Brigitte Jordan

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 and education 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.

Jordan earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in anthropology at California State University at Sacramento, and her Ph.D. in social science/anthropology from University of California at Irvine in 1975. 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'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 (SIGCHI). She is also credited with the development of corporate anthropology.

Personal life After marrying Richard Jordan, an American soldier stationed in Germany, in 1958, Jordan came to the United States. There, she gave birth to three children: Wayne, Susan, and Kimsey. The couple divorced in 1968 and Jordan married Robert Irwin. 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.

Works

Die Bedeutung der Fernröntgen-Profil-Aufnahme für die Indikation der kieferorthopädischen Extraktionstherapie (1966) [in German] Untersuchung zur einfachen radioimmunologischen Testosteronbestimmung mit einer Kieselgelmikrosäule (1977) [in German] Birth in Four Cultures: A Crosscultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden, and the United States (1978) Montreal: Eden Press Women's Publications Technology Transfer in Obstetrics: Theory and Practice in Developing Countries (1986) East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Modes of Teaching and Learning: Questions Raised by the Training of Traditional Birth Attendants (1987) Palo Alto, Calif.: Institute for Research on Learning Knowing by Doing: Lessons Traditional Midwives Taught Me (1988) East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Successful Home Birth and Midwifery: The Dutch Model (1993) Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey Advancing Ethnography in Corporate Environments: Challenges and Emerging Opportunities (2012) Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast