Eric Silverman

Areas of Expertise

Masculinity; Fatherhood; Ethnic Identity; Circumcision; Ritual; Cross-cultural Comparison; Material Culture
(e.g., Jewish Clothing); American Jewish Identity; Childhood; Folklore; Pop Culture

Email: eric18@brandeis.edu

Current Project

An interdisciplinary study of Jewish American identity and gender through the lens of fatherhood and the “Jewish men’s movement,” focusing on fathers’ concerns, sense of masculinity, parenting styles, views of Jewish women, images in popular culture, responses to feminism in Jewish life, and, in turn, women’s perceptions of Jewish fathers.

Biography

I am a cultural anthropologist at Wheelock College in American Studies and Human Development.  For my Ph.D., I conducted ethnographic research in a village in Papua New Guinea--a community also studied by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson.  I lived there from 1988-1990, and have twice returned (most recently in February 2008).  In addition to my WSRC project on Jewish fathers, I am also studying how modernization in Melanesia is changing ideas about fatherhood, the family, and children.  (I want not simply to study children and fathers, but also ideally to help make men better fathers and to help make the world better for kids.)  I am currently completing a book on the history of Jewish clothing, focusing on messages about gender and ethnic identity. I see myself as a binocular anthropologist, with one eye on American culture, especially American Jews, and the other eye on Melanesia.  My approach is always cross-cultural, and tends to focus increasingly on the very ordinary items of everyday life that make our daily experiences meaningful by communicating our identity as ethnically unique but also assimilated into the dominant culture (say, wearing a yarmulke emblazoned with a Red Sox logo).  For more information, please visit Eric’s professional webpage.

Education

Ph.D., University of Minnesota

M.A., University of Minnesota

B.A., Brandeis University

Representative Publications

From Abraham to America: A History of Jewish Circumcision. 2006. Lanham: Rowman &
Littlefield.

Masculinity, Motherhood, and Mockery: Psychoanalyzing Culture and the Iatmul Naven Rite in New Guinea. 2001. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Links

Personal Web Page