On August 16, 1925, Eleanor Kathleen Gough Aberle was born in Hunsingore, Wetherby, York, in the U. K. She received her doctorate in 1950 after attending Oxford University and Cambridge University. Aberle's geographic focus was on Asia, specifically in India and later in Vietnam. She held several teaching positions throughout her career, including Simon Fraser University, the University of Oregon, and Brandeis University. Her political views, including support for Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963 and comments against police brutality, caused difficulties at several of her teaching posts. She participated in an academic freedom lawsuit with other professors against Simon Fraser University in 1970. From 1974 to 1990, when she retired, she was an honorary researcher at the University of British Columbia.
Aberle conducted fieldwork in India in Kerala from 1947 to 1949 and the Tanjore District from 1950 to 1953. She returned to India in 1976 and also traveled to Vietnam. Her publications include Anthropology and Imperialism (1967), Ten Times More Beautiful: The Rebuilding of Vietnam (1978), Rural Society in Southeast India (1981), Rural Change in Southeast India, 1950's-1980's (1989) and Political Economy in Vietnam (1990).
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Written by: Jennifer Kiesow, 2006
Edited by: Emily Hildebrant, 2007