Sherry Ortner
Encyclopedia
Sherry Beth Ortner is an American cultural anthropologist and has been Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA since 2004.
, and attended Weequahic High School
, as did Philip Roth
and Richie Roberts
. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College
in 1962. She then studied anthropology at the University of Chicago
with Clifford Geertz
and obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1970 for her fieldwork among the Sherpas in Nepal
. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College
, the University of Michigan
, the University of California, Berkeley
, Columbia University
, and the University of California, Los Angeles
. She has done extensive fieldwork with the Sherpas of Nepal, on religion, politics, and the Sherpas’ involvement in Himalayan mountaineering. Her final book on the Sherpas, Life and Death on Mt. Everest, was awarded the J.I. Staley prize for the best anthropology book of 2004.
In the early 1990s, Ortner switched her research to the United States. Her first project was on the meanings and workings of “class” in the United States, using her own high school graduating class as her ethnographic subjects. She is currently developing a project on the relationship between Hollywood films and American culture. She also publishes regularly in the areas of cultural theory and feminist theory.
Sherry Ortner was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant
in 1990. In 1992, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. She has been awarded the Retzius Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
.
Ortner was previously married to Robert Paul, a cultural anthropologist now at Emory University
; and to Raymond C. Kelly, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at The University of Michigan. She is currently married to Timothy D. Taylor, a Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology at UCLA.
. She does not focus on societal reproduction but centers on the idea of “serious games”, on resistance and transformation within a society. She formed her ideas while working with Sherpas. She is concerned with domination cultural understanding constraints within cultures, culture as being simply reproduced. Actors play with skill in a game of life with power and inequality. Seeing social structure as some kind of sporting arena, playing a game of life in the field, and that the rules are set by the society's structure. But one is a free agent, one does not have to follow the rules. One can break the rules of life. This results in one being carried away or results in changing the rules and boundaries by this action. Ortner focuses on the issues of resistance and transformation.
Biography
She grew up in a Jewish family in Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, and attended Weequahic High School
Weequahic High School
Weequahic High School is a public high school in Newark in Essex County, New Jersey. The school is operated by the Newark Public Schools and is located at 279 Chancellor Avenue....
, as did Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
and Richie Roberts
Richie Roberts
Richard M. "Richie" Roberts is a former detective, Essex County Prosecutor and is currently a defense attorney. He is most widely recognized for the arrest, prosecution and later defense of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas....
. She received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
in 1962. She then studied anthropology at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
with Clifford Geertz
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until...
and obtained her Ph.D. in anthropology in 1970 for her fieldwork among the Sherpas in Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
, the University of Michigan
University 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...
, the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, 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...
, and the University of California, Los Angeles
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...
. She has done extensive fieldwork with the Sherpas of Nepal, on religion, politics, and the Sherpas’ involvement in Himalayan mountaineering. Her final book on the Sherpas, Life and Death on Mt. Everest, was awarded the J.I. Staley prize for the best anthropology book of 2004.
In the early 1990s, Ortner switched her research to the United States. Her first project was on the meanings and workings of “class” in the United States, using her own high school graduating class as her ethnographic subjects. She is currently developing a project on the relationship between Hollywood films and American culture. She also publishes regularly in the areas of cultural theory and feminist theory.
Sherry Ortner was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
in 1990. In 1992, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. She has been awarded the Retzius Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography is a scientific learned society founded in Sweden in 1877...
.
Ortner was previously married to Robert Paul, a cultural anthropologist now at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
; and to Raymond C. Kelly, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at The University of Michigan. She is currently married to Timothy D. Taylor, a Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology at UCLA.
Practice Theory
One of Sherry's view point is Practice TheoryPractice theory
Practice theory refers to a theoretical approach to social phenomena which sought to resolve the antinomy between traditional structuralist approaches and approaches such as methodological individualism which attempted to explain all social phenomena in terms of individual actions.Practice theory...
. She does not focus on societal reproduction but centers on the idea of “serious games”, on resistance and transformation within a society. She formed her ideas while working with Sherpas. She is concerned with domination cultural understanding constraints within cultures, culture as being simply reproduced. Actors play with skill in a game of life with power and inequality. Seeing social structure as some kind of sporting arena, playing a game of life in the field, and that the rules are set by the society's structure. But one is a free agent, one does not have to follow the rules. One can break the rules of life. This results in one being carried away or results in changing the rules and boundaries by this action. Ortner focuses on the issues of resistance and transformation.
Selected publications
- (1972) "Is female to male as nature is to culture?" pp. 67–87 in Woman, Culture and Society, edited by M. Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
- (1978) Sherpas through their Rituals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- (1981) Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality (co-edited with Harriet Whitehead). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- (1984) "Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties." Comparative Studies in Society and History 26(1):126-166.
- (1989) High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- (1996) Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Beacon Press.
- (1999) Life and Death on Mount Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- (1999) (ed.) The Fate of “Culture”: Geertz and Beyond. Berkely, CA: University of California Press.
- (2003) New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of ’58. Durham, NC: Duke University Press
- (2006) Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Duke University Press.
External links
- Sherry Ortner faculty profile
- Biography of Sherry Beth Ortner
- The Long Way Home article in University of Chicago Magazine, Feb 1996.
- Review of Ortner's book "Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture"
- Interview with Sherry Ortner in AIBR Journal