Nancy Munn was an American anthropologist, born in 1931, who earned her doctorate from the Australian National University in 1961 and joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1976, where she became the first woman in its anthropology department to hold a tenured professorship. She conducted her principal fieldwork on Gawa, an island in Papua New Guinea's Massim region, and among the Warlpiri people at Yuendumu in central Australia, developing an influential theoretical approach to how societies construct value, meaning and intersubjective space and time through everyday symbolic action. Her books Walbiri Iconography (1973), on Warlpiri graphic design and myth, and The Fame of Gawa (1986), on exchange and value in Melanesian gift economies, are considered foundational texts in the anthropology of symbolism and exchange. She died in 2020.
Facts
Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountBest known for her theoretical work on how societies construct value, meaning and intersubjective space and time through everyday symbolic action. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountThe Fame of Gawa: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society (1986) 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Nancy Munn
WikipediaLead paragraph, birth date
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, death date
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, birth year
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, death year
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, nationality
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, full name
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Lead paragraph, area of contribution
Nancy Dorothy Munn (April 13, 1931, January 20, 2020) was an American anthropologist best known for her work in space and time, value, and world-making.
Bibliography section, 1986 title
Munn, Nancy D. 1986. The Fame of Gawa: A Symbolic Study of Value Transformation in a Massim (Papua New Guinea) Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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