AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

OBITUARY

class, union, gender, and civil rights struggles beginning in the post-depression era of the 1940s when she came of age, Sutton ultimately sought to develop a social science that could contribute to social justice and equality. The eldest daughter of Russian secular Jewish immi- grants, Sutton (nee Woloshin) was born in Minneapolis, MN, in 1926. She studied at the University of Chicago, re- ceiving a PhB (two-year “Bachelor of Philosophy”) in 1946 and an MA in anthropology in 1954. A student of Sol Tax, Fred Eggan, and Robert Redfield, she wrote a library-based master’s thesis, “The Role of Women in Plains Indian Gift- Giving Ceremonies,” which explored the practice of “give- away,” arguing that, like the potlatch, this was a ritualization of reinvestment in people. Upon graduation, she and her husband Samuel Sutton (1921–1986), a fellow student at Chicago who became a noted physiological psychologist, moved to New York, where Margaret Mead hired Sutton as her editorial assistant and, eventually, teaching assistant at Columbia University. Mead was an important early mentor to Sutton and in 1955 facilitated her entry into Columbia’s anthropology doctoral program. At Columbia, Sutton had the opportunity to study with scholars who were developing an anthropological perspective on complex and differenti- ated power relations and political economy. In a PhD sem- inar led by Charles Wagley and Vera Rubin, she was also Connie Sutton, 2007. (Courtesy of Sutton-Lauria family) introduced to her primary fieldwork sites: the Caribbean and Barbados. Constance R. Sutton (1926–2018) Sutton’s doctoral research (Sutton 1968) was an event analysis of an island-wide wildcat strike of sugar-field work- A pioneering scholar of Afro-Caribbean activism and mi- ers in Barbados in 1958. Combining the ethnographic gran- gration and feminist anthropology, Constance Rita Sutton ularity of a traditional community study with a multiscalar (“Connie,” as she was known to most) died on August 23, analysis, Sutton offered an innovative twist on classic anthro- 2018. Her anthropology joined the production of knowledge pology by tacking back and forth between Ellerton, a village to political action, a process she recognized as necessitating of sugar-cane workers adjacent to a major plantation, and collaboration as much as, if not more than, individual effort the trade union’s national political leadership in the urban and creativity. Her insights into the power of collectivity center. The workers’ unauthorized strike, she explained, al- were shaped by her early encounters in Barbados with a lowed her to see beyond what might at surface-level appear cane workers’ wildcat strike and by her growing under- to be a staid, compliant society, though one on the brink standing of the strength and agency of women, especially of political independence. She analyzed how people circu- when acting in concert. She envisioned an anthropology that lated information and made decisions, offering a window extended beyond the academy, and she pursued this vision into the quotidian creation of solidarity and power as people by working together with a cadre of female anthropologists, envisioned new political futures. Her on-the-ground study psychologists, writers, and activists like Eleanor Leacock, has lasting value for contemporary scholars of the Caribbean Vera Polgar/John-Steiner, June Nash, Helen Safa, Paule and beyond as they revisit the promises of anticolonial move- Marshall, and Maya Angelou. Influenced by the working- ments and rethink the parameters of sovereignty.

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 122, No. 2, pp. 428–431, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. C 2020 The Authors. American Anthropologist published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13409

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Between her fieldwork and the completion of her dis- improve, gender equality, Sutton warned, would require a sertation in 1968, Sutton gave birth to a son, David Sutton, total social transformation. who is currently a professor of anthropology at Southern Beginning in the late 1960s, Sutton and her sister schol- Illinois University, and began her teaching career. Initially ars examined the strategies and forms of collective action hired as a part-time lecturer in sociology and anthropology, that women in different cultures used to achieve politi- she was one of the few women faculty at the newly coed cal power and social recognition. Sutton was catalytic in University Heights Campus of New York University. Teach- furthering such scholarship, which explored how women’s ing at both the Heights and Washington Square campuses, political activity interacted with independence movements, Sutton became faculty advisor to the black students’ society, BlackPower,Anglo-Americanfeminism,andpan-Caribbean co-organized the local activities of the anti–Vietnam War organizations. In 1972, together with Eleanor Leacock and movement, and brought together Caribbean and African Ruby Rohrlich, Sutton organized the New York Women’s American scholars in a major international conference. In Anthropology Caucus, which later grew into the Interna- 1970, she was appointed director of the University Heights tional Women’s Anthropology Conference (IWAC). Their Anthropology Department and, soon after, tenured. After goal was to provide an intellectual space in which women an- NYU sold the Heights campus in 1973, Sutton moved down- thropologists could collectively examine, analyze, and com- town to the NYU Anthropology Department at Washington pare gendered hierarchies and power differentials in their Square. field research and in anthropology itself. An important influ- Sutton’s anthropology explored transnational connec- ence on Sutton’s growing global feminist perspective was her tions and challenged the notion of bounded homogeneous participation in the Third World Conference on Women in cultures. With her student Susan Makiesky, who restudied Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. Electrified by this meeting, she en- Ellerton for her own dissertation (Makiesky-Barrow 1976), gaged (under the umbrella of IWAC) in comparative analy- Sutton showed that migration was a “bi-directional rather ses and collaborations with scholar-activists from Singapore, than unidirectional” phenomenon (Sutton and Makiesky Brazil, the Caribbean, and the United States. 1975, 114), which was producing a large-scale “transna- In the 1970s, Sutton did fieldwork among Yoruba peo- tional sociocultural system” in “the Caribbeanization of New ple in Nigeria. Yoruba had a long “tradition of women’s York City” (Sutton 1987). This new formation, which was economic and political activism,” which supported them associated with a restructuring of international processes of “both as reformers acting within the current political struc- capital accumulation, was changing people’s “racial and eth- tures . . . and as mobilizers of . . . visions opposed to those nic consciousness,” and their political subjectivities around of today’s masculinized Nigerian military/civilian complex” gender and class (Sutton and Chaney 1987). Here, Sutton (Sutton 1995b, 91, 101). In a fruitful collaboration with was ahead of her time in exploring how economic struc- the political scientist Cynthia Enloe, Sutton confronted in- ture and political agency are dialectically tied to affect and creasing militarization in the United States and elsewhere subjectivity. in the world by using comparative analysis to problematize A feminist, Sutton used her scholarship on gender to the “masculinities and femininities invoked to support” it fuel much of her activism. In a series of papers written in the (Sutton 1995a, 89). Sutton and Enloe analyzed the seem- 1970s, she took on both long-standing biases in anthropol- ingly contradictory and ambivalent positions women take ogy and issues emerging in the new field of women’s studies. in specific nationalistic and militarized contexts, anchoring Drawing on her late 1950s fieldwork, she documented Bar- a volume of papers about women’s roles and situations in badian women’s salient community roles and economic ac- seven countries (Sutton 1995a). tivities, the esteem and power conferred on them with moth- After her husband, Sam, died in 1986, Sutton deep- erhood, and the kinship and social ties that supported their ened her friendship with anthropologist Antonio Lauria, relative equality within the plantation community (Sutton whom she later married. The two shared an interest in and Makiesky-Barrow 1977). In the working-class women of crossing imperial and linguistic borders in the Caribbean. Barbados, Sutton found an inspiring model of women’s au- Sutton became particularly interested in Barbados–Cuba in- tonomy and power. She rejected theorizing that presumed terconnections and Cuba’s vibrant Barbadian communities a universal devaluation of women as based on selective, (Sutton 2014). Constantly revisiting/re-envisioning Barba- ahistorical conceptions of gender and cultural values. In- dos (Sutton 2011, 2013, 2014), she researched historical stead, Sutton (1974; Sutton et al. 1975) maintained that consciousness there and demonstrated a methodology for women’s roles and gender relations must be understood tracing the development of a postcolonial consciousness in light of history and changing structures of power within through the symbolic memory of public monuments (Sutton a broader sociocultural framework. In Western societies, 2008). Sutton added a third generation to the doctoral dis- she contended (Sutton 1976), industrial capitalism inferior- sertations on Ellerton by hiring and mentoring Lauria’s stu- ized women in ways that limited Western analysts’ ability dent from the University of Puerto Rico, Mar´ıa Quinones˜ to interpret women’s status elsewhere. Though women’s (Quinones˜ 1990). Compiling an important book, she revis- status in industrial capitalist societies had recently begun to ited Caribbean labor (Sutton 2005). She also applied her 430 American Anthropologist • Vol. 122, No. 2 • June 2020 organizational skills to chairing and revitalizing the Anthro- Diane Austin (University of Sydney) for their insights into Connie’s pology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences, where multiple talents. her global perspective enriched the scholarship of junior and senior colleagues. Throughout her life, Constance Sutton was in the REFERENCES CITED vanguard as a knowledge producer, teacher, mentor, and Makiesky-Barrow, Susan. 1976. “Class, Culture, and Politics in a Bar- scholar-activist. Learning that “motherhood can be power- badian Community.” Doctoral dissertation, Brandeis University. ful” from the “embodied knowledge” of field experience, Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. she linked her womanhood with social and cultural inter- Queeley, Andrea J. 2019. “Centering Connection: Intra-Caribbean generational continuity and the melding of work and career Migration.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the tracks (Sutton 1998). She also conjoined extended sister- Caribbean Studies Association, Santa Marta, Columbia. hood with supportive dialogical men to construct a multi- Quinones,˜ Mar´ıa I. 1990. “Gender, Power, and Politics among the disciplinary transnational web of engaged intellectuals. Her Rural Working Class in Barbados, West Indies.” Doctoral disser- mentee Andrea Queeley (2019, 1) recalls first meeting Sut- tation, Columbia University. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. ton: “I saw her walking toward me with what I came to know Sutton, Constance R. 1968. “The Scene of the Action: A Wildcat as her characteristic magnetic focus, infectious enthusiasm, Strike in Barbados.” Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University. and disarming warmth . . . all aglow with intellectual cu- Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. riosity about my work and the potential for collaboration.” Sutton, Constance R. 1974. “Cultural Dualism in the Caribbean: A Sutton influenced and touched the lives and scholarship of Review of Peter Wilson’s Crab Antics.” Caribbean Studies 14 (2): generations of her students, who benefited from her ex- 96–101. tensive globe-spanning kinship network of anthropological Sutton, Constance R. 1976. “The Power to Define: Women, Culture “aunties” and friends. We, the authors of this obituary, some and Consciousness.” In Alienation in Contemporary Society: A Mul- her students, became part of her intellectual-activist family tidisciplinary Examination, edited by Roy S. Bryce-Laporte and and have collectively worked in the writing of this obituary Claudewell Thomas, 186–98. New York: Holt, Rinehart and to continue this tradition. Winston. Sutton, Constance R. 1987. “The Caribbeanization of New York City and the Emergence of a Transnational Sociocultural System.” In Antonio Lauria-Perricelli Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Caribbean Life in New York City, edited by Constance Sutton and Gallatin School, New York University, New York, NY 10003; italori- Elsa Chaney, 17–29. Staten Island, NY: Center for Migration [email protected] Studies. Linda Basch Stern School of Business, New York University, New Sutton, Constance R., ed. 1995a. Feminism, Nationalism and Militarism. York, NY 10003; [email protected] Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association. A. Lynn Bolles Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, College Sutton, Constance R. 1995b. “From City-State to Post-Colonial Park, MD 20742; [email protected] Nation-State: Yoruba Women’s Changing Military Roles.” In Nina Glick Schiller Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology, Feminism, Nationalism and Militarism, edited by Constance Sutton, Halle (Saale), Germany 06114; [email protected] 89–103. Washington, DC: American Anthropological Associa- Linden Lewis Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bucknell tion. University, Lewisburg, PA 17837; [email protected] Sutton, Constance R. 1998. “‘Motherhood Is Powerful’: Embodied Susan Makiesky Barrow Epidemiology, New York Pyschiatric In- Knowledge from Evolving Field-Based Experiences.” Anthropol- stitute, New York, NY 10032; [email protected] ogy and Humanism 23 (2): 139–45. William P. Mitchell Department of History and Anthropology, Sutton, Constance R. 2005. “Foreword” and “Continuing the Fight for Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764; mitchell@ Economic Justice: The Barbados Sugar Workers’1958 Wildcat monmouth.edu Strike.” In Revisiting Caribbean Labour: Essays in Honour of O. Nigel David Sutton Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois Uni- Bolland, edited by Constance R. Sutton, ix–xviii and 41–64. versity, Carbondale, IL 62901; [email protected] Kingston: Ian Randle/New York: Research Institute for the Deborah A. Thomas Department of Anthropology and Center for Study of Man. Experimental Ethnography, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Sutton, Constance R. 2008. “Public Monuments in Post-Colonial PA 19104; [email protected] Barbados: Sites of Memory, Sites of Contestation.” Unpublished Andrea J. Queeley Global and Sociocultural Studies Department, manuscript. Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199; aqueeley@fiu.edu Sutton, Constance R. 2011. “Embedded in Barbadian Life: Reflec- tions on a Half-Century of Anthropological Research.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual NOTES meeting, Toronto, Canada. Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Ira Bashkow for his Sutton, Constance R. 2013. “Remembrances of Things Past: An- supportive advice, Karina Atkin (University of Virginia), his research thropology and Feminism.” Paper presented at the American assistant, and Dr. Rose L. D´ıaz (Columbia University) and Professor Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, Illinois. Obituary 431

Sutton, Constance R. 2014. “Circum-Caribbean Migrations: Spin- edited by Helen I. Safa and Brian Dutoit, 117–42. The Hague: ning New Webs of Connection between Barbados and Cuba.” Mouton. Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and Its Global Diasporas 15 Sutton, Constance R., and Susan Makiesky-Barrow. 1977. “Social (1–2): 48–62. Inequality and Sexual Status in Barbados.” In Sexual Stratification: Sutton, Constance R., and Elsa Chaney, eds. 1987. Caribbean Life in A Cross-Cultural View, edited by Alice Schlegel, 292–325. New New York City: Sociocultural Dimensions. Staten Island, NY: Center York: Columbia University Press. for Migration Studies. Sutton, Constance R., Susan Makiesky, Daisy Dwyer, and Laura Sutton, Constance R., and Susan R. Makiesky. 1975. “Migration and Klein. 1975. “Women, Knowledge, and Power.” In Women West Indian Racial and Ethnic Consciousness.” In Migration and Cross-Culturally: Change and Challenge, edited by Ruby Rohrlich- Development: Implications for Ethnic Identity and Political Conflict, Leavitt, 581–600. The Hague: Mouton.