McArthur, Annie Margaret (Margaret) (1919 - 2002)

Summary

Margaret McArthur was a nutritionist who was a member of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, investigating the quality and quantity of food consumed by the indigenous people. Her fieldwork and observations during this expedition became a landmark study on the food, health and nutrition of the Aborigines of Arnhem Land, in the process contributing significantly to accepted views on women's vital role in Aboriginal diet and social economy. McArthur had earlier participated in the Commonwealth Department of Health Nutrition Expedition to New Guinea in 1947, work which she continued into the 1950s and which formed the basis of her doctoral thesis. She also conducted research in Malaysia for the WHO and was nutrition consultant in Indonesia and Africa for the FAO. Having completed postgraduate training in anthropology McArthur was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney in 1965, becoming the first woman to hold a tenured position in anthropology in Australia.

Details

Chronology

1941

Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne

1942

Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Melbourne

1943 - 1945

Career position - Research Officer, CSIR Division of Industrial Chemistry

1946

Education - Postgraduate Diploma in Nutrition, Institute of Anatomy, Canberra

1947

Career position - Member of the Commonwealth Department of Health Nutrition Expedition to New Guinea

1948 - 1949

Career position - Nutritionist, Australian-American Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land

1952

Education - Post-graduate Diploma in Social Anthropology, University of London

1953 - 1955

Award - Walter Mersh Strong Research Fellowship, University of Sydney

1955 - 1956

Award - Emslie Horniman Studentship, Royal Anthropological Society, London

1958 - 1960

Career position - Social Anthropology Consultant in Malaya for the World Health Organisation (WHO)

1961

Career position - Nutrition Consultant in Indonesia for the FAO

1962

Career position - Research Officer, Department of Economics, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University

1962

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Australian National University

1963

Career position - Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Manchester

1964

Career position - Nutrition Consultant in Africa for the FAO

1965 - 1970

Career position - Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney

1973 - 1974

Career position - Senior Fellow, Food Institute of the East-West Centre, Hawaii

1975 - 1976

Career position - Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Thomas, Martin, Clever men: how worlds collided on the scientific expedition to Arnhem Land of 1948 (Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2025), 452 pp. Details

Book Sections

• McArthur, Margaret, 'Report of the Nutrition Unit' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, vol. 2: anthropology and nutrition, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1960), pp. 1-13. Details
• McArthur, Margaret, ' Food consumption and dietary levels of the group of Aborigines living on naturally occurring foods in Mountford, C. P. ed' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, vol. 2: anthropology and nutrition, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1960), pp. 90-135. Details
• McArthur, Margaret, 'Food consumption and dietary levels of the Aborigines living at the settlements' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 2: anthropology and nutrition, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1960), pp. 14-26. Details
• McCarthy, Frederick D. and McArthur, Margaret, 'The food quest and the time factor in Aboriginal economic life' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, vol. 2: anthropology and nutrition, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic,: Melbourne University Press, 1960), pp. 145-94. Details

Journal Articles

• Harris, Amanda, 'Food, feeding and consumption (of the cook, the wife and the nutritionist): the politics of gender and class in a 1948 Australian expedition', History and anthropology, 24 (3) (2013), 363-79, https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2013.761612. Details
• Harris, Amanda, 'Chaperoned into Arnhem Land: Margaret McArthur and the politics of nutrition and fieldwork in 1948', Lilith: a feminist history journal, 20 (2014), 62-75, https://search.informit.org/doi/pdf/10.3316/ielapa.570178737106785. Details
• Lepervanche, Marie de, 'Obituary: Annie Margaret McArthur, 1919 - 2002 13(2):230-1', Australian journal of anthropology, 13 (2) (2002), 230-1. Details
• McArthur, M., Billington, B. P. and Hodges, K. J., 'Nutrition and health (1948) of Aborigines in settlements in Arnhem Land, northern Australia', Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 9 (3) (2000), 164-213, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-6047.2000.00199.x. Details
• McArthur, M.; Mccarthy, F.D.; and Specht, R.L., 'Nutrition Studies (1948) of Nomadic Aborigines in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia', Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 9 (3) (2000), 215-223. Details
• Specht, Ray L,, 'Obituary: Margaret McArthur Oliver 1919 - 2002', Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 12 (2) (2003), 127-8. Details
• Specht, Ray L., 'Margaret McArthur Oliver', Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2002 (2) (2002), 122-4. Details