Melford E. Spiro

Melford Elliot Spiro (born April 26, 1920 in Cleveland , Ohio - † October 18, 2014 ) was an American cultural anthropologist .

Melford E. Spiro was best known for his work on the Westermarck effect and his studies of gender roles in the Israeli kibbutz (1979).

In 1975 "Mel" Spiro was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and in 1982 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Publications (selection)

• (1968) "Virgin Birth. Parthogenesis and Physiological Paternity: an Essay in Cultural Interpretation." In: Man. Volume 3, 1968, pp. 242-261.
• (1979) "Gender and Culture. Kibbutz Women Revisited." Duke University Press, Durham, NC
• (1984) "Some Reflections on Cultural Determinism and Relativism with Special Reference to Emotion and Reason." In: Culture Theory. Essays on mind, self, and emotion , edited by RA Shweder and RA LeVine. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 323-346.
• (1986) "Cultural Relativism and the Future of Anthropology." Cultural Anthropology 1.3, pp. 259-286.
• (1987) "Religious systems as culturally constituted defense mechanisms." In: Culture and human nature: theoretical papers of Melford E. Spiro , edited by B. Kilborne and LL Langness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 145-160.
• (1992) "On the strange and familiar in recent anthropological thought." In: Anthropological Other or Burmese Brother? edited by ME Spiro. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, pp. 53-70.
• (1993) "Is the Western conception of the self" peculiar "within the context of the world cultures?", Ethos 21, pp. 107-153.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/melford_e._spiro_department_of_anthropology_founder_dies
2. ↑ See Gender and Society. In: DIJG Bulletin 1/2009. Archived from the original on March 11, 2011 ; Retrieved March 11, 2011 . Christl Ruth Vonholdt: The radical reform movement of the kibbutz women. In: DIJG Bulletin 1/2009. Archived from the original on March 11, 2011 ; Retrieved March 11, 2011 .