Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern, DBE, FBA (née Evans; born 6 March 1941)[1] is a British anthropologist, who has worked largely with the Mount Hagen people of Papua New Guinea and dealt with issues in the UK of reproductive technologies.
[citation needed] Strathern has held numerous positions over her career, all of which involved her work with the people of Papua New Guinea and her expertise in feminist anthropology.
She then returned to Cambridge for the final time in 1993 to take the position of William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology until her retirement in 2008.
[6][7] Strathern was also co-opted member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics while also chairing the Working Party on "Human bodies: donation for medicine and research" from 2000 to 2006 and 2010 until 2011.
[8] From her doctoral thesis published in 1972 titled "Women in Between"[7] to her more recent publications, Strathern is constantly challenging the definitions and social constructs of gender "norms".
[10] Taking this approach when studying in such fields as societies in Papua New Guinea has allowed Strathern to push the boundaries of thought on such topics as reproductive technology, intellectual property, and gender in both Melanesia and the United Kingdom.
[15] Strathern also brings to the surface the fact that theories are dominating themselves and while she knows as an anthropologist, she cannot separate herself from them, she does state that she offers a "narrative" over an analysis of the situation.
This painting, which depicted Marilyn with two heads on separate panels, went on to win Todd the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Ondaatje for Portraiture in 2001.