Former Professor of Anthropology Continues to Impact Pitzer College Students and Contribute to the Research Department By Kimberly Tyborowski

STATE COLLEGE- My life isnt really that different or interesting, as Lee Munroe begins to modestly speak, laughing light-heartedly. At the respectful age of 81, Robert Lee Munroe of Claremont, C.A., never thought that he would still be educating students at Pitzer College about his field research done in Belize, along with his other cross-cultural studies. Munroe was born in Baltimore, M.D. in 1932 into a middle-class and hardworking American family. His main goal while growing up in Baltimore was to graduate high school and become one of the 20 percent of young adults to attend college. After high school, Munroe joined the military for three years and was trained as a Russian translator for the United States Army. Munroe juggled the army and college simultaneously but always had his heart set on anthropology. I knew while I was still in the army what I wanted to do and so I majored in anthropology as an undergraduate. I was very fortunate after being put in a unit where half of the guys went to college and thats what instigated me, said Munroe. During 1958 to 1964, Munroe excelled in his studies, earning an A.B. from Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He received many awards of achievement in his college years like the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship, the Willard Scholarship, and grants to continue his field research. Munroes research specialties included psychological anthropology, comparative studies, human development, ecological anthropology, and methodology. Although Pitzer is a small school, Robert and his wife, Ruth, were one of the first dozen professors at the college in 1964. They both were actively involved with studying and researching childhood developmental psychology and anthropology. At 23, Munroe ventured to Belize in the early 1960s with his wife and two young children to begin his doctoral dissertation, Couvade Practices of the Black Carib: A Psychological Study.

Munroe and his wife studied the couvade, an old ritual of East African tribes, which was a statistical and psychological analysis about men that feel pregnancy symptoms as a fetus develops. What happens in many tribes, about 15 percent of tribal groups around the world, when a wife has a baby, a husband will rest. It is a kind of a mystical or magical relationship with the child. If he goes back to work right away, it is likely to hurt the child. When a wife is resting, he must be imitating the wife, explained Munroe. What Robert and Ruth had discovered was the more intensive the men practiced this ritual belief felt symptoms of lassitude, food cravings, morning sickness, and headaches. The men also would board with the women after the baby was birthed, which Munroe considered a socio-political move, conversely from how Americans had lived and are currently living. The tests were conducted over a couple of years in both East Africa and Boston, MA. Although the sampling came from two different continents, they also found through a series of objective tests, that men who have just the symptoms have common interests with women but when confronted about the interest, their hyper masculinity side lashed out. The couvade idea is currently being researched but the Munroes findings have been noticed by childhood developmental psychologists and anthropologists. Since the early 1970s, Munroe has been writing and researching for various types of publications and monographs. He also helps to edit others works. He has assisted in writing in over 150 books, book reviews, notes and journals on both sociological and psychological issues, which included the couvade, cross-culture human development, transvestites, male pregnancy, gender differences, and cultural relativism. While a professor at Pitzer College, Munroe engaged anthropology students in his studies through his Research Apprentice Program, which worked with students who participated in cross-cultural analysis. As a retiree, his work still continues. Currently, Munroe has been working with another child psychologist and a professor from Pitzer College in field research. Munroes grandson, Max, explains how influential his grandfather has been on his own life. Though distance separates us, I will always think of him as one of the most intelligent men I

have ever met. Not only has he worked for his accomplishments but he has taught others that as well, said his grandson. Robert, along with Ruth, has been honored for their long participation in their respective fields of studies with the establishment of The Ruth and Lee Munroe Center for Social Inquiry. Munroe thinks that with continuity with undergraduate and graduate students, he was able to contribute to Pitzer. Even with all of the dedicated schooling, honorable research and contribution to Pitzer College, Munroe still notes that no life accomplishment could surpass the day he married his wife, Ruth. With her passing, he still credits most of his work to her because of her helping hand.