Nationality American | ||
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Born 13 May 1948 New York City, USA Occupation Cross Cultural Anthropology Known for Co-authored many books on anthropology | ||
Carol R. Ember (13 May 1948) is an American cultural anthropologist, Cross-cultural researcher and a writer of books on anthropology. She is now the Director of the Summer Institutes in Comparative Anthropological Research at the Yale University, apart from holding the post of Executive Director in the Human Relations Area of the University.
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Biography
Carol R. Ember was born on 13 May 1948 in New York City. Initially, she studied at the Antioch College with chemistry major. She then pursued studies and research in social science. After studying sociology for one year in the graduate school at Cornell University she moved to Harvard University for doctoral studies on anthropology, basically under the guidance of John and Beatrice Whiting. For her doctoral thesis, she went to Kenya to work and study the social pattern of the Luo people. This study indicated that several boys were engaged in duties which otherwise the girls would perform, like caring for children and domestic works as their mothers were mostly engaged in agriculture work and there were not so many girls in the family who could help her. Ember studied this social pattern in depth by systematic behavioral observations of the boys in comparison with the girls. She noted that boys who did the work normally assigned to girls were "intermediate in many social behaviors, compared with the other boys and girls". Following this study, she continued her research in the field of cross-cultural study on "variation in marriage, family, descent groups, and war and peace." She did this study in association with Melvin Ember who later became her husband; they got married in 1970. This study was also correlated with similar cross-cultural studies done in other parts of the world.
Ember started her professional career by teaching at the Hunter College of the City University of New York and worked there from 1970 to 1996. | Ember was president of the Society of Cross-Cultural Research and was one of the directors of the Summer Institutes in Comparative Anthropological Research; both these institutions received funding from the National Science Foundation. From 1996 to 1999 she worked as Executive Director of the Human Relations Area Files, Inc., a nonprofit research agency of the Yale University.
Ember is engaged now as the editor of the journal Cross-Cultural Research. She is the leader of a 4-year NSF-supported interdisciplinary research project to study the effect of natural hazards on culture.
Publications
Ember has coauthored many books. The first book is titled Anthropology with Melvin Ember and Peter N. Peregrine as coauthors which is in its 14th print. The second book is Archaeology: Original Readings in Method and Practice, also coauthored with Melvin Ember and Peter N. Peregrine which is also in its 14th edition. The third book is titled Physical Anthropology and Archaeology' coauthored with Peregrine and Robert D. Hoppa. This is available in CD Rom format also and is an introductory to physical anthropology and archaeology with particular detailing on "human evolution, major revolutions in human cultural evolution, contemporary variation in humans, and practical applications of anthropology and archaeology." The fourth book is under the title Archaeology: Original Readings in Method and Practice with Melvin Ember and Peregrine. This book has 25 articles by well known archaeologists covering a complete range of archaeological methods and related issues and controversies in present day archaeology. Another book which Ember has authored with her husband is titled Cross-Cultural Research Methodswhich is in its 2nd print.