Anthony Leeds
Encyclopedia
Anthony Leeds was an anthropologist best known for his work in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro
and on urban-rural relations in Brazil
. He was born in New York City
on January 26, 1925 and received a BA in anthropology
from Columbia University
in 1949. Field work in Bahia, Brazil, led to his dissertation “Economic Cycles in Brazil: The Persistence of a Total-Culture Pattern: Cacao and Other Cases”. Students at Columbia at roughly the same time were Marvin Harris
, Sally Falk Moore
, Robert Murphy
, and Andrew P. Vayda
. Leeds earned a PhD in anthropology from Columbia in 1957. He worked at the Baldwin School in New York and at the Pan-American Union’s Program of Urban Development, traveling widely in South America
. He taught at Hofstra, the City College of New York
, and at the University of Texas, Austin, from 1963-1972; was Visiting Professor at the University of London
and University of Oxford
with a Fulbright Fellowship for a year, and then moved to Boston University
, where he taught from 1973 until his death in 1989.
Leeds conducted field work among the Yaruro
in Venezuela
, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, in the barriadas of Lima
, Peru
, and on labor migration in Portugal
. In 1982 he became one of the first presidents of the Society for Urban Anthropology. His work reflected his wide interests; he wrote on squatters, class, warfare, technology, labor migration, rural-urban relations, systems theory
, human ecology, pigs in Melanesia
, and reindeer
in Siberia
, among other topics. He also wrote poetry, was a photographer, and hosted Thursday night gatherings of graduate students and like-minded faculty at his house in Dedham, Massachusetts
. His influence continues to shape the work of anthropologists in the United States
, Brazil, Portugal, and elsewhere.
He was married twice, first to Jo Alice Lowrey, with whom he had three children, Madeleine, John, and Anne, and to Elizabeth Plotkin, with whom he had two children, Jeremy and Jared. Leeds died of a heart attack on February 20, 1989, at his home in Tunbridge, VT, at the age of 64. The Anthony Leeds Prize is awarded in his honor by the Society for Urban, National, Transnational and Global Anthropology (www.sunta.org) (formerly the Society for Urban Anthropology). His papers are housed at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/_l1.htm) and also with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
References:
Leeds, Anthony. 1964. “Brazilian Careers and Social Structure: An Evolutionary Model and Case History”. American Anthropologist, 66:1321-47.
Leeds, Anthony, and Andrew P. Vayda
. 1965. Man, Culture, and Animals: the Role of Animals in Human Ecological Adjustment. Publication No. 78. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Leeds, Anthony. 1973. “Locality Power in Relation to Supralocal Power Institutions, pp. 15-41. In Urban Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies of Urbanization. Aidan Southall, ed., NY: Oxford University Press.
Roger Sanjek (Queens College) collected a number of Leeds’s articles in Sanjek’s edited volume Cities, Classes, and the Social Order (1994) Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (ISBN 0-8014-8168-6)
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and on urban-rural relations in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. He was born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on January 26, 1925 and received a BA in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1949. Field work in Bahia, Brazil, led to his dissertation “Economic Cycles in Brazil: The Persistence of a Total-Culture Pattern: Cacao and Other Cases”. Students at Columbia at roughly the same time were Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism...
, Sally Falk Moore
Sally Falk Moore
Sally Falk Moore is a legal anthropologist and Professor Emerita at Harvard University. She did her major fieldwork in Tanzania and has published extensively on cross-cultural, comparative legal theory....
, Robert Murphy
Robert F. Murphy (anthropologist)
Robert Francis Murphy was a distinguished anthropologist and professor of anthropology at Columbia University in New York City, from the early 1960s to 1990...
, and Andrew P. Vayda
Andrew P. Vayda
Andrew P. Vayda is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Ecology at Rutgers University and Senior Research Associate of the in Bogor, Indonesia. Formerly a professor at Columbia University, he has taught also at the University of Indonesia and other Indonesian universities and at the University...
. Leeds earned a PhD in anthropology from Columbia in 1957. He worked at the Baldwin School in New York and at the Pan-American Union’s Program of Urban Development, traveling widely in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. He taught at Hofstra, the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, and at the University of Texas, Austin, from 1963-1972; was Visiting Professor at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
and University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
with a Fulbright Fellowship for a year, and then moved to Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, where he taught from 1973 until his death in 1989.
Leeds conducted field work among the Yaruro
Yaruro
The Yaruro are Native Americans who live primarily in Venezuela near the Orinoco River and its tributaries. Current population estimates are generally between 3,000 and 4,000. They live by hunting, fishing, agriculture, paid labor of various types, and the selling of handicrafts...
in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, in the barriadas of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and on labor migration in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. In 1982 he became one of the first presidents of the Society for Urban Anthropology. His work reflected his wide interests; he wrote on squatters, class, warfare, technology, labor migration, rural-urban relations, systems theory
Systems theory
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...
, human ecology, pigs in Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
, and reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, among other topics. He also wrote poetry, was a photographer, and hosted Thursday night gatherings of graduate students and like-minded faculty at his house in Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
. His influence continues to shape the work of anthropologists in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Brazil, Portugal, and elsewhere.
He was married twice, first to Jo Alice Lowrey, with whom he had three children, Madeleine, John, and Anne, and to Elizabeth Plotkin, with whom he had two children, Jeremy and Jared. Leeds died of a heart attack on February 20, 1989, at his home in Tunbridge, VT, at the age of 64. The Anthony Leeds Prize is awarded in his honor by the Society for Urban, National, Transnational and Global Anthropology (www.sunta.org) (formerly the Society for Urban Anthropology). His papers are housed at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guide/_l1.htm) and also with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
References:
Leeds, Anthony. 1964. “Brazilian Careers and Social Structure: An Evolutionary Model and Case History”. American Anthropologist, 66:1321-47.
Leeds, Anthony, and Andrew P. Vayda
Andrew P. Vayda
Andrew P. Vayda is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Ecology at Rutgers University and Senior Research Associate of the in Bogor, Indonesia. Formerly a professor at Columbia University, he has taught also at the University of Indonesia and other Indonesian universities and at the University...
. 1965. Man, Culture, and Animals: the Role of Animals in Human Ecological Adjustment. Publication No. 78. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Leeds, Anthony. 1973. “Locality Power in Relation to Supralocal Power Institutions, pp. 15-41. In Urban Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies of Urbanization. Aidan Southall, ed., NY: Oxford University Press.
Roger Sanjek (Queens College) collected a number of Leeds’s articles in Sanjek’s edited volume Cities, Classes, and the Social Order (1994) Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (ISBN 0-8014-8168-6)