List of fictional anthropologists

Summary

Fictional anthropologists appear in novels, short stories, comics, movies, and radio and television series. The following list excludes characters designated as exclusively archaeologists.

TV edit

 
Emily Deschanel, who plays Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan

Film edit

Literature edit

  • Created by James Patterson:
    • Ronald Stasic, teaches at Mountain View Community College in 2nd Chance (2002).
  • Created by Frank Parkin:
  • Created by Lily King:
  • Created by Michael Crichton:
    • Rick Chang, physical anthropologist in Michael Crichton's novel Timeline; works at an archaeological site in France
    • Jorg Erickson, "primate anatomist" who examines a talking orang in a brief appearance in the novel Next
    • Elsie Kastner, linguist and graphologist in the novel Timeline; works at an archaeological site in France run by historians
  • Created by Louise Erdrich
    • Millie Cloud, decides to become an anthropologist (ethnographer) near the end of The Night Watchman,
  • Created by Laura Griffin:
    • Dr. Kelsey Quinn, forensic anthropologist, in Shadow Fall (2015)
  • Created by Nicola Griffith
    • Marghe Taishan is an anthropologist on the planet Jeep in the SF novel Ammonite (novel).
  • Created by Richard Rhodes:
    • Robert Fuhrey, in The Last Safari; paleontologist who discovers an ancient hominid
    • John Kegedi in The Last Safari; a Tanzanian; Fuhrey's assistant, working on a site with a hominid older than any other yet discovered; teaches soil chemistry, agriculture, and paleontology, but denies that he is a paleontologist; no specific mention is made of anthropology
  • Created by James Rollins:
  • Linda Bluenight, forensic anthropologist who goes to teach Papago children on a reservation in Arizona in the book Mission to Sonora by Rebecca Cramer
  • Elenore Smith Bowen, slightly fictionalized ethnographer in Africa around the 1940s, based on the author's own fieldwork in Nigeria in the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the novel Return to Laughter by Laura Bohannon, writing as Elenore Smith Bowen
  • Temperance "Tempe" Brennan, forensic anthropologist in novel series Temperance Brennan by Kathy Reichs
  • Tory Brennan, great-niece of Tempe Brennan in the Virals series by Kathy Reichs and her son Brendan Reichs
  • Bill Brockton, a forensic anthropologist in the Body Farm Novel series by "Jefferson Bass," the nom de plume of the writing pair William M. Bass and Jon Jefferson
  • Wiggs Dannyboy, in Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
  • Nelson Denoon, of the novel Mating (1992) by Norman Rush, anthropologist and cult founder in Botswana
  • Garnet DeWinter, forensic anthropologist in J.D. Robb's Concealed in Death
  • Gregory Eyck, post-modernist anthropologist at the University of the Midwest in Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror by James Hynes
  • Callum Hearne is a cultural anthropologist who did research in Mexico in the backstory to The Anthropologist's Daughter by Vanessa Furse Jackson. The novel's first-person protagonist, Immogen is an anthropology student.
  • Frank Holliwell, anthropologist in the political thriller A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
  • Aric Hort, anthropologist (ethnographer) on the planet Langri in Lloyd Biggle, Jr.'s 1974 science-fiction novel Monument
  • Johnathan, graduate student in anthropology, starts a new life on the Faeroe Islands in the novel Far Afield by Susanna Kaysen
  • Lasher, an Episcopal minister with an M.A. in anthropology, and the leader of a rebel group known as the "Ghost Shirt Society" Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano
  • Domenica Macdonald, anthropologist; the creation of Alexander McCall Smith, in his 44 Scotland Street series, including Lover over Scotland, Anchor Books, 2006
  • Elizabeth MacPherson, forensic anthropologist, is the protagonist of the Elizabeth MacPherson series by Sharyn McCrumb
  • Don Maddson, linguist in James P. Hogan's Giant's Star (not specifically called an anthropologist), given the task of learning and translating the Ganymedeans' language
  • John Montagu is an anthropologist interested in the supernatural in Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House, which was the basis of the movie The Haunting.
  • Julie Norman is a cultural anthropologist who investigates unexplained deaths of senior citizens in Florida's Gold Coast the novel Assisted Dying: An Ethnographic Murder Mystery on Florida's Gold Coast and the novel about Indian-Americans, The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder, both by Serena Nanda and Joan Gregg.
  • Gideon Oliver, 'the skeleton detective,' protagonist of 18 novels by Aaron Elkins
  • Dr. Ann Pearlmutter in James Patterson's Women's Murder Club series of novels, a marginal character who works at University of California, San Diego, specializing in body ID and facial reconstruction
  • W.H.R. Rivers, fictional version of the real anthropologist of the same name, in Regeneration by Pat Barker; treats shell-shocked soldiers so they can be sent back to the front in the brutal First World War
  • Finley Scott is a forensic anthropologist in Dani Pettrey's novel Cold Shot (Chesapeake Valor).
  • Dan Sherman, anthropology instructor whose attempt at problem-based learning is problem-filled[1]
  • Grant Thornton, anthropologist and major love interest in Africa, in A Touch of Betrayal: Treasures of the Heart #3 by Catherine Palmer
  • Martiya van der Leun, anthropologist in the murder mystery Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski
  • Bud Warhol, forensic anthropologist in Tantric Zoo and other Bud Warhol mysteries by Rob Loughran
  • The unnamed female narrator of the novel Mating (1992) by Norman Rush; graduate student of anthropology[2]
  • Unnamed team of ethnologists and graduate students mentioned in the science-fiction novel Ports of Call by Jack Vance. On the planet Terce, all were eaten by the Uche or skinned by the Shuja.

Comics edit

  • Kagura, character from the anime and manga series Azumanga Daioh; also makes a cameo appearance as an anthropologist in Classroom of Thesis; From the Report to the Graduation Thesis (論文の教室[レポートから卒論まで]?) by Kazuhisa Todayama
  • Hawkman (Carter Hall), a character in the DC Comics universe.
  • Bolivar Trask, a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe (1965)

Other edit

References edit

  1. ^ "DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - L". Retrieved 2014-09-03. A didactic story, "Dan Tries Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study" by Harold B. White III, in To Improve the Academy, published by The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, volume 15, pp. 80–91. 1996.
  2. ^ Bergeron & Pietrykowski, Suzanne & Bruce (1999). "Can There Be a Genre Difference in Economic Literature," What Do Economists Know?: New Economics of Knowledge, p. 140. ISBN 9780415152600. Retrieved 2014-07-22.