Brigitte Jordan was a German-American professor, scientist, and consultant who was described as the midwife to the "Anthropology of Birth". She attended Sacramento State College where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees, and later attended the University of California, Irvine where she completed her PhD.
Early life
Brigitte "Gitti" Jordan was born in Passau, Germany, in 1937. Her parents were Gertrude Frank Muller, who died in 1944 when Jordan was seven, and Josef Karl Muller. After marrying Richard Jordan, an American soldier stationed in Germany, Jordan came to the United States. There, she gave birth to three children. She later divorced Richard Jordan and married Robert Irwin.
Career and later life
Jordan spent much of her early career studying obstetrical anthropology and cross-cultural birth practices. Rayna Rapp praised Jordan for her authoritative knowledge of childbirth: "Jordan uses her exquisite sense of description to birth a theoretical framework." Jordan's theoretical concept of authoritative knowledge has been employed by countless scholars to account for the subsuming of some ways of knowing by others and also to show how knowledge can be laterally distributed. Jordan later opened her own consulting practice where she held appointments as the Principal Scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and as Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Research on Learning. This led to her receiving the Excellence in Science and Technology Award from the Xerox Corporation for innovative work. Jordan's research on the relationship between humans and technology has influenced organizations outside of the field of anthropology, such as the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction. She is also credited with the development of corporate anthropology. Jordan died of pancreatic cancer in her home on May 24, 2016. She lived to be 78, leaving behind her husband, three children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Although Jordan had pancreatic cancer, she made it known to others that she did not want to be treated as incapable because of her condition. She refused medication and remained mentally and intellectually active until the end of her life. She continued to live life in a normalized manner, and helped form her obituary.
Career honors
Jordan received the Margaret Mead Award in 1980 for her 1978 book . Her work is credited with inspiring a range of responses within the field of reproductive anthropology that integrated her approaches to her examinations of the social, cultural and biological implications of birth around the world. She is known for showing how knowledge can be "laterally distributed," shared by all, and understood by all. In 2015, Jordan was inducted into the American Anthropological Association's Distinguished Member program which honors members who have loyally supported the Association for 50 years or more.
