Carol Lowery Delaney (born December 12, 1940) is an
American anthropologist and author.
Delaney earned an A.B. in philosophy from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...
in 1962, an M.T.S. from
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, go ...
in 1976, and her Ph.D. in cultural
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 be ...
from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
in 1984.
Anthropological work
She specializes in the anthropological sub-discipline of cultural anthropology, focusing on gender and religion. Her original anthropological fieldwork was conducted in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
from 1979-1982. Additional fieldwork was conducted in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, 1984–85, among Turkish immigrants. Recent research has focused on the religious beliefs of
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
.
Delaney was Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, 1985-87. At Stanford University, she was Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 1987-1995; Associate Professor, 1995-2005; Emerita, 2005. At
Brown University, she was Visiting Professor in Religious Studies, 2006 and 2007. From 2007 to the present, she served as a Research Scholar in that department and is also an Invited Research Scholar at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
Bibliography
*''The Seed and The Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
*''Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis''. Co-edited with Sylvia Yanagisako. New York: Routledge Press, 1995.
*''Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Finalist for National Jewish Book Award
ategory: Scholarship also a special mention for Victor Turner Prize of the Society for Humanistic Anthropology and inspiration for an opera of the same title by Andrew Lovett.
*''Tohum ve Toprak Turkish translation, of The Seed and the Soil'', with new introductory essay. Istanbul: IletisimYayinlari, 2001. Second printing, 2009.
*''Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 2003 in UK; 2004 in US. Second, revised edition, with Deborah Kaspin, 2011.
*''Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem''. New York: Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2011. One of “Best Books of 2011,” Times Literary Supplement. December 2, 2011.
Selected articles
* "Columbus’s Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem."
* “Untangling the Meanings of Hair in Turkish Village Society.”
* "The Hajj: Sacred and Secular."
* "The Meaning of Paternity and the Virgin Birth Debate."
Fellowships and awards
* National Endowment for the Humanities, John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, 2004–05
* Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 1996–97
* Fellow, Harvard Divinity School, 1992–93
* Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center, 1989–90
* Mark Perry Galler prize for the most distinguished dissertation in the social sciences at the University of Chicago, 1985.
* Fulbright Advanced Research Fellowship, 1984–85
* Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship, 1981–82
* National Science Foundation, Dissertation Grant, 1981–82
* Fulbright Cultural Exchange Scholar, 1979–80
References
External links
Carol Delaney's websiteCarol Delaney's Author pageInterview with John Shuck about Columbus and the Quest for JerusalemInterview with John Shuck about Abraham on Trial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delaney, Carol
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
American women anthropologists
Living people
1940 births
Harvard Divinity School alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Boston University alumni
21st-century American women