Mary Catherine Bateson, cultural anthropologist and linguist, best-selling
author and noted scholar, will deliver an address titled “Women in Society: Going
from College Life Into the Real World” on Saturday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m. in Memorial
Chapel.
Her talk is part of “Composing a Union,” a celebration of 25 years of
coeducation at the College. More information on events in “Composing a Union”
(including a series of panel discussions on Saturday), is available in the Reamer Campus
Center.
Bateson, the daughter of anthropologist Margaret Mead is the author of such well-known
books as Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way, Composing a Life, Within a
Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson and Thinking Aids. Bateson
is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor in Anthropology and English at George Mason
University.
Her thought is rooted in the study of communication. Because anthropologists are
accustomed to thinking of whole human communities and their environments, they are trained
to search out the relationships between different aspects of human society, from nutrition
to leadership to ritual. This means that anthropologists, looking at our own society in
comparison to others, often bring a distinctive point of view, recognizing patterns
invisible to narrowly defined experts. Her recent emphasis has been on adapting to changes
in the life cycle and gender roles.