Caroline Humphrey
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Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, (''née'' Waddington; born 1 September 1943) is a British
anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...
and academic.


Biography

Humphrey's father was the biologist Conrad H. Waddington. Her mother was her father's second wife, architect
Margaret Justin Blanco White Margaret Justin Blanco White Order of the British Empire, OBE ARIBA (11 December 1911 – 1 November 2001) was an English architect, who lived and worked in Scotland. Early life and education Margaret Justin Blanco White was born at 30 Pembrok ...
(daughter of the writer Amber Reeves); she has a younger sister, the mathematician Dusa McDuff, and an elder half-brother, the physicist C. Jake Waddington, by her father's first marriage to Cecil Elizabeth Lascelles. Humphrey received a BA degree in Social Anthropology from Girton College, Cambridge. Her PhD, completed in 1973, was entitled ''Magical Drawings in the Religion of the Buryat''. She received the Rivers Memorial Medal in 1999, and, in 2003, an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Mongolia. Humphrey was awarded an honorary doctorate by the
University of Bolton The University of Greater Manchester (legally: The University of Bolton Higher Education Corporation) is a public university in Bolton, Greater Manchester in England. The university is commonly referred to as a 'post-92' institution, which is a ...
in 2017 for her outstanding contribution to the field of anthropology.


Personal life

In 1967, Caroline Waddington married
Nicholas Humphrey Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 27 March 1943) is an English neuropsychologist based in Cambridge, known for his work on the evolution of primate intelligence and consciousness. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda; he was t ...
; they had no children and divorced in 1977. In 1986, she married Martin Rees.


Research and positions

Humphrey has conducted research in Siberia, Nepal, India, Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia), Uzbekistan and Ukraine. In 1966, she was one of the first
Anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...
from a western country to be allowed to do fieldwork in the USSR. Her PhD (1973) focussed on Buryat religious iconography, and ensuing research topics have included Soviet collective farms, the farming economy in India and Tibet, Jainist culture in India, and environmental and cultural conservation in Inner Asia. Between 1971 and 1978, she undertook research, holding a fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge and at a post at the
Scott Polar Research Institute The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) is a centre for research into the polar regions and glaciology worldwide. It is a sub-department of the Department of Geography in the University of Cambridge, located on Lensfield Road in the south ...
. From 1978 to 1983 she lectured at the Department of Social Anthropology at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, before becoming a director of studies in archaeology and anthropology in 1984-89, and 1992-96. Humphrey has held the posts of university reader in Asian anthropology, University of Cambridge, 1995–98; university professor of Asian anthropology, 1998–2006; visiting professor at the University of Michigan, 2000; and Rausing Professorship of Collaborative Anthropology, 2006–10. In 1986 she co-founded the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit (MIASU) at Cambridge, together with Urgunge Onon. She retired from her post as Sigrid Rausing Professor of Collaborative Anthropology at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
to become Voluntary Research Director of MIASU in October 2010. She has been a Fellow of
King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...
since 1978. In 2010, she completed the manuscript of a monograph, jointly written with Hurelbaatar Ujeed, entitled ''A Monastery in Time: the Making of Mongolian Buddhism''. The book was the culmination of fieldwork and visits, from 1995, to Mergen Monastery in the Urad Mongols region of Inner Mongolia (China), where a distinctive form of Mongolian-language Buddhism has survived since the 18th century.


Honours

In the
2011 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2011 were announced on 31 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,New Zealand"New Year Honours 2011"(14 January 2011) 2 '' New Zealand Gazette'' 55. The Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands: Grenada,Grenada: ...
, Humphrey was appointed
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(DBE) 'for services to scholarship'. Humphrey is an honorary fellow of
Robinson College, Cambridge Robinson College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both ...
. In 2004, she was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.


Work

* ''Karl Marx Collective: Economy, Society and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm'' taley Prize, School of American Research(1983) * (ed. with Michael Carrithers) ''The Assembly of Listeners: Jains in Society'' (1991) * (ed. with Stephen Hugh-Jones) ''Barter, Exchange and Value'' (1992) * (ed. with Nicholas Thomas) ''Shamanism, History and the State'' (1994) * (with James Laidlaw) ''The Archetypal Actions of Ritual, illustrated by the Jain rite of worship'' (1994) * (with Urgunge Onon) ''Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge and Power among the Daur Mongols'' (1996) * (ed. with David Sneath) ''Culture and Environment in Inner Asia'' (1996) * (with Piers Vitebsky) ''Sacred Architecture'' (1997)
his is a popular work His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, in ...
* ''Marx Went Away, but Karl Stayed Behind'' (1998) * (with David Sneath) ''The End of Nomadism? Society, the State and the Environment in Inner Asia'' (1999) * (ed. with A. Tulokhonov) ''Kul'tura i Priroda vo Vnutrenneyi Azii'' ''(Culture and Environment in Inner Asia, in Russian)'' (2001) * (ed. with David Sneath) (2002) * ''The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies After Socialism'' eldt Prize(2002) * (ed. with Katherine Verdery) ''Property in Question: Value Transformation in the Global Economy'' (2004) * (ed. with Catherine Alexander and Victor Buchli) ''Urban Life in Post-Soviet Central Asia'' (2007) * (with Hurelbaatar Ujeed) ''A Monastery in Time: The Making of Mongolian Buddhism'' ssociation for Asian Studies: E. Gene Smith Book Prize Honorable Mention(2013)


References


External links


Caroline Humphrey interview
by
Alan Macfarlane Alan Donald James Macfarlane (born 20 December 1941) is a British anthropologist and historian, and a Professor Emeritus of King's College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of 20 books and numerous articles on the anthropology and histo ...
(August 5, 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:Humphrey, Caroline 1943 births Living people Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge British anthropologists British women anthropologists Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge British women scientists Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy University of Michigan faculty People of the Scott Polar Research Institute Spouses of life peers Rees of Ludlow Members of the American Philosophical Society Reeves family Alumni of the University of Leeds Wives of knights