Michelle Rosaldo

In the 1974 volume she co-edited with Louise Lamphere, Rosaldo argued that women's subordination was often connected to a division between domestic and public spheres. She later criticized overly universal versions of that model and emphasized historically specific social relationships.

Working with Renato Rosaldo in the Philippines, she studied Ilongot ideas about emotion, speech, social relationships, and headhunting. Her book Knowledge and Passion examined how concepts such as liget, often translated as energy or anger, organize social life.

She argued that emotions should not be treated as purely private biological states. Among the Ilongot, she showed how feeling, thought, language, and culturally defined social situations are inseparable.

Rosaldo died in 1981 after falling from a cliff while conducting fieldwork in the Philippines. She was 37, and her published work on gender, emotion, and Ilongot society remained highly influential despite her short career.