Melvyn Goldstein

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Melvyn C. Goldstein (born February 8, 1938 in New York , NY ) is an American anthropologist and Tibetologist . His academic focus lies in the areas of Tibetan society , history and contemporary politics in Tibet , population studies, polyandry , nomads in Tibet, lexicography , studies on topics of cultural and developmental ecology, economic change and intercultural gerontology .

Career

Studied history at the University of Michigan (graduated in 1960) and received a PhD in anthropology from the University of Washington in 1968 . 1968–1990: Assistant or Associate Professor until 1971 (until 1977), then Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland , Ohio 1975–2002 Chairman of the Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University 1987 until today Director of the Center for Research on Tibet, Case Western Reserve University and, since 1991, John Reynolds Harkness Professor of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University; Co-Director, Center for Research on Tibet, and Professor of International Health, School of Medicine (secondary appointment) He married the daughter of the well-known Tibetan learned aristocrat, Surkhang Wangchen Gelek, Surkhang Wangchen Gelek .

In 2009 Goldstein was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

research

In Tibet in particular, Goldstein's research on a whole range of topics should be viewed as groundbreaking: nomadic lifestyles and economics, the effects of political and economic reforms on rural Tibet, family planning and fertility, modern history of Tibet, and socio-economic change. In addition, he did research visits to Tibetans in exile in India ( Bylakuppe ), in northwestern Nepal (in Limi ), in Mongolia (among nomads in the western Mongolian province of Hovd ) and in central China (on modernization and the elderly in the Han population ).

In his current research projects he deals with the oral history of Tibet, a multi-volume work on the history of modern Tibet (four volumes so far), the history of the Nyemo uprising in 1969, and a long-term study of the effects of Chinese reform policies on rural Tibet ( Nomads and farmers).

He describes Tibet before 1950 as de facto independent, but also as a feudal theocracy . His study A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State received an Honorable Mention for Best Single Paper on China in 1989 by the Association for Asian Studies. Tibetan independence activist Jamyang Norbu attacked the representation of the book. Above all, it is a question of an outline of the events in the Tibetan upper class of Lhas, for example the Reting affair is inflated into a major civil war, while the victorious defense of Tibet against the Chinese invaders in 1917/1918 is only marginally mentioned.

Work (selection)

  • Melvyn C. Goldstein: A History of Modern Tibet .
    • Vol. 1: The Demise of the Lamaist State, 1913-1951 . University of California Press, 1991; ISBN 0-520-07590-0 .
    • Vol. 2:  The Calm Before the Storm, 1951-1955 . University of California Press, 2007; ISBN 978-0-520-24941-7 .
    • Vol. 3: The Storm Clouds Descend, 1955-1957 . University of California Press, 2014; ISBN 978-0-520-95671-1 .
    • Vol. 4: In the Eye of the Storm, 1957-1959 . University of California Press, 2019; ISBN 0520278550 .
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein: The Snowlion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama . University of California Press, Berkeley 1997, ISBN 0-520-21951-1
  • Melvyn C. Golstein, Cynthia M. Beall : The nomads of Western Tibet. The struggle for survival of the Tibetan pastoral nomads . Nuremberg 1991, ISBN 3-922619-11-8
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, Tashi Tsering: The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering . MESharpe Inc., 1997, ISBN 1-56324-950-2
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, Matthew Kapstein (eds.): Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity . University of California, Berkeley 1998, ISBN 0-520-21130-8
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, Foreign Affairs, The Dalai Lama's Dilemma , Volume 77, Number 1, January / February 1998.
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, Chinese Edition of The Struggle for a Modern Tibet: the Life of Tashi Tsering , Mirror Books, Carle Place, NY. 2000.
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, A New Tibetan English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan . University of California Press. Pp. 1200, 2001, ISBN 0-520-20437-9
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, Ben Jiao, Cynthia M. Beall & Phuntso Tsering. Fertility & Family Planning in Rural Tibet . The China Journal. Issue 1, 2002.
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein and Cynthia M. Beall. "Changing patterns of Tibetan nomadic pastoralism." In Human Biology of Pastoral Populations, Leonard and Crawford (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 131-150.
  • Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, William Siebenschuh. A Tibetan Revolutionary. The political life of Bapa Phüntso Wangye . U. of California Press, pp. 371, 2004
Online articles

Individual evidence

  1. My China eye: memoirs of a Jew and a journalist , by Israel Epstein , p 277
  2. ^ John Powers, History as Propaganda, 2004
  3. Jamyang Norbu (July 19th, 2008) Black Annals: Goldstein & The Negation Of Tibetan History (Part I)

Web links