Biographical Note

Dr. Annette Barbara Cohen Weiner (1933-1997) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1968 she received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and in 1974 her doctorate from Bryn Mawr College. She was best known for her work challenging the pioneering studies of cultural anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski conducted in the 1930s and 1940s with indigenous people living on the Trobriand Islands of Papua, New Guinea. Malinowski published several volumes that are considered classics in the field of anthropology. Dr. Weiner revisited Malinowski's findings by further articulating the roles played by women in Trobriand society. In 1976 the University of Texas published her doctoral thesis as Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange. She subsequently published  La richesse des femmes ou comment l'esprit vient aux homes (Iles Trobriand), a French translation of her doctoral thesis (1983);  The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea (1988);  Cloth and Human Experience (1989) and  Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving (1992). Additional published works include encyclopedic entries, reviews and numerous articles for anthropological journals such as  American Anthropologist,  American Ethnologist and  Pacific Studies.

The recipient of numerous research grants and fellowships, Dr. Weiner conducted most of her ethnographic fieldwork from 1969-1991 in diverse regions that included Western Samoa; Bastrop County, Texas; Sind, Pakistan; Antigua; and Guatemala. She also served as a consultant for the film Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea (1988), part of the Disappearing World Series produced for Granada Television in England. In 1991 she received the  Grand Prix award for the film from the Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, France.

Dr. Weiner began her academic career in 1973-74 as a visiting Assistant Professor at Franklin and Marshall College. In 1974 she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Texas and by 1980 was promoted to the position of Associate Professor of Anthropology. She came to New York University as a professor of anthropology in 1981 and in 1984 was appointed as the Kriser Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, a title she maintained until the time of her death. Beginning in 1982 she also served as the Chair of the Department of Anthropology. Her responsibilities included the recruitment of full-time faculty, the revision of existing undergraduate and graduate programs, and the development of new programs in physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and fundraising. She was also responsible for organizing major conferences and symposia in the U.S., France, Italy, Austria, Australia and the USSR. Dr. Weiner resigned as the Dean of GSAS in 1996 as a result of illness.

Dr. Weiner held offices at the Society for Cultural Anthropology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Ethnological Society and the Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania. She also worked as a consultant on several executive and editorial boards such as the Social Science Council (1993), the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (1993), Encyclopedia Americana (1993) and the Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry (1985).