Elsie
Clews was born in New York on 27th November,
1875. Her family were extremely rich and she was educated in expensive
private schools before attending Barnard College where she was taught
by Frank Boas.
In
1900 she married Herbert Parsons, a New York attorney. Elsie Clews
Parsons lectured in sociology at Barnard until her husband was elected
to Congress in 1905. She now moved to
Washington and concentrated on writing.
Her first book, The Family, was
published in 1906.
Parsons
also contributed to The Nation
as well as publishing Religious Chastity
(1913), The Old Fashioned Woman
(1913), Fear and Conventionality
(1914), Social Freedom (1915)
and Social Rule (1916).
Parsons
held radical political views and was a strong supporter of women's
suffrage. During the First World War she
was an active member of the Woman's
Peace Party.
In
1918 Parsons became associate editor of the Journal
of American Folklore. She also published several books
on the subject including Folk-Tales of Andros
Island (1918), Folk-Lore from
the Cape Verde Islands (1923) and Folklore
of the Sea Islands, South Carolina (1923).
Inspired
by the work of Frank
Boas,
Parsons became interested in anthropology. After many years of field
research in North America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean
and eventually published Mitla: Town of the
Souls (1936) and Pueblo Indian
Religion (1939). Elsie Clews Parsons
died in New
York on
19th December, 1941.
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