Melvyn Goldstein

Melvyn C. Goldstein (* 8 February 1938 in New York) is a US-American anthropologist and Tibet scholar. His research focuses on Tibetan society, history and contemporary politics, population studies, polyandry, studies in cultural and development ecology, economic change and cross-cultural gerontology.

Personal background

Goldstein is an American scholar whose research focuses on Tibet. His research has been described as "nuanced"^{[citation needed]}; while he portrays pre-1950 Tibet as "de facto independent", he also portrays the old state as a feudal theocracy.^[1] Tibetan independence activist Jamyang Norbu denounced his seminal A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State, which was awarded Honorable Mention for best monograph on China in 1989 by the Association for Asian Studies, for having "little account of honourable service, sacrifice or courage", and for documenting events in Tibetan history Norbu considers "shameful".^[2] He married the daughter of the famous Tibetan scholar-official-aristocrat, Surkhang Wangchen Gelek.^[3] Goldstein began writing more prolifically once access to Tibet was made available in the late 1979s. He received his B.A. and M.A. in history at University of Michigan (1959, 1960) and a 1968 doctorate in anthropology at the University of Washington. 1968-1990: Assistant professor (until 1971), and Associate (until 1977) professor, then professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, 1975-2002 chairman of the Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University 1987 to present Director of the Center for Research on Tibet, Case Western Reserve University, and since 1991, John Reynolds Harkness Professor of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Co-Director, Center for Research on Tibet, and professor of International Health, School of Medicine (secondary appointment). He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (Section 51, Anthropology) in 2009.

Research

Goldstein has conducted research in different parts of Tibet^[4] (mainly in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China) on a range of topics including nomadic pastoralism, the impact of reforms on rural Tibet, family planning and fertility, modern Tibetan history, and socio-economic change. He has also conducted research in India (with Tibetan refugees in Bylakuppe), in northwest Nepal (with a Tibetan border community in Limi), in western Mongolia (with a nomadic pastoral community in Khovd Province) and in inland China (with Han Chinese on modernization and the elderly).

His current projects include: an oral history of Tibet, Volume Three (1955-57) of his History of Modern Tibet series, and a longitudinal study of the impact of China's reform policies on rural Tibet (nomads and farmers). He has just completed an NSF study investigating modernization and changing patterns of intergenerational relations in rural Tibet began fieldwork in 2005.

Publications (selection)

• Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1989). A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07590-0. 
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, William Siebenschuh, and Tashi Tsering. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashi Tsering. Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe, Inc. 1997.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity, Berkeley: University of California, 1998.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Foreign Affairs, "The Dalai Lama's Dilemma", Volume 77, Number 1, January/February 1998.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Chinese Edition of The Struggle for a Modern Tibet: the Life of Tashi Tsering, Mirror Books, Carle Place, NY. 2000.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, A New Tibetan English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan. University of California Press. Pp. 1200. 2001.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Ben Jiao, Cynthia M. Beall & Phuntso Tsering. "Fertility & Family Planning in Rural Tibet." The China Journal. Issue 1, 2002.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein and Cynthia M. Beall. "Changing patterns of Tibetan nomadic pastoralism." In Human Biology of Pastoral Populations, Leonard and Crawford (eds.). Cambridge University Press, 131-150.
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Dawei Sherap, William Siebenschuh. A Tibetan Revolutionary. The Political Life of Bapa Phüntso Wangye. U. of California Press, 2004
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm Before the Storm: 1951-1955, University of California Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0-520-24941-7
• Melvyn C. Goldstein, Ben Jiao, Tanzen Lhundrup. On the Cultural Revolution in Tibet: The Nyemo Incident of 1969, University of California Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-520-25682-8

Online:

• The Remote World of Tibet's Nomads
• The Impact of China's Reform Policy on the Nomads of Western Tibet
• Change and Continuity in Nomadic Pastoralism on the Western Tibetan Plateau
• Nomads of Golok, a Report
• A Report on Limi Panchayat, Humla District, Karnali Zone
• When Brothers Share a Wife, from Natural History, March, 1987, pp. 39-48 (on Tibetan polyandry)

Notes

References

• Powers, John. History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China (2004) Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517426-7

External links

• Melvyn Goldstein at the Center for Research on Tibet