SELIGMAN, Brenda Zara (née Salaman). London 26.6.1883 — Kensington, London 2.1.1965. British Anthropologist. Daughter of Myer and Sarah Salaman, a well-to-do Jewish family. Studied pre-medical biology at Bedford College in London. Married 1905 —> Charles Gabriel S. (1873–1940), with whom she then collaborated, but also became known as independent scholar. In 1907-08 they were in Ceylon studying Veddas (now became interested in anthropology), then 1909-12 and 1921-22 in Sudan. Together with her husband she acquired large collection of East Asian art which she continued after his death. As a woman she had access to rituals, etc. closed to male anthropologists. They had one daughter (d. 1919).
Publications: “Notes on recent work among the Vẹddás”, JRAS-CB 21:61, 1908, 73-84; “A Devil Ceremony of the Peasant Sinhalese”, JRAnthrInst 38, 1908, 368-379.
– With C. G. Seligmann: The Veddas. 19+463 p. 71 ill. Cambridge 1911.
– “Veddas” in E.R.E.. 12, 1921; “Vedda Songs”, Man in India 23, 1943, 38f.
– Much on New Guinea, Africa, etc., often together with her husband.
Sources: Meyer Fortes, Man 65, 1965, 177-181 with photo; Wikipedia with photo.
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