May 9, 1904 | Born in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, England. Third son of William Bateson (b. Aug. 8, 1861) and Caroline Beatrice Durham Bateson (b. 1870?). Brothers, John Bateson (b. April 22, 1898 - d. 1918) and Martin Bateson (b. 1899 - d. April 22, 1922). Grandson of William H. Bateson, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and Anna Aitken Bateson. |
1913-1917 | Student, Warden House School, Upper Deal, Kent, England |
1917-1921 | Student, Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, England |
1918 | Death of brother, John Bateson |
April 22, 1922 | Suicide of brother, Martin Bateson |
January - September 1922 | Studies French & Botany at the University of Geneva and in Canton de Valais |
1922-1926 | Student, Cambridge University |
Foundation Scholar, 1924 | |
Entrance Scholar, St. John's College, 1922 | |
Anthropological Tripos, Pt.I, First class honors, 1926 | |
Natural Science Tripos, First Class Honors, 1924 | |
B.A., Natural Science, 1925 | |
December 1924 - June 1925 | Expedition to Galapagos, engaged in research on Geospizae for British Museum Bird Department and collection of pelagic Coelenterates under William Beebe, Arcturus Expedition |
1925-1926 | Anthropological Tripos, Pt.II under A.C. Haddon, Cambridge University; Classes in Social Psychology under F. C. Barlett and J. MacCurdy, Cambridge University |
February 8, 1926 | Death of father, William Bateson. |
1926-1928 | Anthony Wilkin Student, Cambridge University; Strathcoma Student, St. John's College, Cambridge |
September 1926 | Study in Germany |
January 1927 - January 1928 | Anthropological field work in New Britain among the Baining of the Gazelle Peninsula |
April - July 1928 | Teacher, Melanesian Linguistics, Sydney University |
October 1928 - January 1930 | Anthropological field work among the Sulka of the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain and the Iatmul of New Guinea |
1930 | M.A., Anthropology, Cambridge University; Classes under Malinoski at London School of Economics |
1931-1937 | Research Fellow, St. John's College, Cambridge |
January 1932 - Summer 1933 | Anthropological field work among the Iatmul of New Guinea |
1933-1935 | Worked on Naven at St. John's College, Cambridge |
In Ireland with Waddington | |
Visit to U.S., lecturing at Columbia University and the University of Chicago | |
Experimental Psychology under F. C. Bartlett | |
January 1936 - March 1938 | Anthropological field work with Margaret Mead in Bali |
March 1936 | Married Margaret Mead (b. December 1916 - d. November 1978) in Singapore |
December 1936 | Publication of Naven |
1937 | Elected William Wyse Scholar in Social Anthropology, Cambridge University (resigned 1945) |
April 1938 - February 1939 | Anthropological field work with wife, Margaret Mead among the Iatmul of New Guinea |
February - March 1939 | Anthropological field work with wife, Margaret Mead in Bali |
September 1939 - January 1940 | Voluntary work in England: analysis of radio broadcasts (Nazi) under Bartlett; and work with Mass Observation with T. Harrison, analyzing public opinion questionnaires |
December 8, 1939 | Birth of daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson |
January 1940-September 1942 | Analysis of Balinese and Iatmul material in collaboration with Margaret Mead, as guest of Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History |
October 1940-1942 | Secretary of the Committee for National Morale and the Council for Intercultural Relations (later Institute for Intercultural Studies) |
Secretary for the Council on Human Relations for first few months | |
Worked for the Committee for National Morale. | |
Secretary of the Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences | |
Member of the Executive Committee of the Conference on Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences | |
May 1941 | Death of mother, Caroline Beatrice Durham Bateson |
May 1942 | Macy conference on Cerebral Inhibition |
September 1942 - June 1943 | Film Analyst, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York |
December 1942 | Publication of Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis with Margaret Mead |
January 1943 - January 1944 | Teacher of Melanesian Pidgin English, Naval School of Military Government & Administration, Columbia University |
July 1943 - November 1945 | Staff planner and Regional Specialist for Southeast Asia, U.S. Office of Strategic Services; overseas in Ceylon, India, Burma & China |
November 1945 - September 1946 | Research into Balinese culture conducted at the American Museum of Natural History |
March 1946 | First Macy Conference on Feedback Mechanisms and Circular Causal Systems in Biological and Social Sciences |
September 1946 - June 1947 | New York Academy of Sciences Conference on Teleological Mechanisms |
Guggenheim Fellow | |
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, New School for Social Research, NY | |
Meeting on Teleological Mechanisms in Society | |
1947-1948 | Associate in Columbia University Seminar in "Contents and Methods of the Social Sciences" |
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusett | |
September 1948 - October 1949 | Research Associate with Dr. Jurgen Ruesch at the Langley Porter Clinic, University of California Medical School, San Francisco, CA |
November 1949 - 1963 | Ethnologist, Veterans Administration Hospital, Palo Alto, CA |
October 23, 1950 | Divorced from Margaret Mead |
1950 | Married Elizabeth Sumner |
1951 | Birth of son, John Bateson |
1951 - 1963 | Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University, CA |
Publication of Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry by Jurgen Ruesch, Gregory Bateson | |
1952-1954 | Director, Rockefeller Foundation grant research project on the Role of Paradoxes of Abstraction in Communication |
1954-1959 | Director, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation grant research project on Schizophrenic Communication |
1956 | Becomes naturalized U.S. citizen |
Begins work on The Natural History of an Interview project | |
1957 | Divorced from second wife, Elizabeth Sumner |
1958 | Navan re-issued with new preface and epilogue |
1959-1962 | Began work with octopus |
Publication of Perceval's Narrative | |
Frieda Fromm-Reichmann Award for Research in Schizophrenia | |
Visiting Professor, California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA | |
Principal Investigator, Research in Family Psychotherapy, funded by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Foundations' Fund for Research in Psychiatry | |
1961 | Married third wife, Lois Cammack |
1963-1964 | Associate Director, Communication Research Institute, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands |
Career Development Award, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) | |
1965-1972 | Publication of Steps to an Ecology of Mind |
Associate Director, Oceanic Institute, Waimanalo, Hawaii | |
Visiting Professor of Anthropology, University of Hawaii | |
Professor & Director, International Honors Program, International School of America, traveling around the world | |
April 13, 1969 | Birth of daughter, Nora Bateson |
1972-1978 | Visiting Senior Lecturer, University of California, Santa Cruz |
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences | |
Appointed to Board of Regents of the University of California | |
November 15, 1978 | Death of Margaret Mead |
1978-1980 | Scholar in residence, Esalen Institute |
Worked on Where Angels Fear to Tread | |
Publication of Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity | |
July 4, 1980 | Dies at the Zen Center, San Francisco, CA. |
Scope and Content of Collection
Subjects and Indexing Terms