Wealth and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons, Anthropologist and Folklorist (Publications of the American Folklore Society New Series)

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Biography
Review: The contributions of women in the history of ethnographic studies, folklore research, and anthropology are now seen as important and fascinating areas of research. This biography is an excellent and highly readable study of an early pioneer in the study of culture. In this study, the book provides an intriguing portrait of a facet of the history of anthropological and folklore studies during the early part of the 20th century. It also outlines and adumbrates the formation of key concepts in the study of culture. The book is also useful for discovering how a creative and highly intelligent woman helped to found various disciplines and support a professional society designed to further the understanding of folklore. Finally, as a bonus, the story also includes an intriguing subtext that reveals professional and personal liaisons throughout Parsons' life story. Although the various liaisons were not exactly dangerous, they do point the way toward gaining a more complete understanding of ways that intellectual history is spawned in various fields of intellectual inquiry.