Visionary Observers

Sydel Silverman was born Sydel Finfer in Chicago, Illinois on May 20, 1933. She received a master's degree from University of Chicago's Committee on Human Development in 1957 and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University in 1963. She taught anthropology at Queens College in New York from 1962 to 1975, served as executive officer of the doctoral program in anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate Center from 1975 to 1986, and was president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research from 1987 to 1999.

She wrote or edited several books during her lifetime including Three Bells of Civilization: The Life of an Italian Hill Town, Totems and Teachers: Key Figures in the History of Anthropology, and The Beast on the Table: Conferencing with Anthropologists. She died of cancer on March 25, 2019 at the age of 85.

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