Carol Laderman Papers
name: label: Creator
content: Laderman, Carol
place: label: Place
content: Kampong Merchang (Terengganu)
label: Place
content: Malaysia
topic: label: Topic
content: Traditional medicine
label: Topic
content: Shamanism
label: Topic
content: Malay language
label: Topic
content: Language and languages -- Documentation
label: Topic
content: Medical anthropology
label: Topic
content: Malays (Asian people) -- Medicine
label: Topic
content: Seances
label: Topic
content: Pregnancy -- Nutritional aspects
label: Topic
content: Midwifery
label: Topic
content: Ethnology -- Malaysia
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Carol Laderman's sons, Raphael and Michael Laderman in 2012.
creator: label: Creator
content: Laderman, Carol
culture: label: Culture
content: Malays (Asian people)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Carol Laderman Papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Carol Laderman was a medical anthropologist best known for her research on Malay traditional medicine. Her work focused on beliefs and practices regarding childbirth and nutrition as well as shamanic healing practices in rural Malaysia. This collection consists of the professional papers of Carol Laderman, medical anthropologist and university professor. The bulk of the collection pertains to her research on childbirth, nutrition, and shamanic healing practices in rural Malaysia. These materials include field notes, surveys, transcripts of Main Peteri ceremonies, grant applications, photographs, and sound recordings. Of special interest are her photographs of midwives and shamans treating patients, including Main Peteri ceremonies, as well as traditional Malay weddings and festivals. Also noteworthy are her recordings of Main Peteri ceremonies and her interviews with midwives and shamans. The collection also contains her unpublished and published writings; her dissertation; a report on her undergraduate fieldwork with pregnant Puerto Rican teenagers; her lecture notes and files as a university professor; files documenting her involvement in professional associations; and correspondence with colleagues.
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Carol Laderman was a medical anthropologist best known for her research on Malay traditional medicine. Her work focused on beliefs and practices regarding childbirth and nutrition as well as shamanic healing practices in rural Malaysia.

Laderman (née Cohen) was born on October 25, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York. When she was 6, her father changed their family's surname to Ciavati due to his difficulty as a Jew finding an engineering job. Laderman grew up with musical aspirations, intending to become a concert pianist. She attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and majored in music at Brooklyn College. In 1953, she married Gabriel Laderman, a painter and later an art professor. She took a leave from college to follow her husband after he was drafted into the U.S. Army five months following their wedding. Her hiatus from college spanned fifteen years, during which time she had two sons (1958, 1965). She also worked as a legal secretary in Ithaca, New York, and as a social secretary and translator for an opera singer when she and her family lived in Italy.

After returning to New York City, she enrolled in evening classes at Hunter College. Although she planned to resume her studies in music, her academic focus changed after taking an anthropology course taught by medical anthropologist Rena Gropper. In 1972, she earned her B.A. in Anthropology, and with the assistance of a Danforth Foundation Fellowship, she attended graduate school at Columbia University, where she earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1979.

As an undergraduate student, Laderman conducted fieldwork at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City (1972-1973), assisting in a project on pregnant teenagers and nutritional health. She was assigned to collect data on Puerto Rican adolescent mothers, which exposed her to humoral beliefs in food, medicine, and people. This experience would later inspire her to conduct her graduate fieldwork on nutrition and childbirth in Malaysia, where humoral beliefs were also held but not well-explored by researchers.

From 1975 to 1977, Laderman and her family lived in Merchang, in Trengganu (now Terengganu), Malaysia. Working under the auspices of the Malaysian Ministry of Health of the Institute for Medical Research, Laderman studied both traditional and hospital-based medicine. As part of her fieldwork, she received training from a hospital to collect blood samples to study the effects of birthing and dietary practices on women's health. She also apprenticed herself to a traditional midwife (bidan kampung), whom she assisted in a number of births. By comparing food ideologies and actual food intake of pregnant and postpartum women, Laderman was able to refute the prevailing view of scholars that malnutrition among rural Malays was largely due to dietary restrictions based on the humoral system. In her dissertation, "Conceptions and Preconceptions: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia," Laderman describes how Malay women adapt their diets to their needs and that their customs allow for interpretation and manipulation. In 1983, a revised version of her dissertation was published as Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia.

While seeking to gain an understanding of traditional Malay medicine in its entirety, Laderman also became exposed to theatrical spirit séances known as Main Peteri (also Puteri or Teri). At that time Main Peteri was no longer performed in most Malaysian states but was still thriving in Trengganu and nearby Kelantan. Performed primarily as healing ceremonies by shamans (bomoh), Main Peteri was a last resort for the afflicted. These performances were characterized by entranced patients, spirit possessions, singing, music, dancing, and an audience. Laderman attended and participated in a number of these ceremonies and became a student and adopted daughter to a shaman. She recorded and transcribed several Main Peteri performances and received an NEH grant (1981-1985) to translate the texts. She also returned to Merchang in 1982 to conduct further research on traditional healing ceremonies. In her monograph Taming the Wind of Desire (1991), she discusses Main Peteri and its relationship to the Malay concept of Inner Winds (angin), which determine a person's personality, talents, and drives. In 1987 to 1990, she returned to her musical roots to collaborate with ethnomusicologist Marina Roseman to transcribe, analyze, and interpret the music of Main Peteri. Together, she and Roseman also edited The Performance of Healing (1996). In addition, Laderman became interested in the effects of urbanization and globalization on traditional Malay healing practices, a topic which she addressed in a collection of her writings, The Life and Death of Traditional Malay Medicine (in press).

Laderman was a professor at the Department of Anthropology at City University of New York City College (1990-2010). She was also an associate professor at Fordham University (1982-1990) and taught briefly at Hunter College (1978-1980), Brooklyn College (1979-1980), and Yale University (1980-1982).

She died on July 6, 2010 at the age of 77.

Sources Consulted

[Autobiographical statement], Series 2. Writings, Carol Laderman Papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

1972. Carol Laderman, SGS Student, Wins Danforth Fellowship. SGS Newsletter 2(7): 1.

Laderman, Carol. 1983. Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Laderman, Carol. 1991. Taming the Wind of Desire: Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Maizura, Intan. 2003, September 28. A bidan, a bomoh & a New Yorker. Nuance: 16-18.

Roseman, Marina, Laurel Kendall and Robert Knox Dentan. 2011. Obituaries: Carol Laderman (1932-2010). American Anthropologist 113(2): 375-377.

1932 -- Born October 25 in Brooklyn, New York

1953 -- Marries Gabriel Laderman and takes a leave from Brooklyn College

1972 -- Earns B.A. in Anthropology from Hunter College

1972-1973 -- Conducts research at Mt. Sinai Hospital on ethnic eating patterns, food beliefs, and anemia in adolescent Puerto Rican mothers

1975-1977 -- Conducts fieldwork in Merchang in Trengganu, Malaysia

1979 -- Earns Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University

1982 -- Returns to Malaysia to conduct fieldwork on shamanism and trance healing

1982-1988 -- Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Fordham University

1988-1990 -- Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Fordham University

1990-2010 -- Professor, Department of Anthropology, City University of New York City College

2010 -- Dies on July 6
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 6 Linear feet ((15 boxes and 1 manuscript envelope) and
                    154 cassette tapes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1970-2009
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2012-09
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Field notes
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: This collection is organized in 8 series: Series 1. Research, 1972, 1975-1977, 1981, 1985, 1987, 2000-2003, undated; Series 2. Writings, 1970, 1975, 1978-2001, 2004, undated; Series 3. Student Files, 1972, 1975, 1979, undated; Series 4. Teacher Files, 1977, 1979-1982, 2001-2002, 2007, undated; Series 5. Correspondence, 1974-1981, 1985-2005, 2009, undated; Series 6. Professional Activities, circa 1981, 1989-1990, 1994, 2004, undated; Series 7. Photographs, circa 1975-1977, circa 1982, undated; Series 8. Sound Recordings, 1976-1977, 1982, 2003, undated.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The papers of Carol Laderman were received largely unarranged. The processing archivist arranged and organized the collection into 8 series. Original folder titles were retained with titles assigned by the archivist placed within square brackets.

The archivist would like to thank Catherine Carbone for her assistance in processing the collection.
bibliography: label: Selected Bibliography
content: 1982 Giving Birth in a Malay Village. In Anthropology of Human Birth. Margarita A. Kay, ed. Pp. 81-100. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.

1982 Putting Malay Women in Their Place. In Women in Southeast Asia. Occasional Paper, No. 9. Penny Van Esterik, ed. Pp 79-99. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Center for South East Asia Studies.

1983 Wives and Midwives: Childbirth and Nutrition in Rural Malaysia. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

1988 Wayward Winds: Malay Archetypes and Theory of Personality in the Context of Shamanism. Social Science and Medicine 27(8): 799-810.

1991 Taming the Wind of Desire: Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in Malay Shamanistic Performance. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

1991 Main Peteri: Malay Shamanism. Kuala Lumpur: Federation Museums Journal Monograph.

1991 Malay Medicine, Malay Person. Medical Anthropology 13(1-2): 83-98.

1991 A Jewish Family in Muslim Malaysia. Review of Jewish Folklore and Ethnology. 13(1): 17-19.

1996 edited with Marina Roseman. The Performance of Healing. New York, New York: Routledge.

1997 The Limits of Magic. American Anthropologist 99(2): 331-341.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Field notes
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection consists of the professional papers of Carol Laderman, medical anthropologist and university professor. The bulk of the collection pertains to her research on childbirth, nutrition, and shamanic healing practices in rural Malaysia. These materials include field notes, surveys, transcripts of Main Peteri ceremonies, grant applications, photographs, and sound recordings. Of special interest are her photographs of midwives and shamans treating patients, including Main Peteri ceremonies, as well as traditional Malay weddings and festivals. Also noteworthy are her recordings of Main Peteri ceremonies and her interviews with midwives and shamans. The collection also contains her unpublished and published writings; her dissertation; a report on her undergraduate fieldwork with pregnant Puerto Rican teenagers; her lecture notes and files as a university professor; files documenting her involvement in professional associations; and correspondence with colleagues.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Two videotapes were received with the Carol Laderman papers and transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives.

Some of Laderman's original field recordings are at Columbia University's Center for Ethnomusicology. Copies of those recording are in this collection and are so noted.