Reo Fortune Explained
Reo Franklin Fortune (27 March 1903 – 25 November 1979) was a New Zealand-born social anthropologist. Originally trained as a psychologist, Fortune was a student of some of the major theorists of British and American social anthropology including Alfred Cort Haddon, Bronislaw Malinowski and Alfred Radcliffe-Brown.[1] He lived an international life, holding various academic and government positions: in China, at Lingnan University from 1937 to 1939; in Toledo, Ohio, USA from 1940 to 1941; at the University of Toronto, from 1941 to 1943; in Burma, as government anthropologist, from 1946 to 1947;[1] and finally, at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom from 1947 to 1971, as lecturer in social anthropology specialising in Melanesian language and culture.[2]
He was first married to Margaret Mead in 1928, with whom he undertook field studies in New Guinea from 1931 to 1933.[3] They divorced in 1936. Fortune subsequently married Eileen Pope, also a New Zealander, in 1937.[4]
Fortune provided significant insights into the consequences of matrilateral and patrilateral cross-cousin marriage in advance of work by Claude Levi-Strauss. He is also known for his contribution to mathematics with his study of Fortunate numbers in number theory.[5]
The 2014 novel Euphoria by Lily King is a fictionalized account of the relationships between Fortune, Mead and Gregory Bateson in pre-WWII New Guinea.[6]
Selected publications
- 1927, The Mind in Sleep. Kegan Paul.
- 1932, Sorcerers of Dobu. Routledge.
- 1932, Omaha Secret Societies. Columbia University Press.
- 1933, A note on some forms of kinship structure. Oceania, 4(1), 1–9.
- 1935, Manus Religion, An ethnological study of the Manus natives of the Admiralty Islands. American Philosophical Press.
- 1942, Arapesh. American Ethnological Society Publication 19; 237 pages.
Photographs
Many of the easily accessible images of Fortune include his one-time wife Margaret Mead, who was known for her interest in photography as an ethnographic method.[7]
The National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) holds a large collection of family and fieldwork photos of Reo and Eileen Fortune's lives in China, North America, and England.[8]
In 1959 and again in 1970–71, Fortune revisited Dobu, the island community he made famous in his 1932 book, The Sorcerers of Dobu.[9]
Further reading
- "Reo FORTUNE (1903–1979)." Canberra Anthropology, 3:105–108.
- Abrahams, R. and H. Wardle. 2002. "Fortune's Last Theorem", Cambridge Anthropology 23:1, 60–2
- Bashkow, Ira and Lise M. Dobrin. 2013. "Reo Fortune." In R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms (eds.), Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, pp. 272–274. Sage Publications.
- Dobrin, Lise M. and Ira Bashkow. 2010. "The Truth in Anthropology Does Not Travel First Class: Reo Fortune's Fateful Encounter with Margaret Mead." In Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach (eds.), Histories of Anthropology Annual, vol. 6, ed. 66–128. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
- Dobrin, Lise M. and Ira Bashkow. 2010. "'Arapesh Warfare': Reo Fortune's Veiled Critique of Margaret Mead's Sex and Temperament." American Anthropologist 112(3):370–383.
- Bashkow, Ira and Lise M. Dobrin. 2007. "The Historical Study of Ethnographic Fieldwork: Margaret Mead and Reo Fortune among the Mountain Arapesh." History of Anthropology Newsletter, vol. 34(1), pp. 9–16.
- Bashkow, Ira and Lise Dobrin, 2018. « Un Boasien inattendu : biographie de Reo Fortune, ethnographe culturaliste devenu un excentrique amer » in Bérose, encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie
- Dobrin, Lise M. and Ira Bashkow. 2006. "Pigs for Dance Songs: Reo Fortune's Empathetic Ethnography of the Arapesh Roads." In Regna Darnell and Frederic W. Gleach (eds.), Histories of Anthropology Annual, vol. 2, pp. 123–154. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
- Gray, Geoffrey. "Being honest to my science: Reo Fortune and JHP Murray, 1927–1930." The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 10 (1), 1999, pp. 56–76.
- Lohman, Roger. 2009. "Dreams of Fortune: Reo Fortune's Psychological Theory of Cultural Ambivalence." Pacific Studies, vol. 32, nos. 2/3—June/September
- Roscoe, Paul. 2003. "Margaret Mead, Reo Fortune, and Mountain Arapesh Warfare." American Anthropologist 105(3):581–591.
- Thomas, Caroline. 2009. "Rediscovering Reo: Reflections on the life and anthropological career of Reo Franklin Fortune." Pacific Studies, vol. 32, nos. 2/3; June–September
- Thomas, Caroline. 2011. The Sorcerers' Apprentice: A life of Reo Franklin Fortune, Anthropologist. PhD thesis, University of Waikato.
External links
Notes and References
- Thomas, Caroline (2009) "Rediscovering Reo: Reflections on the life and anthropological career of Reo Franklin Fortune," Pacific Studies, vol. 32, nos. 2/3; June–Sept
- Gray, Geoffrey "Being honest to my science: Reo Fortune and JHP Murray, 1927–1930", The Australian Journal of Anthropology, vol. 10 (1), 1999, pp. 56–76
- Book: Adam, Kuper . The Chosen Primate: Human Nature and Cultural Diversity . 1994 . Harvard University Press . 978-0-674-12826-2 . 186–189 .
- Book: Thomas, Caroline. The Sorcerers' Apprentice: A Life of Reo Franklin Fortune, Anthropologist. 2011.
- Web site: Fortunate number . 19 April 2008 . The Prime Glossary .
- News: Eakin. Emily. Going Native: 'Euphoria,' by Lily King. 29 September 2017. The New York Times. 6 June 2014.
- Web site: Mead . Margaret . Francis . Patricia A. . 2001-11-30 . Manus: Childhood Thought - Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture Exhibitions - Library of Congress . 2024-02-10 . www.loc.gov.
- http://natlib.govt.nz/items/22790599 Fortune, Reo Franklin, 1903–1979 :Pho... | Items | National Library of New Zealand
- http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=63983&l=mi Object 63983 Detail | Te Reo Maori | Manuscripts & Pictorial | National Library of New Zealand
