Fear and Conventionality

A modern mind at the turn of the century, Elsie Clews Parsons (1874-1941) challenged social conventions at a time when it was unpopular to do so. Anthropologist, cultural critic, feminist and writer, she cast a cool and critical eye on the mores and customs of her own upper-class New York society. Informed by a modernist and feminist approach to cultural anthropology, her work draws on a wide range of cultural texts and on her own life experiences to argue that the fear of change in American society prompted many social conventions such as gift giving, hospitality and sexual taboos, and to make predictions about American society today, such as the struggle to end intolerance.