Moni Nag (1925 – 7 December 2015) was an Indian anthropologist specialising in the politics of sexuality.
Born in India, Nag earned a master's degree in statistics from the University of Calcutta in 1946 and a PhD in anthropology from Yale University in 1961. [1] [2] He started his career in the Indian Statistical Institute[ citation needed] and worked on the Anthropological Survey of India before joining the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York in 1966; he was a lecturer and later an adjunct professor and headed the social demography section in the International Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. [1] [2] He was also a senior associate in the Population Council in New York [3] and a patron and vice president of the Elmhirst Institute of Community Studies at Santiniketan, [1] and served as chair of the population commission in the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. [2]
Nag was a pioneer of demographic anthropology. [3] He researched and published in the fields of human sexuality, fertility, family planning, HIV prevention, and sex work, with a focus on India, and both studied and worked for the rights of prostitutes in the Kolkata red-light district of Sonagachi; [1] [3] [4] [5] he was one of several academics working with the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee there. [6]
Moni Nag (1925 – 7 December 2015) was an Indian anthropologist specialising in the politics of sexuality.
Born in India, Nag earned a master's degree in statistics from the University of Calcutta in 1946 and a PhD in anthropology from Yale University in 1961. [1] [2] He started his career in the Indian Statistical Institute[ citation needed] and worked on the Anthropological Survey of India before joining the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in New York in 1966; he was a lecturer and later an adjunct professor and headed the social demography section in the International Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction. [1] [2] He was also a senior associate in the Population Council in New York [3] and a patron and vice president of the Elmhirst Institute of Community Studies at Santiniketan, [1] and served as chair of the population commission in the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. [2]
Nag was a pioneer of demographic anthropology. [3] He researched and published in the fields of human sexuality, fertility, family planning, HIV prevention, and sex work, with a focus on India, and both studied and worked for the rights of prostitutes in the Kolkata red-light district of Sonagachi; [1] [3] [4] [5] he was one of several academics working with the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee there. [6]