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Critchlow (Margaret) Papers
MSS 0794
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Margaret Critchlow Papers
Creator:
Critchlow, Margaret, 1947-
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0794
Physical Description:
8.2 Linear feet
(7 cartons and 5 shoeboxes)
Date (inclusive): 1980-2002
Abstract: Papers of Margaret Critchlow, an anthropologist who studies Melanesia and Professor of Social Anthropology at York University
in Canada.The collection contains fieldwork journals, interviews, and research materials on the Republic of Vanuatu (formerly
the New Hebrides), used in the writing of her books.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of Margaret Critchlow, an anthropologist who studies Melanesia and Professor of Social Anthropology at York University
in Canada. The collection contains fieldwork journals, interviews, and research materials on the Republic of Vanuatu (formerly
the New Hebrides), used in the writing of her books:
Houses Far from Home: British Colonial Space in the New Hebrides,
House-girls Remember: Domestic Workers in Vanuatu, and
Deep Water: Development and Change in Pacific Village Fisheries.
Arranged in four series: 1) FIELDWORK AND WRITINGS, 2) NEW HEBRIDES BRITISH SERVICE RESEARCH MATERIAL, 3) INTERVIEWS - AUDIOVISUAL
RECORDINGS, and 4) HOUSEGIRL WORKSHOP - AUDIOVISUAL RECORDINGS.
Margaret Critchlow was born in 1947 and grew up in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay. She attended private school in southern
Virginia where she demonstrated early interest in political activism by protesting segregation at school. Critchlow went on
to study political science at Goucher College in Maryland. In 1967 she met William Rodman, a PhD student at the University
of Chicago, who introduced her to both anthropology and Melanesia. She first travelled to Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides),
assisting Rodman in his research, from 1969-1971. Among her introductory fieldwork was a genealogy collection, surveying elderly
women of the area.
In 1972 Critchlow moved to Hamilton, Ontario for Rodman's tenure at McMaster University and began pursuing her masters degree
in 1974. She was mentored by Dr. David Counts, an expert in socioeconomic anthropology of New Britain. Critchlow's master's
thesis "Spheres of Exchange in a Northern New Hebridean Society" is based on her observations on Ambae Island in Vanuatu during
their research expedition in 1970-71.
Critchlow conducted her doctoral fieldwork from 1978 to 1979, surveying land holdings in Longana, Ambae Island, Vanuatu. Her
doctoral thesis "Customary Illusions" explored the use of mystifications in land possession and productivity. After receiving
her doctorate, Critchlow taught at the University of Waterloo. She returned to Vanuatu in 1982 on a Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council (SHRCC) grant and studied consumer behavior. Her research focused on the social construction of space, such
as the dynamics of constructed space and landscape and their effects on concepts like power and culture. She also conducted
evaluative photo elicitation research in Ambae on assessing the quality of a potential living space.
In 1985, Critchlow studied CUSO's (Canadian University Service Overseas, currently known as CUSO International) involvement
in fisheries development on the island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. This was an evaluation research-based project, focusing
on the impact of development. She published
Deep Water: Development and Change in Pacific Village Fisheries (1989) based on this research.
During the moratorium on expatriate researchers in Vanuatu lasting from 1985-1994, Critchlow studied non-profit rental cooperative
housing in Canada and produced, along with with Matthew Cooper, the book
New Neighbours: A Case Study of Cooperative Housing in Toronto (1992). Critchlow also published "Empowering Place: Multilocality and Multivocality" in
American Anthropologist (September 1992), one of her most frequently cited works.
In 1993 Critchlow began researching
Houses Far from Home: British Colonial Space in the New Hebrides, and co-edited along with Jan Rensel
Home in the Islands: Housing and Social Change in the Pacific which explores houses as socially-constructed containers which reflect and influence their inhabitants' values and behavior.
Critchlow conducted oral history interviews along with Will Stober, a Birmingham-born historian with extensive experience
researching colonial life and administration in the New Hebrides, of British and French ex-colonial civil servants and officials.
The interviews were primarily conducted in the United Kingdom and probed for information about the qualities of the houses
and memories connected to their houses.
Critchlow returned to Vanuatu in 1995, examining the old colonial homes and their current state and usage by the locals. The
cumulative work of the interviews and fieldwork resulted in
Houses Far from Home: British Colonial Space in the New Hebrides published in 2001. Also in 2001, Critchlow convened a workshop funded by SHRCC, interviewing twenty-one Ni-Vanuatu women
who were former domestic workers ("house-girls"). The women gave testimony of their time working under British, French, Chinese,
and Vietnamese masters. Critchlow subsequently received a Rockefeller fellowship in 2002 to write about her findings.
House-Girls Remember: Domestic Workers in Vanuatu was published in 2007.
In addition to her teaching and research, Critchlow was the President of the Canadian Anthropology Society from 1993-1994
and in 2017 was awarded the Weaver-Tremblay Award from the Society.
In 2010, she established the Canadian Senior Cohousing Society, a non-profit development company and cohousing advocacy group.
Construction was completed in 2016 and the Harbourside Cohousing became the first senior-oriented co-housing property in Sooke,
British Columbia, where Critchlow lives today.
[Biographical information compiled from: La série « Les Possédés et leurs mondes » est une production de la revue Anthropologie
et Sociétés et du Département d'anthropologie de l'Université Laval, en partenariat avec la revue Anthropologica et la Société
Canadienne d'anthropologie (CASCA). September 28th, 2016 (Sooke, Canada)]
Margaret Critchlow Papers. MSS 794. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Acquired 2017.
COLLECTION PARTIALLY STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS. Boxes 1-7 at SRLF; Boxes 8-12 on-site.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Original audiovisual recordings are restricted. Viewing/listening copies may be available.
Margaret Critchlow and William Rodman Papers. MSS 795. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Additional materials created by William Rodman and Margaret Critchlow may be found in their
online collection of photographs.
Additional materials created by William Rodman and Margaret Critchlow may be found in their online collection of photographs.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Anthropology -- Research -- Vanuatu
Dwellings -- Social aspects -- Vanuatu
Women household employees -- Vanuatu
Vanuatu -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Vanuatu -- Economic conditions -- 20th century
Critchlow, Margaret, 1947- -- Archives