Barbara Myerhoff

Barbara Myerhoff (February 16, 1935 – January 7, 1985) was an American anthropologist and filmmaker known for her pioneering contributions to the anthropology of aging, ritual, symbolism, and cultural identity through reflexive ethnography and visual media. Her work emphasized storytelling, personal narratives, and the resilience of marginalized communities, most notably elderly Jewish immigrants and indigenous groups.

Myerhoff's most acclaimed book, Number Our Days (1978), is an ethnographic study of elderly Jewish residents at the Aliyah Senior Citizens' Center in Venice, California, exploring themes of continuity, memory, and meaning-making in later life. The research inspired the Academy Award-winning documentary short Number Our Days (1977), directed by Lynne Littman, which also received two Emmys. Earlier, her dissertation-based fieldwork among the Huichol Indians of Mexico produced Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians (1974), an examination of their peyote pilgrimage ritual that earned a National Book Award nomination.

Barbara Myerhoff was diagnosed with lung cancer. Despite her illness, she continued her anthropological work and collaborated with filmmaker Lynne Littman on a second documentary film, In Her Own Time, which documented her own bout with cancer and the final weeks of her life while also recording her study of the Jewish community in Los Angeles's Fairfax district. The film depicted how some community members helped her understand and cope with her final illness. Barbara Myerhoff died on January 7, 1985, not quite fifty years old.