Joanna Overing (born August 12, 1938 in Takoma Park, Maryland) is an American anthropologist based in Scotland.
She has conducted research on egalitarianism, indigenous cosmology, philosophical anthropology, aesthetics, the ludic and linguistics through fieldwork in Amazonia.
[1] She is Professor Emeritus at the University of St Andrews in the Department of Social Anthropology,[1] and a Researcher within the Centre for Amerindian, Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
[2] She has previously held posts as Professor and Chair in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews and Director of Centre of Indigenous American Studies and Exchange (CIASE), as well as teaching positions at Vanderbilt University and the London School of Economics.
One of Overing's central interests in Amazonianist anthropology is the relationship between egalitarianism and individualism in Amerindian societies.