Tanya Luhrmann
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Tanya Marie Luhrmann (born 1959) is an American psychological
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 ...
known for her studies of modern-day
witches Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...
, charismatic Christians, and studies of how culture shapes psychotic, dissociative, and related experiences. She has also studied culture and morality, and the training of psychiatrists. She is Watkins University Professor in the Anthropology Department at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. Luhrmann 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 ...
in 2022.


Education and career

Luhrmann received her A.B., ''
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'', in
Folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
and Mythology from
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
- Radcliffe in 1981, working with Stanley Tambiah. She then studied
social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...
at
Cambridge University 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 ...
, working with
Jack Goody Sir John Rankine Goody (27 July 1919 – 16 July 2015) was an English social anthropologist. He was a prominent lecturer at Cambridge University, and was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology from 1973 to 1984. Among his main publica ...
and Ernest Gellner. In 1986 she received her PhD for work on modern-day witches in England, later published as ''Persuasions of the Witch's Craft'' (1989). In this book, she described the ways in which magic and other esoteric techniques both serve emotional needs and come to seem reasonable through the experience of practice. Her second research project looked at the situation of contemporary
Parsis The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...
, a
Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...
community in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. The Parsi community enjoyed a privileged position under the
British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...
; although by many standards, Parsis continued to do well economically in post-colonial India, they have become politically marginal in comparison to their previous position. During Luhrmann's fieldwork in the 1990s, many Parsis spoke pessimistically about the future of their community. Luhrmann's book ''The Good Parsi'' (1996) explored the contradictions inherent in the social psychology of a post-colonial elite. Her third book explored the contradictions and tensions between two models of
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior. ...
, the psychodynamic (
psychoanalytic PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk the ...
) and the biomedical, through the
ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...
study of the training of American psychiatry residents during the health care transition of the early 1990s. ''Of Two Minds'' (2000) received several awards, including the
Victor Turner Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 – 18 December 1983) was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rite of passage, rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often ...
Prize for Ethnographic Writing and the Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology (2001). Her fourth book, ''When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God'' (March 2012), examines the growing movement of
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
and
charismatic Charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ...
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
, and specifically how practitioners come to experience God as someone with whom they can communicate on a daily basis through prayer and visualization. It was the focus of a book review symposium in '' Religion, Brain & Behavior''."Book Symposium: Tanya Luhrmann's When God Talks Back"
'' Religion, Brain & Behavior'' (Vol. 4, No. 1), with commentary by Candace S. Alcorta, Brian Malley, Steven J. Sandage, Brad D. Strawn & Warren S. Brown, and James K. Wellman, Jr. (accessed 14 January 2016).
Her other projects include a NIMH-funded study of how chronic or periodic
homelessness Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
contributes to the experience and morbidity of schizophrenia. Tanya Luhrmann was a faculty member in Anthropology at 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 ...
, from 1989 to 2000. From 2000 to 2007, she was Max Palevsky Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the
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 ...
, where she was also a director of the program in clinical ethnography. Since 2007, she has been a professor of anthropology at
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. She was elected a fellow of 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 ...
in 2003, president of the Society for Psychological Anthropology for 2008. She has received awards for scholarship, including the
American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...
's President's award for 2004 and a 2007 Guggenheim award. In 2006, Luhrmann delivered the Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...
.


Personal life

Tanya Luhrmann was raised in New Jersey. She has two sisters, including children's book author Anna Dewdney. Luhrmann is married to interim Stanford University president Richard Saller.


Select publications

* Luhrmann, Tanya M. (1989) ''Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (1996) ''The Good Parsi: the postcolonial anxieties of an Indian colonial elite''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (2000) ''Of two minds: The growing disorder in American psychiatry''. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (2004) "Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S. Christianity". ''American Anthropologist'' 106:3:518-528. * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (2012) ''When God talks back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God''. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (Editor) and Marrow, Jocelyn (Editor) (2016) ''Our Most Troubling Madness: Case Studies in Schizophrenia across Cultures''. Oakland, CA : University of California Press * Luhrmann, Tanya M. (2022) ''How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.


Interviews

*


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luhrmann, Tanya Psychological anthropologists Anthropologists of religion American women anthropologists 1959 births Living people Radcliffe College alumni Stanford University Department of Anthropology faculty 21st-century American women Members of the American Philosophical Society