Background
Foster, Mary Lecron was born on February 1, 1914 in Des Moines. Daughter of James and Helen (Cowles) LeCron.
Foster, Mary Lecron was born on February 1, 1914 in Des Moines. Daughter of James and Helen (Cowles) LeCron.
Bachelor, Northwestern University, 1936. Doctor of Philosophy, University California, Berkeley, 1965.
Foster carried out graduate work in anthropology under the direction of Ruth Benedict. The influence of Franz Boas, whom she also knew at Columbia, may be seen in Foster’s interests in symbolism and language origins. In addition to writing grammars of Sierra Popoluca and Purépecha, she published several articles purporting to reconstruct spoken Primordial Language (PL).
PL, she maintained, was constructed out of speech sounds she dubbed ‘phememes’ that were at the same time roots, whose meaning was motivated by the shaping and movement of the vocal tract.
Fellow: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Anthropological Association. Member: Society Woman Geographers, Southwestern Anthropological Association, International Linguistic Association, Linguistic Society of America.
Married George McClelland Foster Junior, January 6, 1938. Children: Jeremy, Melissa Foster Bowerman.