Melford Spiro
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Melford Elliot Spiro (April 26, 1920 – October 18, 2014) was an American
cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term s ...
specializing in religion and psychological anthropology. He is known for his critiques of the pillars of contemporary anthropological theory—wholesale cultural determinism, radical
cultural relativism Cultural relativism is the view that concepts and moral values must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture. It asserts the equal validity of all points of view and the relati ...
, and virtually limitless
cultural diversity Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to Monoculturalism, monoculture. It has a variety of meanings in different contexts, sometimes applying to cultural products like art works in museums or entertainment ...
—and for his emphasis on the theoretical importance of unconscious desires and beliefs in the study of stability and change in social and cultural systems, particularly in respect to the family, politics, and religion. Explicated in numerous theoretical publications, they are empirically exemplified in monographs based on his fieldwork in Ifaluk atoll in
Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...
, an Israeli
kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
, and a village in Burma (now Myanmar). He was a significant figure in a series of debates over
cultural relativism Cultural relativism is the view that concepts and moral values must be understood in their own cultural context and not judged according to the standards of a different culture. It asserts the equal validity of all points of view and the relati ...
and postmodern theory among American cultural anthropologists in the 1980s and early 1990s, in which he consistently argued for the importance of the comparative method and the appreciation of universal cultural and psychological processes. Spiro received his B.A. from the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
in 1942, where he majored in philosophy, following which he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Having developed an interest in culture theory, he explored this interest through enrolling in the anthropology department at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
, where he worked with Melville Herskovits and A. Irving Hallowell, and received his PhD in 1950. He taught at Washington University in St. Louis,
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
,
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
, and
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
before moving In 1968 to the
University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
where he was a founding member of the anthropology department. He received postgraduate training in
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center and practiced as a lay analyst, additionally overseeing a course series at UCSD that exposed graduate students in anthropology to psychiatric training. Spiro became professor emeritus at UCSD in 1990, but continued teaching for another decade. He was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
. He served terms as president of the
American Ethnological Society The American Ethnological Society (AES) is the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States. History of the American Ethnological Society Albert Gallatin and John Russell Bartlett founded the American Ethnological Societ ...
and the Society for Psychological Anthropology (SPA) and was one of the founders of the SPA's journal, ''Ethos''. Mel Spiro was married for 62 years to Audrey Spiro, with whom he had two sons. He died in La Jolla, CA, in October 2014 of natural causes.


Select bibliography

*Spiro, Melford E. (1956) ''Kibbutz:Venture in Utopia''. Cambridge:Harvard University Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1958) ''Children of the Kibbutz''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1967) ''Burmese Supernaturalism:A Study in the Explanation and Resolution of Suffering''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice Hall. *Spiro, Melford E. (1971) ''Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes''. New York: Harper and Row. *Spiro, Melford E. (1977) ''Kinship and Marriage in Burma:A Cultural and Psychodynamic Analysis''. Los Angeles:University of California Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1979) ''Gender and Culture:Kibbutz Women Revisited''. Durham, N.C.:Duke University Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1982) '' Oedipus in the Trobriands''. Chicago:University of Chicago Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1987) ''Culture and Human Nature: Theoretical Papers of Melford E.Spiro''. Benjamin Kilborne and L.L. Langness, eds.Chicago:University of Chicago Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1992) ''Anthropological Other or Burmese Brother? Studies in Cultural Analysis''. New Brunswick (USA): Transaction Publishers. *Spiro, Melford E. (1997) ''Gender Ideology and Psychological Reality:An Essay on Cultural Reproduction''. New Haven:Yale University Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1984) "Some Reflections on Cultural Determinism and Relativism with Special Reference to Emotion and Reason". pp. 323–346 in ''Culture Theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion'', edited by R. A. Shweder and R. A. LeVine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. * *Spiro, Melford E. (1987) "Religious systems as culturally constituted defense mechanisms". pp. 145–160 in ''Culture and human nature: theoretical papers of Melford E. Spiro'', edited by B. Kilborne and L. L. Langness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Spiro, Melford E. (1992) "On the strange and familiar in recent anthropological thought". pp. 53–70 in ''Anthropological Other or Burmese Brother?'' edited by M. E. Spiro. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press. * * Kilborne, Benjamin, and L.L. Langness, eds. (1987 ''Culture and human nature: Theoretical papers of Melford E. Spiro''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.


References


Further reading

* Darnell, Regna (2006) "Keeping the Faith: A Legacy of Native American Ethnography, Ethnohistory, and Psychology". In: ''New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, and Representations,'' ed. by Sergei A. Kan and Pauline Turner Strong, pp. 3–16. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Kilborne, Benjamin, and L.L. Langness, eds. (1987) ''Culture and human nature: Theoretical papers of Melford E. Spiro''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Melford Spiro's obituary


External links


Kevin Avruch, "Melford E. Spiro", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro, Melford 1920 births 2014 deaths University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Northwestern University alumni University of California, San Diego faculty Psychological anthropologists Anthropologists of religion Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American critics of postmodernism Washington University in St. Louis faculty University of Connecticut faculty University of Washington faculty University of Chicago faculty American cultural anthropologists