Steven L. Rubenstein | |
|---|---|
 Rubenstein in 1988 | |
| Born | June 10, 1962 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | March 8, 2012 (aged 49) Liverpool, England |
| Education | BA anthropology, Columbia University and BA philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (joint program, 1984) MA anthropology, Columbia University (1986) PhD anthropology, Columbia University (1995) |
| Occupation(s) | Reader in Latin American Anthropology, University of Liverpool |
| Website | Homepage, University of Liverpool |
Steven Lee Rubenstein (June 10, 1962 – March 8, 2012) was an American anthropologist. He was reader in Latin American Anthropology at the University of Liverpool, and Director of Liverpool's Research Institute of Latin American Studies.[1]
Beginning in the 1980s, Rubenstein worked with the Shuar people of Ecuador, documenting and analyzing practices of healing, the circulation of shrunken heads, and the ways in which the Shuar reacted to colonization and increasing incorporation into Ecuadorian society.[2] He frequently used life histories of individual Shuar people as a way to understand the political conditions facing the community. He was also known for his application of reflexive and autoethnographic methods when writing about experiences of intimacy and vulnerability in ethnographic fieldwork.[3] In his last work, he used the psychological theory of Jacques Lacan to analyze the ways in which the Shuar use the hallucinogen Ayahuasca.[4]
Rubenstein was the author of Alejandro Tsakimp: A Shuar Healer in the Margins of History (2002), based on his life history interviews with a Shuar shaman, and co-editor with Kathleen S. Fine-Dare of Border Crossings: Transnational Americanist Anthropology (2009). He was also a Wikipedia editor and administrator, under the username Slrubenstein. Since registering his account in December 2001 he made more than 30,000 edits to articles about anthropology and related fields.[5]
In 2012, Rubenstein died unexpectedly at his home in Liverpool at the age of 49.[6]
- ^ "Steven Rubenstein", Department of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool, accessed March 9, 2012.
- Forsdick, Charles. "Message from the Head of CLAS: Remembering Dr Steve Rubenstein", Cultures, Languages, and Area Studies at the University of Liverpool, March 14, 2012.
- "Dr Steven Rubenstein", Society for Latin American Studies, March 11, 2012.
- Chernela, Janet. "In Memoriam Steven Rubenstein", Anthropology News, May 2012.
- ^ Rubenstein, Steven L. (2004). "Steps to a political ecology of Amazonia". Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. 2 (2). Digital Commons: article 2. Pdf.
- ^ Henry, Marsha (January–February 2007). "If the shoe fits: Authenticity, authority and agency feminist diasporic research". Women's Studies International Forum. 30 (1): 70–80. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2006.12.009.
- ^ Rubenstein, Steven L. (February 2012). "On the importance of visions among the Amazonian Shuar". Current Anthropology. 53 (1): 39–79. doi:10.1086/663830. JSTOR 10.1086/663830. S2CID 144980353.
- ^ Peluso, Daniela (2012). "Steven Lee Rubenstein (1962–2012)". Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. 9 (2). Digital Commons: article 13. Pdf.
- ^ SALSA (January 18, 2014). "Steven (Steve) Rubenstein In Memoriam: 1962-2012". Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. Retrieved September 2, 2023.