Constructing Vernacular Culture in the Trans-Caribbean

Constance Sutton was born Constance Rita Woloshin in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 29, 1926. She received a bachelor's degree in philosophy and master's degree in anthropology from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. In 1956, she was hired by Margaret Mead to edit her latest book. Sutton also became Mead's teaching assistant at Columbia. Sutton became the first chairwoman of the anthropology department at New York University's Bronx campus in the 1970s. She retired as an associate professor from N.Y.U. in 2002.

Her work focused on the migration and cultural evolution of Afro-Caribbean people. She wrote or edited several books including Caribbean Life in New York City: Sociocultural Dimensions edited with Elsa Chaney; From Labrador to Samoa: The Theory and Practice of Eleanor Burke Leacock; and Feminism, Nationalism, and Militarism. She died from complications of a stroke and cancer on August 23, 2018 at the age of 92.

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