Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke
Dr. Anne-Sylvie MALBRANCKE
Status:
Under contract CNRS Assistant of Maurice Godelier
Postdoctoral Fellow
Anthropology, Papua New Guinea
Overview
I am a social anthropologist with a PhD from the School for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris). I specialise in Pacific societies, particularly rural Papua New Guinea. My main interests cover the domains of kinship, social organization, socio-cultural change, economic anthropology, political anthropology, gender-based issues, the making of a person. I firstly worked on Maurice Godelier’s archive collected between the 1960s and the 1980s, before carrying out a longitudinal study of the Baruya of Papua New Guinea (Eastern Highlands), where I conducted 12 months of fieldwork (2013-2014). I am fluent in Tok Pisin, as well as English, Italian, and French (mother tongue).
I am now working as a co-researcher on a project in collaboration with Professor Bruce M. Knauft (Emory University, Atlanta), entirely funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation (New York), to look into the dynamics of violence reduction among rural Gebusi (Western Province, Papua New Guinea).
Educational background 
2012-2016
PHD in Social and Cultural Anthropology, School for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (EHESS), Paris, France
Recipient of a three-year State scholarship (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche).
Areas of interest: Melanesia, Anga people, kinship, social change, gender-based issues, anthropology of power and the impact of capitalism among Pacific societies.
Dissertation title: “A wife for money? Changing marriage practices and their socio-cultural impact on the Baruya of Papua New Guinea”. Under the supervision of Pascale Bonnemère (CNRS-EHESS, head of the CREDO).
Degree obtained with highest honors (February 2016)
Active member of the research centre CREDO (Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l’Océanie, UMR 7308, Marseille, France), only European Research Centre dedicated to the study of the South Pacific.
Carried out a year-long fieldwork among the Baruya people of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (2013-2014) on a research visa. In collaboration with the National Research Institute
Fieldwork in Papua New Guinea
2017
Nomad station, Western Province (3 months)
2016
Nomad station, Western Province (2 months)
2014
Wonenara Valley, Wuyabo village, Eastern Highlands Province (3 months)
2013
Wonenara Valley, Wuyabo village, Eastern Highlands Province (9 months)
Publications
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
2016
- « Dix Commandements mais pas de Dieu. Christianisme et changement socio-culturel chez les Baruya de Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée », Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 142-143, pp.227-242.
- “Women don’t have testicles: the “making” of masculinity among 21st-century Baruya (Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea)”. Paideuma, 62: 69–89.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA ENTRIES
2017
(in press) “Structuralist Theories of Gender”, 2200-word entry co-authored with Prof. Laurent Dousset (EHESS), for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Conception Beliefs”, 4000-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Male and Female Cults”, 4000-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Pollution”, 4000-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Ghost Marriage”, 500-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Levirate”, 500-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
(in press) “Elementary Structures of Kinship”, 1000-word entry for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, (Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford).
RESEARCH REPORT
2016
KNAUFT, Bruce M. and Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke. « Homicide Reduction among the Gebusi of Papua New Guinea ». Final research report submitted to the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
ACADEMIC THESES
2016. “Une épouse pour de l’argent ? Des pratiques matrimoniales en mutation et leurs répercussions socioculturelles chez les Baruya de Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée”, PhD thesis, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), France.
2012. “Les pratiques matrimoniales des Baruya de Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée : les archives de terrain de Maurice Godelier au crible des logiciels informatiques