Background
Spiro, Melford Elliot was born on April 26, 1920 in Cleveland. Son of Wilbert I. and Sophie (Goodman) Spiro.
(Spiro challenges the argument of Bronislaw Malinowski tha...)
Spiro challenges the argument of Bronislaw Malinowski that the matrilineal society of the Trobriand Islands produced a psychological constellation -- a matrilineal complex -- different from Freud's Oedipus complex and the generalization regarding the restrictive provenance of the Oepidus complex to which it gave rise. Spiro undertakes a reanalysis of Malinowski's data and shows that there is enough to suggest the presence of a strong Oedipus complex. Melford E. Spiro is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, where he founded the Anthropology Department in 1968. His other works include Gender and Culture, Oedipus in the Trobriands, and Culture and Human Nature.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560006277/?tag=2022091-20
(It is now customary for anthropologists studying religion...)
It is now customary for anthropologists studying religion to pay at most lip service to formalized religious doctrine. Such works, in a functionalist tradition , tell us a great deal about the social and economic organization of religious action and about the postulated social background of religious ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520046722/?tag=2022091-20
( This volume illustrates Melford Spiro's explorations o...)
This volume illustrates Melford Spiro's explorations of key relationships among culture, society, and human nature. He addresses such fundamental issues as the limitations of cultural relativism, the problem of explanation in the social sciences, and the importance of a comparative approach to the study of social and cultural systems. Spiro believes that deep motivational and cognitive structures underlie human behavior. He argues that these structures can be explained by the evolutionary history of our species and by social experience.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560007028/?tag=2022091-20
( Though the people of Burma, now called Myanmar, are for...)
Though the people of Burma, now called Myanmar, are formally Buddhist, their folk religion a type of animism or supernaturalism is so unlike classical Buddhism that it seems contradictory. For years scholars of religion and anthropology have debated the questions: Do these folk beliefs make up a separate religious system? Or is there a subtle merging of supernaturalism and Buddhism, a kind of syncretism? In either case, how exactly does folk religion fit into the overall religious pattern? Melford Spiro's Burmese Supernaturalism has been one of the major works in this debate, both for its position on the "two religions" question and for its arguments concerning the psychological basis of religion. The book begins with an introduction to the study of supernaturalism. The next section of the work covers various types of supernaturalism, including witches, ghost, and demons. Other areas of discussion include supernaturally caused illness and its treatment, the shaman, the exorcist, and the relationship between supernaturalism and Buddhism. In the introduction to this expanded edition Spiro further develops the underlying logic of his argument and evaluates the most recent contributions to the field of the anthropology of religion. Burmese Supernaturalism is an intriguing study and will provide insightful reading for anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, as well as those interested in supernaturalism in Burma (Myanmar) and other cultures.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560008822/?tag=2022091-20
(In a psychodynamic framework, Dr. Spiro examines cultural...)
In a psychodynamic framework, Dr. Spiro examines cultural norms, religion, interpersonal relationships, and the roles of women and men in the village of Yeigyi, Upper Burma. The book is a remarkable contribution to knowledge concerning mate selection, marriage, domestic group composition, intrafamilial relationships and kinship in Burma. Usable as a college text in sociology/anthropology, the book is also an excellent reference work for scholars interested in kinship and marriage.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520032209/?tag=2022091-20
(The studies collected in this volume represent Spiro's co...)
The studies collected in this volume represent Spiro's contention that despite marked differences, non-Western peoples are "brother," not "other," and that the opportunity to construct a genuine cross-cultural science with commanding universals remains compelling. Melford E. Spiro is the author.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887384145/?tag=2022091-20
( Based on a study of the Israeli kibbutz movement, Gende...)
Based on a study of the Israeli kibbutz movement, Gender and Culture discusses the differences in male and female orientations to marriage, the family, and work. Spiro describes the counterrevolution in the kibbutz movement as it evolved over a quarter century period. The kibbutz Spiro first studied, Kiryat Yedidim, was thirty years old at the time, and he returned there twenty-five years later. Spiro initially found that the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, in their attempt to implement their vision of a society based on sexual equality, had created a revolution in the character of marriage, the structure of the family, patterns of child rearing, and the sexual division of labor. The counterrevolution he found twenty-five years later was no less fascinating: a return to certain important features of the prerevolutionary forms of these social institutions. This return to tradition has been the work primarily of the young women who, born and raised in the kibbutz, had been inculcated with the revolutionary ideology of the kibbutz pioneers. Studying the same community after a twenty-five-year interval enables readers to observe the children of the first study as adults in the follow-up study. This longitudinal dimension provides the most important basis for the interpretations offered in Gender and Culture. A new introduction discusses additional, even more radical changes that have occurred since the book’s original publication in 1979, situating the kibbutz experience in the context of contemporary gender studies and feminist thought. The book will be of continuing importance for sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and women’s studies scholars.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560007710/?tag=2022091-20
(How does a child raised by a community differ from one gr...)
How does a child raised by a community differ from one growing up in a nuclear family? The Spiros revisted the kibbutz twenty-five years after their first study. In a new chapter, Leslie Y. Rabkin and Audrey G. Spiro report on the contemporary adults and the effects of their childhood upbringing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805200932/?tag=2022091-20
(Why do members of a society espouse culturally constitute...)
Why do members of a society espouse culturally constituted beliefs that are at odds with their personal interests and experiences? In this book Melford Spiro, a psychological anthropologist, answers this question by investigating ideologies of gender and sex relations in Burma, according to which men are superior and women are morally and sexually dangerous - despite the reality that women enjoy high economic, legal, and social status. Spiro argues that these sexist ideologies - prevalent in most of the human world - are an expression of male anxieties and insecurities. Spiro propose a theory of cultural reproduction that is an alternative to the enculturation model of radical cultural determinism. He postulates that cultural systems are reproduced only insofar as they are internalized by members of society and that this occurs if these systems resonate with members' conscious and unconscious beliefs and desires or are employed by them as a resource for the construction of defense mechanisms. He compares his firsthand observations of a Burmese village to extensive data from a wide array of other societies (including our own) and argues that this explanation applies to all societies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300070071/?tag=2022091-20
Spiro, Melford Elliot was born on April 26, 1920 in Cleveland. Son of Wilbert I. and Sophie (Goodman) Spiro.
Bachelor, University Minnesota, 1941. Doctor of Philosophy, Northwestern University, 1950.
Member faculty Washington University, St. Louis, 1948—1952, University Connecticut, 1952—1957, University Washington, 1957—1964. Professor anthropology University Chicago, 1964—1968. Professor, chairman department anthropology University California, San Diego, 1968—1999, professor emeritus, since 1999.
(Why do members of a society espouse culturally constitute...)
(Spiro challenges the argument of Bronislaw Malinowski tha...)
(The studies collected in this volume represent Spiro's co...)
( Though the people of Burma, now called Myanmar, are for...)
( Based on a study of the Israeli kibbutz movement, Gende...)
(How does a child raised by a community differ from one gr...)
(It is now customary for anthropologists studying religion...)
( This volume illustrates Melford Spiro's explorations o...)
(In a psychodynamic framework, Dr. Spiro examines cultural...)
(Book by Spiro, Melford E.)
(Jewish Studies)
(Hardcover. Dust Jacket Missing.Some former Library Stamps...)
Board directors Social Science Research Council, 1960—1962. Fellow: National Academy of Sciences, American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society for Psychological Anthropology (president 1979-1980), American Ethnological Society 1967-1968, American Anthropological Association.
Married Audrey Goldman, May 27, 1950. Children: Michael, Jonathan.