Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists

Ruth Benedict Prize History

The Ruth Benedict Prize is presented each year at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting to acknowledge excellence in a scholarly book written from an anthropological perspective about a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered topic. The Ruth Benedict Prize is awarded in each of two separate categories: one for a single-authored monograph and another for an edited volume.

Click to read the current call for submisions.

2006

Tanya Erzen
Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement
(Univ of California Press, 2006)

2005

Tom Boellstorff
The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia
(Princeton U Press, 2005)

2004

Megan Sinnot for Best Monograph
Toms and Dees: Transgender Identity and Female Same-Sex Relationships in Thailand
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004)

Ellen Lewin and William Leap for Best Anthology
Out in Theory: The Emergence of Lesbian and Gay Anthropology
(Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004)

2003

Martin F. Manalansan IV
Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora
(Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2003)

2002

Hector Carrillo
The Night is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002)

2001

Arlene Stein
The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community's Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001)

2000

Esther Newton
Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas
(Duke University Press, 2000)

Stephen O. Murray
Homosexualities
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000)

Barbara L. Voss and Robert A. Schmidt, Editors
Archaeologies of Sexuality
(New York: Routledge, 2000)

1999

Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia E. Wieringa, Editors
Female Desires: Same Sex Relations and Transgender Practices Across Cultures
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)

1998

    Jennifer Robertson
    Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan
    (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998)

1997

    Kath Weston
    Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color, Nation, Studmuffins
    (New York: Columbia Press, 1996)

    Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds.,
    Two-spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality
    (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997)

1996

    William Leap
    Word's Out: Gay Men's English
    (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996)

    Carter Wilson
    Hidden in the Blood: A Personal Investigation of AIDS in the Yucatan
    (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)

1995

    Joseph Carrier
    De Los Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality Among Mexican Men
    (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995)

1994

    Esther Newton
    Cherry Grove, Fire Island:
    Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town
    (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993)

1993

    Roger Lancaster
    Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua
    (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992)

    Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis
    Boots of leather, slippers of gold: the history of a lesbian community
    (New York: Routledge, 1993)

1992

    Ellen Lewin
    Lesbian Mothers: Accounts of Gender in American Culture
    (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1993)

1991

    Richard Parker
    Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions: Sexual Culture in Contemporary Brazil
    (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991)

1990

    Kath Weston
    Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship
    (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991)

    Serena Nanda
    Neither Man nor Woman: the Hijras of India
    (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990)

1987

    Gilbert Herdt
    The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea
    (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1987)

1986

    Walter L. Williams
    The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture
    (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986)

This information was provided by Frank Proschan on July 15, 1999 and posted on Sept. 23, 1999. This page was last updated by C. Todd White on 8/19/04.

The Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (SOLGA) of the American Anthropological Association was founded in 1988. SOLGA promotes communication, encourages research, develops teaching materials, and serves the interests of gay and lesbian anthropologists within the association.
This site was designed by C. Todd White.