Anna-Britta Hellbom (25 July 1919 – 22 December 2004) was a Swedish anthropologist and Americanist.[1][2] She is known for her ethnographic fieldworks in Mesoamerica in Mexico.[3]

Anna-Britta Hellbom

Biography

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Born on 25 July 1919 in Uppsala, Sweden, Anna-Britta Hellbom started her university studies in Nordic ethnology but later changed to social anthropology.[3] She graduated from the Stockholm University in 1940. She also studied in Madrid, where she learned Spanish, which helped in her career as an Americanist.

After her ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico (1962–1963), she received her Ph.D. from the Stockholm University in 1967.[3] She wrote her doctoral thesis on La Participacion Cultural de las Mujeres Indias y Mestizas en el Mexico PreCortesiano y Postrevulcionario.[4]

In the mid-1960s, she started her professional career at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm. In 1967, she became the Americanist curator of the ethnographical museum in charge of the collections from the Americas, a position she held until her retirement in 1985.[5]

She was influenced by the work of her teacher, Sigvald Linné (1899–1986), a Swedish archeologist and ethnographer, known for his excavations at Teotihuacan, an ancient Mesoamerican city, Mexico.[6]

She extensively wrote on the role of women in Mexico based on her ethnographic fieldwork in Aztec culture.[7]

The Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm houses several collections from her fieldwork.

She died in Oscar Parish, Stockholm on 22 December 2004.

References

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  1. ^ Faust, Betty Bernice (2004). Rights, Resources, Culture, and Conservation in the Land of the Maya. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-897-89731-0. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  2. ^ Linné, Sigvald (26 March 2003). Archaeological Researches at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. xi. ISBN 978-0-817-35005-5. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Berdichewsky, Bernardo (1979). Anthropology and Social Change in Rural Areas, Volume 7. Berlin: Mouton. p. 543. ISBN 978-9-027-97810-3. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  4. ^ Eber, Christine (28 June 2010). Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-292-78932-6. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  5. ^ Scott, Sue A. (1993). Teotihuacan Mazapan Figurines and the Xipe Totec Statue: A Link Between the Basin of Mexico and the Valley of Oaxaca. Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University. p. i. ISBN 978-0-935-46235-7. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  6. ^ Linné, Sigvald (2003). Mexican Highland Cultures: Archaeological Researches at Teotihuacan, Calpulalpan, and Chalchicomula in 1934–35. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. xi. ISBN 978-0-817-31295-4. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  7. ^ Rodríguez, Jeanette (5 July 2010). Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. p. xxix. ISBN 978-0-292-78772-8. Retrieved 4 December 2022.