Pioneers of the Field: South Africa’s Women Anthropologists

338 Pages·2016·8.911 MB·English

by  Andrew Bank

Pioneers of the Field
Focusing on the crucial contributions of women researchers, Andrew
Bank demonstrates that the modern school of social anthropology in
South Africa was uniquely female-dominated. The book traces the
personal and intellectual histories of six remarkable women through
the use of a rich cocktail of new archival sources, including family
photographs,privateandprofessionalcorrespondence,field-notesand
fielddiaries,publishedandotherpublicwritings,andevenloveletters.
Thebookalsoshedsnewlightonthecloseconnectionsbetweentheir
personal lives, their academic work and their anti-segregationist and
anti-apartheidpolitics.Itwillbewelcomedbyanthropologists,histor-
ians and students in African Studies interested in the development of
socialanthropologyintwentieth-centuryAfrica,aswellasbystudents
andresearchersinthefieldofWomenandGenderStudies.
AndrewBankisaprofessorintheHistoryDepartmentattheUniversity
oftheWesternCape,SouthAfrica.Hewascommissioningeditorofthe
journal Kronos: Southern African Histories from 2001 to 2015 and is a
memberoftheeditorialboardoftheSouthAfricanHistoricalJournal.He
is also the co-editor of Inside African Anthropology: Monica Wilson and
Her Interpreters (Cambridge University Press, 2013). His previous
monographsareonslaveryinCapeTown(1991)andtheBleek-Lloyd
CollectionofBushmanfolklore(2006).
THEINTERNATIONALAFRICANLIBRARY
Generaleditors
LESLIEJ.BANK,HumanSciencesResearchCouncil,SouthAfrica
HARRIENGLUND,UniversityofCambridge
DEBORAHJAMES,LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience
ADELINEMASQUELIER,TulaneUniversity
BENJAMINSOARES,AfricanStudiesCentre,Leiden
TheInternationalAfricanLibraryisamajormonographseriesfromthe
International African Institute. Theoretically informed ethnographies,
and studies of social relations ‘on the ground’ which are sensitive to
local cultural forms, have long been central to the Institute’s
publicationsprogramme.TheIALmaintainsthisstrengthandextends
it into new areas of contemporary concern, both practical and
intellectual. It includes works focused on the linkages between local,
national and global levels of society; writings on political economy
and power; studies at the interface of the socio-cultural and the
environmental; analyses of the roles of religion, cosmology and ritual
insocialorganization;andhistoricalstudies,especiallythoseofasocial,
culturalorinterdisciplinarycharacter.
Foralistoftitlespublishedintheseries,pleaseseetheendofthebook.
Pioneers of the Field
South Africa’s Women Anthropologists
Andrew Bank
UniversityoftheWesternCape
InternationalAfricanInstitute,London
and
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CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
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©AndrewBank2016
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noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2016
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd.PadstowCornwall
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publicationdata
Bank,Andrew,author.
Pioneersofthefield:SouthAfrica’swomenanthropologists/AndrewBank.
InternationalAfricanlibrary.
NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2016.|Series:Theinternational
Africanlibrary|Includesbibliographicalreferences.
LCCN2016026286|ISBN9781107150492
LCSH:Womenethnologists–SouthAfrica–Biography.|Ethnologists–
SouthAfrica–Biography.|Ethnology–Studyandteaching(Higher)–
SouthAfrica–History–20thcentury.
LCCGN20B342016|DDC305.80092/268[B]–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016026286
ISBN978-1-107-15049-2Hardback
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URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
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accurateorappropriate.
To my wife Anja

Contents
Listoffigures pageviii
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction:rethinkingthecanon 1
1 Feminizingthefoundationalnarrative:thecollaborative
anthropologyofWinifredTuckerHoernlé(1885–1960) 15
2 Anadopteddaughter:Christianityandanthropologyin
thelifeandworkofMonicaHunterWilson(1908–1982) 64
3 AnthropologyandJewishidentity:theurbanfieldworkand
ethnographiesofEllenHellmann(1908–1982) 104
4 ‘Ageniusforfriendship’:AudreyRichardsatWits,
1938–1940 151
5 Historicalethnographyandethnographicfiction:the
SouthAfricanwritingsofHildaBeemerKuper
(1911–1992) 189
6 Feminizingthediscipline:thelongcareerofEileenJensen
Krige(1904–1995) 239
Conclusion:ahumanistlegacy 272
Bibliography 284
Index 309
vii
Figures
1.1: WinifredTuckerinhermatricyearatWesleyanGirls’
HighSchool,Grahamstown,1902. page20
1.2: WinifredTuckerandtheSouthAfricanCollege’sfirst
SRC,1905. 21
1.3: ‘BreakdownofourwaggonnearSendeling’sDrift’,
Richtersveld,NorthernCape,1912. 27
1.4: ThisportraitofaNamawomanphotographedonWinifred
Tucker’sfirstfieldexpeditionof1912isreproducedfromthe
onlyglassnegativetohavesurvivedadevastatingfireinWits
UniversityLibrarythatwoulddestroyallofherfield-notesand
othermaterials. 28
1.5: WinifredandAlwinasayoungbaby,Boston,1915. 31
1.6: Winifred(frontrow,secondleft)wasphotographedwithher
familyonherreturntoJohannesburgin1920. 33
1.7: WinifredHoernléaroundthetimethatherintellectual
‘daughters’firstencounteredher,August1927. 48
1.8: WinifredHoernléasphotographedbyLeonLevson
in1944. 62
2.1: MonicaHunterasateenager,Edinburgh,1922. 68
2.2: MonicaatworkintheStanleyLibrary,GirtonCollege,
Cambridge,1930.Thiswastheyearinwhichshecompleted
herundergraduatedegree,havingearlierswitchedfrom
historytosocialanthropology,andwonanAnthonyWilkin
ScholarshipwhichfundedherfieldworkinPondolandandthe
EasternCapefrom1931. 74
2.3: ‘Nosente,theMotherofCompassion’,AucklandVillage,
1931.NosentewasaChristianconvertwhosetestimony
abouttherapidsocialchangesintheEasternCapebetween
thetimeofherbirthinthelate1860sandthatofMonica’s
fieldworkinthe1930swasthesubjectofanautobiography
thatMonicarecorded,editedandpublishedinMargery
Perham’sTenAfricans(1936). 77
viii