Robert H. Lavenda
Professor of Anthropology; Chairperson
lavenda@stcloudstate.edu
Ph.D. Indiana University, 1977
A.B. Dartmouth College, 1971
I am a cultural anthropologist with interests in symbolic and expressive
aspects of human life. My major work has been on community festivals in Minnesota
(1981-present), and I have published several articles and a book on the topic.
I look at festivals as sites of memory, of agency, and of community creation.
As a result of my work on festivals, I have published in play theory.
I have also worked in Latin America: Venezuela (mid-1970s), Ecuador (1978), Costa Rica (1983-1998), and Chile (200-Present). Originally, my work in Latin America was urban and historical, but in recent years it has concentrated on intercultural communication and the use of culture in teaching English and US culture.
Finally, I am the coauthor of three textbooks in anthropology. One text, Cultural
Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition, is now in its
eighth edition, and has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Bulgarian,
Vietnamese, and Macedonian.
My courses:
I have taught introductory general anthropology nearly every semester since
1979, and also regularly teach Myth, Magic, and Religion; the Ethnographic
Enterprise; and Society and Culture in Latin America. I also teach Anthropology
and the Arts; Kinship, Marriage, and Family; The Anthropology of the United
States; and Cultural Anthropology. I direct the alternate-summer field school in ethnographic research.
Selected Publications:
Books:
Anthropology: What Does It Mean to Be Human? With Emily A. Schultz. (2008, Oxford University Press; second edition forthcoming)
Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology. With Emily A. Schultz. (2000, Mayfield Publishing Company. second edition 2003,
third edition 2006; fourth edition 2009; fifth edition forthcoming, McGraw-Hill)
Corn Fests and Water Carnivals: Celebrating Community in Minnesota.
With Ronald M. Schmid (photographer). Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic
Inquiry, William Merrill and Ivan Karp, series editors. Washington, D. C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press. (1997)
Anthropology. With Emily Schultz. (1995, Mayfield Publishing
Co. second edition 2007; third edition 2001)
Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition. With
Emily A. Schultz. (1987; second
edition 1990, West Publishing Company; third edition 1995, fourth edition
1997; fifth edition 2001, Mayfield Publishing Company; sixth edition 2005, seventh edition 2009, eighth edition, 2012, Oxford University Press)
Articles and Reviews:
Commissioned entries on “Queen contests” and “Festivals.” The
Encyclopedia of the Midwest. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Press, Forthcoming.
Review of Reliving Golgotha: The Passion Play of
Iztapalapa.
Richard Trexler, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. American Anthropologist 106(4).
2004
Review of Etnologie des joueurs d’échecs. Thierry
Wendling. Paris: PUF. Current Anthropology 44(5). 2003.
Rituals. In Encyclopedia
of Community. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage. 2003.
Review of Ordinary Life, Festival Days: Aesthetics
in the Midwestern County Fair, by Leslie Prosterman. American Ethnologist 24(3).
1997.
Play. In The Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology,
David Levinson and Melvin Ember (eds.). Human Relations Area Files at Yale
University. New York: Henry Holt. 1996.
Review of Fiesta, Fe, y Cultura:
Celebrations of Faith and Culture in Detroit’s Colonia Mexicana,
by Laurie Kay Sommers. American
Ethnologist 23(4). 1996.
“It’s Not a Beauty Pageant!”: Hybrid Ideology in Minnesota
Community Queen Pageants. In Beauty
Queens on the Global Stage. Colleen Ballesteros Cohen, Richard
Wilk, and Beverly Stoeltje (eds.). New York and London: Routledge. 1995.
Summer Festivals and Community. Minnesota Cities, 78(9):8-11.
1993
The Traces of Play. Play Theory and Research, 1(1):iii-vii.
1993.
Festivals and the Creation of Public Culture: Whose Voice(s)? In Museums
and Communities, Ivan Karp, Christine Kraemer, and Stephen
Levine (Eds.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp.:76-104.
1992.
Response to Handelman. Play and Culture, 5(1):22-24. 1992.
Community Festivals, Paradox, and the Manipulation of Uncertainty. Play
and Culture, 4(2):153-168. 1991.
Minnesota Queen Pageants: Play, Fun and Dead Seriousness in a Festive Mode. Journal
of American Folklore, 101(400):168-175. 1988.
