American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Schildkrout, Enid
Anthropologist
Enid Schildkrout is a Curator Emerita, African Ethnology in the Department of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History. Schildkrout began her African field research in Ghana and Bourkina Faso in the 1960’s when she studied changing concepts of ethnicity and identity among second-generation immigrants living in Kumasi, Ghana. She has followed a number of families from her initial fieldwork for five decades and continues this research among Ghanaians from the same communities living in New York City. In the late 1970s and early 1980s she did field research in Kano, northern Nigeria, where she studied the economic roles of children. Her research focused on the economic interdependence of women and children and the relationship between child labor and education. She subsequently did fieldwork in Mali, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Namibia on a variety of topics centered on art and museums in Africa. She has worked extensively with museum collections and conducted an in-depth study of the history of the art of the Mangbetu people (Democratic Republic of Congo). Dr. Schildkrout has curated many groundbreaking exhibitions including African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire; Body Art: Marks of Identity; Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria; and Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art. (source: AMNH website, 2016)
Worked at the American Museum of Natural History.