Elizabeth Colson | Academic Influence

Elizabeth Colson's AcademicInfluence.com Rankings

Elizabeth Colson

Anthropology

#260

World Rank

#373

Historical Rank

#144

USA Rank

Social Anthropology

#21

World Rank

#29

Historical Rank

#4

USA Rank

anthropology Degrees

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Anthropology

Elizabeth Colson's Degrees

Bachelors Anthropology University of California, Berkeley
Masters Anthropology University of California, Berkeley
PhD Anthropology University of California, Berkeley

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Why Is Elizabeth Colson Influential?

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According to Wikipedia, Elizabeth Florence Colson was an American social anthropologist and professor emerita of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was best known for the classic long-term study of the Tonga people of the Gwembe Valley in Zambia and Zimbabwe, which she began in 1956 with Thayer Scudder, 11 years after she obtained her doctorate and while Scudder was a second-year graduate student. Dr. Colson focused her research on the consequences of forced resettlement on culture and social organization, the effects of economic pressure on familial relationships, rituals, religious life, and even drinking patterns.

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Elizabeth Colson's Published Works

Number of citations in a given year to any of this author's works

Total number of citations to an author for the works they published in a given year. This highlights publication of the most important work(s) by the author

Published Works

The Harvey Lecture Series. In Good Years and in Bad: Food Strategies of Self-Reliant Societies (1979) (171)
The Social Consequences of Resettlement: The Impact of the Kariba Resettlement Upon the Gwembe Tonga (1971) (170)
From Welfare to Development: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Dislocated People (2019) (151)
Forced Migration and the Anthropological Response (2003) (140)
Dance Civet Cat: Child Labour in the Zambezi Valley (1991) (126)
social consequences of resettlement (1971) (109)
Social Control and Vengeance in Plateau Tonga Society (1953) (87)
Marriage and the Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia. (1958) (84)
Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization (1951) (76)
For Prayer and Profit: The Ritual Economic and Social Importance of Beer in Gwembe District, Zambia, 1950-1982 (1988) (75)
The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia. (1963) (73)
Social organization of the Gwembe Tonga (1960) (69)
Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin. (1969) (69)
Tradition and Contract: The Problem of Social Order (1974) (68)
Seven tribes of British Central Africa (1951) (68)
Ten thousand Tonga: a longitudinal anthropological study from southern Zambia 1956-1991. (1995) (64)
Long-Term Field Research in Social Anthropology (1976) (62)
The Makah Indians (1953) (57)
The Father as Witch (2000) (45)
Chronic Uncertainty and Momentary Opportunity: A half century of adaptation among Zambia’s Gwembe Tonga (2007) (41)
Temporal Heterogeneity in the Study of African Land Use (2007) (40)
Secondary Education and the Formation of an Elite: The Impact of Education on Gwembe District, Zambia. (1981) (29)
The Indians of British Columbia (1958) (27)
Tonga Religious Life in the Twentieth Century (2006) (26)
Places of Power and Shrines of the Land (1997) (26)
The Tribes of Zambia (1968) (26)
The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia : social and religious studies (1963) (24)
The Makah Indians: A Study Of An Indian Tribe In Modern American Society (1953) (24)
Spirit Possession Among The Tonga Of Zambia (1969) (24)
Using Anthropology in a World on the Move (1985) (22)
Secondary education and the formation of an elite : the impact of education on Gwembe District, Zambia (1982) (22)
Linkages Methodology: No Man is an Island (2007) (17)
Political Organization in Tribal Societies: A Cross-Cultural Comparison. (1986) (17)
Converts and Tradition: The Impact of Christianity on Valley Tonga Religion (1970) (16)
Rain-Shrines of the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia (1948) (16)
War and domestic violence. (1995) (15)
The Resilience of Matrilineality: Gwembe and Plateau Tonga Adaptations (1980) (15)
Land Law and Land Holdings among Valley Tonga of Zambia (1966) (14)
Voluntary efforts in decentralized management : opportunities and constraints in rural development (1983) (14)
The Reordering of Experience: Anthropological Involvement with Time (1984) (14)
Some 'Shona' Tribes Of Southern Rhodesia (1959) (14)
The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) : social and religious studies (1962) (12)
Social Change and the Gwembe Tonga (1964) (11)
Human problems in British Central Africa (1945) (9)
Competence and Incompetence in the Context of Independence [and Comments and Reply] (1967) (9)
Seven Tribes in Central Africa (1952) (9)
Culture and Progress. DISTINGUISHED LECTURE‐1975 (1976) (9)
The Role of Cattle Among the Plateau Tonga (1951) (9)
AIDS and behavioural change: Gwembe Valley, Zambia (2005) (8)
Residence and Village Stability Among the Plateau Tonga (1951) (7)
The Intensive Study of Small Sample Communities (1979) (7)
Life among the cattle-owning plateau Tonga : the material culture of a Nothern Rhodesia native tribe (1949) (7)
After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888‐1951 (1999) (6)
LEZA INTO GOD — GOD INTO LEZA (2018) (5)
Marketing of Cattle Among Plateau Tonga (1965) (5)
Marriage & The Family Among Plateau Tonga Of Northern Rhodesia (1958) (4)
Modern political organization of the Plateau Tonga (1948) (4)
Defining “the Manchester School of Anthropology” (2008) (3)
An evaluation of the Gwembe: south development project, Zambia (1982) (3)
Plateau Tonga Diet (1955) (2)
The Tonga and the Shortage of Implements (1954) (2)
WILSON D. WALLIS 1886–1970 (1971) (1)
Land Rights and Land use among the Valley Tonga of the Rhodesian Federation: The Background to the Kariba Resettlement Programme (2018) (1)
The Swazi. A South African kingdom. Hilda Kuper. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1963. x + 87 pp. Illus. Paper, $1.50 (1964) (1)
Resilience as a Way of Life in Gwembe Valley (2011) (1)
Kraal and Castle: Khoikhoi and the Founding of White South Africa , Richard Elphick, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977. 266 pp. (1980) (1)
Scale and diversity: Foci of change (1980) (1)
Valley Tonga Residential Patterns: Comment Relating to Letters of Karla Poewe and Chet S. Lancaster (1980) (1)
Adaptive Responses to Environmental and Sociopolitical Change in Southern Zambia (2010) (1)
Comments and Replies (1966) (1)
Anthropology and a Lifetime of Observation (2018) (1)
Women of Tropical Africa.Denise Paulme (1964) (1)
The Material Culture of the Peoples of the Gwembe Valley. Barrie Reynolds (1968) (1)
Economics and Social Sciences. (Book Reviews: Communist China and Asia: Challenge to American Policy; People, Jobs and Economic Development. A case history of Puerto Rico supplemented by recent Mexican experiences) (1960) (0)
The Primitive City of Timbuctoo. Horace Miner. Doubleday, Garden City, N. Y., revised ed., 1965. xxiv + 334 pp. Illus. Paper, $1.75 (1965) (0)
Chisungu, a Girls' Initiation Ceremony among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia . By Audrey I. Richards. London: Faber & Faber, 1956. Pp. 224, photographs. 42s. (1957) (0)
Tropical Africa. vol. 2, Society and Polity. George H. T. Kimble. Twentieth Century Fund, New York, 1960. 506 pp. Illus. Set, $15 (1960) (0)
Asian and Pacific cosmopolitans: self and subject in motion – Edited by Robinson, Kathryn (2010) (0)
The Caravan City of Timbuctoo: The Primitive City of Timbuctoo . Horace Miner. Doubleday, Garden City, N. Y., revised ed., 1965. xxiv + 334 pp. Illus. Paper, $1.75. (1965) (0)
GENERAL AND ETHNOLOGY: The Family Estate in Africa: Studies in the Role of Property in Family Structure and Lineage Continuity. Robert T. Gray and Philip H. Gulliver (eds.) (1965) (0)
ETHNOGRAPHY AND ETHNOLOGY: Cattle and Kinship among the Gogo: A Semi-pastoral Society of Central Tanzania. Peter Rigby (1970) (0)
Politics in Zambia. Ed. by William Tordoff. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1974. Pp. xii + 439, bibl., maps. £6.00. (1976) (0)
Dona L. Davis's Critical Look at Menopause (1997) (0)
ETHNOLOGY: Social and Ritual Life of the Ambo of Northern Rhodesia. Bronislaw Stefaniszyn (1965) (0)
Books Received (1979) (0)
A first primary book in religion (0)
ETHNOLOGY: Africa's Place in the Emergence of Civilisation. Raymond A. Dart (1961) (0)
Africa Today and Tomorrow . An outline of basic facts and major problems. John Hatch. Praeger, New York, 1960. 289 pp. $4. (1960) (0)
Immigrant Ambassadors: Citizenship and Belonging in the Tibetan Diaspora. Julia Meredith Hess (2010) (0)
The Lake Regions of Central Africa. A picture of exploration. Sir Richard F. Burton. Introduction by Alan Moorehead. Horizon Press, New York, 1961. vol. 1, xxiv + 421 pp.; vol. 2, viii + 468 pp. Illus. $15, the set (1961) (0)
A second primary book in religion (2010) (0)
Land Law and Land Holdings among Valley Tonga of Zambia (1986) (0)
Lewis Henry Morgan And The Study Of Political Systems (2017) (0)
Applied Anthropology: Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers. Christina H. Gladwin, ed (1992) (0)
The Basuto. By Hugh Ashton. London: Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1952. Pp. xi + 355, plates, map. 35s. (1952) (0)
A Society Of Equals: The Problem Of Consensus (2017) (0)
GENERAL AND ETHNOLOGY: People of the Seychelles. Burton Benedict (1968) (0)
The Bantu Tribes of South Africa: Vol. III, The Nguni: Section V, Baca, Hlubi, Xesibe (1955) (0)
Ethnology: Current Themes in African Historical Studies: A Selected Bibliographical Guide to Resources for Research in African History. DANIEL G. MATTHEWS, ed (1972) (0)
Therapy, Ideology, and Social Change: Mental Healing in Urban Ghana. LEITH MULLINGS (1985) (0)
Pamela Reynolds, Dance Civet Cat: child labour in the Zambezi valley . London: Zed Books, and Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1990, 207 pp., $24.95, ISBN 0 8214 0946 8 hardback; $12.95, ISBN 0 8214 0947 6 paperback. (1992) (0)
Defining “the Manchester School of Anthropology” (Elvers and Handelman's The Manchester School ) (2008) (0)
Class Differences and Sex Roles in American Kinship and Family Structure. (1975) (0)
Voices in a Wilderness Political Anthropology in the 1970s (1976) (0)
Employment relationships and partnerships among orthodontists. (1966) (0)
Book Review : Barbara Diane Miller (ed.) Sex and Gender Hierarchies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 401 pp (1994) (0)
Beyond the Mountains of the Moon. The lives of four Africans. Edward H. Winter. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1959. xii + 276 pp. Illus. $5.50 (1960) (0)
Identity and change (1975) (0)
Managing Editor: E. Grebenik Editors: J. Cleland, T. Dyson, J. Hobcraft, M. Murphy and R. Schofield (1995) (0)
ETHNOLOGY: The Swahili‐Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast (Arabs, Shirazi and Swahili). A. H. J. Prins. Foreword by Daryll Forde (1963) (0)
The Relevance of Irrelevant Studies: The Future of Anthropology in Development Research (1992) (0)
Piety and Scepticism (1986) (0)
Anthropology: The Swazi . A South African kingdom. Hilda Kuper. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York, 1963. x + 87 pp. Illus. Paper, $1.50. (1964) (0)
ETHNOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY: The Dark Child. Camara Laye (1956) (0)
A New Biography Of Ruth Benedict; Old Wine and Old Bottles; Economic Change In Papua New Guinea (1984) (0)
POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN TRIBAL SOCIETIES (2016) (0)
Anthropology and Politics: Visions, Traditions, and Trends. JOAN VINCENT (1992) (0)
The Disappearing Bushmen of Lake Chrissie: A Preliminary Survey. E. F. Potgieter (1956) (0)
Comment on Lancaster's Response: Gwembe Tonga Virilocality (1981) (0)
Social formations in Africa: the african frontier. (1988) (0)
New economic relationships between the Gwembe Valley and the line of rail (2018) (0)
Africa Today and Tomorrow. An outline of basic facts and major problems. John Hatch. Praeger, New York, 1960. 289 pp. $4 (1960) (0)
Land Tenure & Agrarian Reform in Africa and the near East: An Annotated Bibliography (1977) (0)

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