Paper short abstract:

In the official history of anthropology, the work of many women, both pioneering scholars and collaborators, remains unacknowledged. Presenting the case of Elsie Masson, Malinowski's wife, this paper aims to discuss theoretical concepts that may help to trace a different story of the discipline.

Paper long abstract:

Bronislaw Malinowski and Elsie Masson met in 1916 in Melbourne. At that time, Malinowski was processing the ethnographic data he collected during his first fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands. Masson was a nurse trainee, who had published newspaper articles and a book (1915) on the wild Northern Territories of Australia, where she had lived and traveled, when she started helping Malinowski to organize his ethnographic material and to copyedit his manuscripts. After their marriage in 1919, they moved to Europe where Malinowski became one of the most important figure of modern anthropology, partly assisted by Masson.

In the official history of anthropology, however, there is not so much space for the many anthropologists' wives and collaborators, such as Elsie Masson, who contributed to their husbands' work. Several pioneering women scholars, as well, are still not included in the genealogy of the discipline that consists above all of male founding fathers. Presenting the case of Elsie Masson, Malinowski's wife, this paper aims to discuss theoretical concepts from feminist anthropology that may help to trace a different story of the discipline recovering the hidden contributions.