Dr. Bambi L Chapin

Associate Professor · Tenured

She/Her/Hers/Herself

Research interests

Psychological anthropology, human development in cultural context, relationships, Sri Lanka.

Cultural, psychological, and medical anthropology; kinship, family, and childhood; South Asia; ethnography.

Ph D, Anthropology — University of California, San Diego (2003)
Hierarchy, Envy, and Spirit Possession: Case Studies in Internalization among Sinhala Women in Central Sri Lanka
MA, Anthropology — University of California, San Diego (1998)
The Technique of Ecstasy: The Relationship between Trauma, Dissociation, and Spirit Possession among Sri Lankan Priestesses
BA, Anthropology — University of Virginia (1988)
The Metaphors through which We Understand AIDS

Children in Social Change: Socialization and the Shifting Contexts of Childhood 2025 Cambridge Handbook of Psychological Anthropology · Cambridge University Press Bambi L Chapin, JIng Xu
Feeding, Bonding, and the Formation of Social Relationships: Ethnographic Challenges to Attachment Theory and Early Childhood Interventions 2023 Cambridge University Press Leberecht Funk, Gabriel Scheidecker, Bambi L Chapin, Wiebke Johanna Schmidt, Christine El Ouardani, Nandita Chaudhary
"Socialization" 2016 Oxford Online Bibliographies: Anthropology · Oxford University Press Bambi L Chapin, Christine El Ouardani, Kathleen Barlow
Childhood in a Sri Lankan Village: Shaping Hierarchy and Desire 2014 Rutgers University Press
Fieldwork and Dreamwork in Sri Lanka 2014 Clio · 20 (4) · pp. 395-398
Childcare, Dependency, and Autonomy in a Sri Lankan Village: Enculturation of and through Attachment Relationships 2013 Attachment Reconsidered: Cultural Perspectives on a Western Theory · Palgrave Macmillan · pp. 143-163
Childhood and the Practice of Mothering 2011 Anthropology of Children and Childhood Interest Group Newsletter · Anthropology of Children and Childhood Interest Group Newsletter · 3 (1) · pp. 5-6 Bambi L Chapin, Kathleen Barlow
The Practice of Mothering: An Introduction 2010 Ethos · 38 (4) · pp. 324-338 Kathleen Barlow, Bambi L Chapin