney in the 1920s, its lecturers and theoreticians were male. Yet much of the fieldwork and research was carried out by women whose contribution remains marginalised or omitted from the history of anthropology.

In First in their Field seven distinguished women writers look at the way those remarkable women worked, their difficulties and their hopes. This volume, documenting their courage and determination, is long overdue.