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Guide to the Nancy Makepeace Tanner Papers
MS 75
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Title: Nancy Makepeace Tanner papers
Dates: 1971-1981
Collection number: MS 75
Creator:
Tanner, Nancy
Makepeace
Collection Size: 6 cartons
6 linear ft.
6 linear ft.
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: This collection includes preliminary &
corrected drafts for
On Becoming Human and plans for a second book.
Physical location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice
is required for access to the papers.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection open for research.
Property rights reside with the
University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the
records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the
material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Nancy Makepeace Tanner papers. MS 75.
Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California,
Santa Cruz.
Gift of the Brunckhorst Family,
1994
Nancy Makepeace Tanner 1933-1989, Anthropology: Santa Cruz, Associate
Professor
Nancy Makepeace Tanner was born on June 18, 1933, in Aurora,
Illinois. Her mother died when she was three years old and she and her younger
brother were raised by her father. She first attended school in a one-room
schoolhouse up the road from her father's farm. At age 16, she was admitted to
the University of Chicago's early admissions's program and at 19 received her
BA degree. After graduation, she became a premedical student, but soon after
she dropped out when she got married. After two daughters, she got a divorce,
and returned to the University of Chicago to obtain an M.A. in education in
1959. Moving to California, she began graduate studies in anthropology at UC
Berkeley and, with her daughters, spent three years doing fieldwork in West
Sumatra. Soon after her return from the field she came to the University of
Chicago as a Carnegie Fellow of the Committee for the Comparative Study of New
Nations. She taught there for two years before joining UCSC in 1969.
Professor Tanner received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1971.
Trained in both cultural and physical anthropology, Professor Tanner had a wide ranging and creative
intellect. She was concerned about overfragmentation in the discipline and in
her work integrated the various subfields of anthropology. Her research,
writing and teaching focused on three areas: dispute and conflict resolution,
human communication, and sex and gender, which she examined from evolutionary,
social and socio-cultural perspectives. Professor Tanner was a leading
authority on the Minangkabau of Western Sumatra. She wrote numerous articles on
their legal system, sociolinguistics and social organization. Her 1974 article,
“Matrifocality in Indonesia, Africa and among Black Americans”
proposed a rethinking of then current theories about matriliny and presented a
new model about women's roles in social systems.
In 1981, she published a
path-breaking book, On Becoming Human (Cambridge University Press) in which she
traced the transition from ape to australopithecine in human
evolution, based on her analysis of fossil and archaeological data. The book,
which has been reprinted twice, presented a powerful new theory about women's
roles in human evolution and was widely praised by colleagues such as F. Clark
Howell, Gayza Teleki and Glenn Isaac. In 1985, the book was translated into
Italian. Recognition of Professor Tanner's contributions came in the form of
invitations to speak at numerous conferences in physical anthropology,
archaeological and socio-cultural anthropology at universities in this country
and abroad. Always an avid reader of science-fiction, she was delighted when
asked to contribute a paper to a conference on interstellar migrations at Los
Alamos. Professor Tanner held rigorous standards for her students and was known
for her Socratic approach to teaching. Re-entry students, in particular, saw
her as a role model and found in her a sympathetic and supportive advocate. A
former student said at her memorial service, “I benefitted enormously
from both her scholarship and her compassionate concern for others.”
Although Professor Tanner had a long history of epilepsy and heart problems,
she gave generously of her time to her students and colleagues.
Professor
Tanner died from a heart attack on June 20, 1989, during a visit in Arizona
where she had gone with her husband, Jim Moore, to attend a family wedding. She
is survived by her husband, her two daughters, a grandson, a brother, a
stepmother and an aunt. Her colleagues and former students join with UCSC
Chancellor, Robert Stevens, in noting, “Our campus is the poorer with
the loss of Nancy Tanner's professionalism and her personal warmth and
concern.”
University of California: In Memoriam, 1989 - Diane Lewis Triloki Pandey Carolyn Clark
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection includes
preliminary & corrected drafts for
On Becoming Human and plans for a second book.
The following terms have been used to index
the description of this collection in the library's online public access
catalog.
Tanner, Nancy
Makepeace--archives
Human evolution
Social evolution
Authors, American--California--Santa Cruz
County