We were sad to learn of the death of Susan Drucker Brown, who died peacefully in her sleep at the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge in the morning of May 1, 2023. Susan Drucker Brown was a familiar face at our Senior Research Seminar, and it was lovely to see here there just a few weeks ago.
Dr. Susan Drucker Brown received a doctorate at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. Her thesis entitled ‘Cambio de Indumentaria’ (Changes in Clothing Style), published in 1963 by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista, is currently the subject of an exhibition in Oaxaca. This exhibition will feature in Cambridge next year, in a collaboration between the Department and CRASSH. In Cambridge, her doctoral thesis under Prof. Meyer Fortes, entitled ‘Ritual Aspects of Mamprusi Kingship’, was published in 1975 as Vol 8 of the series ‘African Social Research Documents’ by the African Studies Centre. It has proved influential in studies of West African kingship. She edited ‘Cambridge Anthropology’ from its inception to when it became ‘The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology’ now published by Berghahn Journals.