Joan P Mencher (1930–2026)

Joan Phyllis Mencher, who died in New York on 7 August 2026 at the age of 96, belonged to a generation of scholars for whom India was neither an area of specialisation nor an archive viewed from afar. It was a field of long relationships and ethical responsibility.Joan Phyllis Mencher, who died in New York on 7 August 2026 at the age of 96, belonged to a generation of scholars for whom India was neither an area of specialisation nor an archive viewed from afar. It was a field of long relationships and ethical responsibility. An anthropologist trained at Columbia University, she spent half a century returning to Indian villages, especially in…