Esther Newcomb Goody Revisited: Engaging with the Legacy of an Original Interdisciplinarian

Esther Newcomb Goody had an extensive academic career. She particularly revisited intellectual themes of kinship and relationships. This collection draws on ethnography across Africa, Europe, Oceania and the Americas, and uses Goody’s ideas to expand their understanding of the nature of relationships, communication, intimacy, resistance and resilience with a particular focus on rich ethnographies of childhood and learning. It discusses a wide range of subjects in personhood and parenthood, fosterage, apprenticeship and modes of learning; kinship in historical perspective; power, politics and speech; the effects of late-modern capitalism on households and the complex relations between persons and things.

Mary Goody is an artist and researcher, currently working on links between sculpture-making and physical empathy as a doctoral student at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She is the daughter of Esther Newcomb Goody.