Sally Price
Encyclopedia
Sally Price is an American anthropologist
, best known for her studies of so-called “primitive art” and its place in the imaginaire of Western
viewers.
, graduating in 1965 after spending her junior year at the Sorbonne
in Paris
. In 1963 she married anthropology graduate student Richard Price
and together they began conducting fieldwork together during summers – in a fishing village in Martinique
(1963), in a village
in rural Andalusia
, Spain
(1964), and among Zinacanteco Indians in Chiapas
, Mexico
(1965 and 1966) as part of a large Harvard-led project in the area. After a brief trip to Suriname
to explore the possibility of conducting long-term field research among the Saramaka
Maroons
of the interior, the Prices returned for a two-year residence in the village of Dangogo, on the upper Suriname River
. This experience formed the foundation of much of their subsequent contribution to the discipline of anthropology and the field of African American studies
.
Returning from Suriname, the Prices spent a year in the Netherlands
, working with Dutch
scholars of Maroon societies such as anthropologist A.J.F. Köbben. Their first child (Niko Price, currently Europe
Editor for the Associated Press
) was born there and their second (Leah Price
, Professor of English Literature
at Harvard) arrived a year later in New Haven, while Richard Price was teaching at Yale University
. It was only later that Sally Price attended graduate school
, receiving her Ph.D
in Cultural Anthropology
from Johns Hopkins University
in 1982. Two subsequent years of research in the Netherlands expanded relations with Dutch colleagues, and in 2000, Sally Price was honored by being elected to the prestigious Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
).
After a dozen years at Johns Hopkins, followed by two years in Paris for a combination of teaching and research
, the Prices returned to the fishing village in Martinique where they had begun their careers, establishing it as a base for a series of visiting appointments (at, for example, the University of Minnesota
, Stanford University
, Princeton University
, and the Universidade Federal da Bahia
in Brazil
). In 1994, Sally Price took on a one-semester-a-year post as Duane A. and Virginia S. Dittman Professor of Anthropology and American Studies
at the College of William and Mary
, alternating her time between the College and her base in Martinique.
Alice and Edith Hamilton Prize in Women’s Studies. Later, inspired by her experiences as a guest curator
of Maroon art
for a UCLA-based
traveling exhibition
, she began exploring Western constructions of non-Western art. Her Primitive Art in Civilized Places (published in English
, Dutch
, French
, German
, Italian
, Spanish
, and Portuguese
) has sparked much debate, “rattling glass cases throughout the art world,” as one critic put it. In her role as a Caribbeanist
, she co-edited (with Sidney W. Mintz
) Caribbean Contours (dubbed “the best single book available today for courses on Caribbean society
and politics”) and together with Richard Price
, she has written books on a variety of subjects, from artist Romare Bearden’s
life in the Caribbean to Maroon arts, folktale
tradition
s, public folklore
, the history of anthropology
, art forgery
, and artifact
collecting (this last illustrated by Sally Price with 50 pen-and-ink sketches). Her recent work has been based in two distant parts of France
--French Guiana
, where she continues her ethnographic studies
of Maroon culture, and Paris, where she has written on the politics
, both personal and national, involved in the creation of Paris’s new museum
of African
, Asian
, Oceanic
, and Pre-Columbian
art.
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...
, best known for her studies of so-called “primitive art” and its place in the imaginaire of Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
viewers.
Career
Price attended Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati and then Harvard College, where she majored in French LiteratureFrench literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
, graduating in 1965 after spending her junior year at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In 1963 she married anthropology graduate student Richard Price
Richard Price (American anthropologist)
Richard Price is an American anthropologist and historian, best known for his studies of the Caribbean and his experiments with writing ethnography.- Career :...
and together they began conducting fieldwork together during summers – in a fishing village in Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
(1963), in a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in rural Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(1964), and among Zinacanteco Indians in Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
(1965 and 1966) as part of a large Harvard-led project in the area. After a brief trip to Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
to explore the possibility of conducting long-term field research among the Saramaka
Saramaka
The Saramaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon peoples in the Republic of Suriname. The word "Maroon" comes from the Spanish cimarrón, itself derived from an Arawakan root; by the early 16th century it was used throughout the Americas to designate slaves who successfully escaped from slavery.-...
Maroons
Maroon (people)
Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...
of the interior, the Prices returned for a two-year residence in the village of Dangogo, on the upper Suriname River
Suriname River
The Suriname River is 480 km long and flows through the country Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains...
. This experience formed the foundation of much of their subsequent contribution to the discipline of anthropology and the field of African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
.
Returning from Suriname, the Prices spent a year in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, working with Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
scholars of Maroon societies such as anthropologist A.J.F. Köbben. Their first child (Niko Price, currently Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
Editor for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
) was born there and their second (Leah Price
Leah Price
Leah Price is a professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University, where her specialties are in the novel, literary journalism, the history of books and reading, and narrative theory, as well as on the culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries and British...
, Professor of English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at Harvard) arrived a year later in New Haven, while Richard Price was teaching at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. It was only later that Sally Price attended graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
, receiving her Ph.D
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Cultural Anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
from Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in 1982. Two subsequent years of research in the Netherlands expanded relations with Dutch colleagues, and in 2000, Sally Price was honored by being elected to the prestigious Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organisation dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands...
).
After a dozen years at Johns Hopkins, followed by two years in Paris for a combination of teaching and research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, the Prices returned to the fishing village in Martinique where they had begun their careers, establishing it as a base for a series of visiting appointments (at, for example, the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and the Universidade Federal da Bahia
Universidade Federal da Bahia
The Universidade Federal da Bahia is a public university located mainly in the city of Salvador. The largest university of the State of Bahia, and one of the most prestigious Brazilian universities.Students can study there without having to pay tuition fees, as it is a public university...
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...
). In 1994, Sally Price took on a one-semester-a-year post as Duane A. and Virginia S. Dittman Professor of Anthropology and American Studies
American studies
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It traditionally incorporates the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban...
at the College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
, alternating her time between the College and her base in Martinique.
Contributions
Price’s early work, which focused on the Maroons of Suriname, included Co-Wives and Calabashes, “an analysis of the ways that cultural ideas about the genders influence Saramaka women’s art and artistic activity and the complementary contributions that these artistic activities make to their social life,” which won the University of Michigan’sUniversity of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Alice and Edith Hamilton Prize in Women’s Studies. Later, inspired by her experiences as a guest curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of Maroon art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
for a UCLA-based
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
traveling exhibition
Travelling exhibition
A travelling exhibition, also referred to as a "travelling exhibit" or a "touring exhibition", is a type of exhibition that is available for circulation to one or more venues in addition to the premises of the organiser....
, she began exploring Western constructions of non-Western art. Her Primitive Art in Civilized Places (published in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
) has sparked much debate, “rattling glass cases throughout the art world,” as one critic put it. In her role as a Caribbeanist
Caribbeanist
A Caribbeanist is a scholar who specializes in the study of the Caribbean region of the Americas -- its literature, culture, politics, society, ecology and so forth. In some academic disciplines Caribbean studies are seen as a branch of the larger field of Latin American studies....
, she co-edited (with Sidney W. Mintz
Sidney Mintz
Sidney Wilfred Mintz is an anthropologist best known for his studies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Mintz studied at Brooklyn College earning his B.A in 1943. He got his doctoral degree from Columbia University under the supervision of Julian Steward and Ruth Benedict...
) Caribbean Contours (dubbed “the best single book available today for courses on Caribbean society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
and politics”) and together with Richard Price
Richard Price
Richard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
, she has written books on a variety of subjects, from artist Romare Bearden’s
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
life in the Caribbean to Maroon arts, folktale
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
s, public folklore
Public folklore
Public folklore is the term for the work done by folklorists in public settings in the United States and Canada outside of universities and colleges, such as arts councils, museums, folklife festivals, radio stations, etc. The term is actually short for "public sector folklore" and was first used...
, the history of anthropology
History of anthropology
This article mainly discusses 18th- and 19th-century precursors of modern anthropology. For more information on modern social and cultural anthropology as they have developed in Britain, France, and North America since approximately 1900, see the relevant sections under Anthropology.-Overview:The...
, art forgery
Art forgery
Art forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed to other, usually more famous, artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler....
, and artifact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
collecting (this last illustrated by Sally Price with 50 pen-and-ink sketches). Her recent work has been based in two distant parts of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
--French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, where she continues her ethnographic studies
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
of Maroon culture, and Paris, where she has written on the politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, both personal and national, involved in the creation of Paris’s new museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of African
African people
African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...
, Asian
Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
, Oceanic
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...
, and Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
art.
Books
- 1980. Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Rain Forest (with Richard Price)
- 1984. Co-Wives and Calabashes
- 1985. Caribbean Contours (edited with Sidney W. Mintz)
- 1988. John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (edited with Richard Price)
- 1989. Primitive Art in Civilized Places
- 1991. Two Evenings in Saramaka (with Richard Price)
- 1992. C’est-à-dire (with Jean Jamin)
- 1992. Equatoria (with Richard Price)
- 1992. Stedman's Surinam: Life in an Eighteenth-Century Slave Society (with Richard Price)
- 1994. On The Mall (with Richard Price)
- 1995. Enigma Variations: A Novel (with Richard Price)
- 1999. Maroon Arts: Cultural Vitality in the African Diaspora (with Richard Price)
- 2003. Les Marrons (with Richard Price)
- 2003. The Root of Roots: Or, How Afro-American Anthropology Got Its Start (with Richard Price)
- 2006. Romare Bearden: The Caribbean Dimension (with Richard Price)
- 2007. Paris Primitive: Jacques Chirac’s Museum on the Quai Branly
External links
- http://www.richandsally.net