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Mary Kilbourne Matossian
Born
Mary Allerton Kilbourne

July 9, 1930
Los Angeles, California
DiedJuly 9, 2023 (age 93)
Portola Valley, California
Occupation(s)Historian, college professor
Notable workThe Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia (1962); Poisons of the Past (1989)
RelativesFanny Andrews Shepard (great-aunt)

Mary Allerton Kilbourne Matossian (July 9, 1930 – July 9, 2023) was an American historian who was perhaps best known in the fields of Soviet and Armenian studies for her pioneering research on the history of Soviet Armenia.[1] In her later career, she was also known for her interest in interdisciplinary approaches, as exemplified in her book Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History (1989).

Early life and education

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Kilbourne was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Norman J. Kilbourne and Katharine Rebecca Hillix Kilbourne. Her father was a physician, and her mother was active in the YWCA. Her first and middle name were chosen in memory of Mary Allerton, a Mayflower ancestor. Medical missionary and botanist Fanny Andrews Shepard was her great-aunt.[2] She graduated from Stanford University in 1951.[3] She earned a master's degree in Near East history from the American University of Beirut, and completed doctoral studies in history at Stanford University in 1955.[2]

Career

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Matossian was a professor in the history department at the University of Maryland, College Park, for 31 years.[2][4][5] She was president of the UM Tenured Faculty Women's Association, and outspoken on issues affecting women professors.[6] In 1962, Matossian published the book The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia, a groundbreaking study that influenced scholars such as Ronald Grigor Suny. The work "stood virtually alone for two decades as the main Anglophone source on Soviet social reforms in Armenian life."[1] She was an early member of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), joining in 1955, soon after its founding.[2]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Matossian became known for her study on the role of food contamination in historical events such as the Salem witchcraft panic (following on the earlier work of Linnda R. Caporael) and the Great Fear of 1789. These later works drew from medical history, environmental history, women's history, and religious history, and gained significant attention in the popular press.[7][8][9]

Publications

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Matossian's interdisciplinary interests are reflected in the wide range of academic journals where her work was published, including Slavic Review,[10][11] Medical History,[12] Quaker History,[13] Journal of Social History,[14] Middle East Journal,[15] Economic Development and Cultural Change,[16] Perspectives in Biology and Medicine,[17][18] and Free Inquiry.[19]

  • "Two Marxist Approaches to Nationalism" (1957)[10]
  • "Ideologies of Delayed Industrialization: Some Tensions and Ambiguities" (1958)[16]
  • The Impact of Soviet Policies in Armenia (1962)[2]
  • "In the Beginning, God was a Woman" (1973)[14]
  • "Birds, Bees, and Barley: Pagan Origins of Armenian Spring Rituals" (1979)[2]
  • "The Transformation of Armenian Life under Stalin" (1980)[20]
  • "Mold Poisoning: An Unrecognized English Health Problem, 1550-1800" (1981)[12]
  • Armenian Village Life Before 1914 (1982, with Susie Hoogasian Villa)[15]
  • "Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair" (1982)[21]
  • "Did mycotoxins play a role in bubonic plague epidemics?" (1986)[17]
  • "Climate, Crops, and Natural Increase in Rural Russia, 1861-1913" (1986)[11]
  • Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History (1989)[22]
  • "Fertility decline in Europe, 1875-1913. Was zinc deficiency the cause?" (1991)[18]
  • Shaping World History: Breakthroughs in Ecology, Technology, Science, and Politics (1997)[23]
  • "Why the Quakers quaked: the influence of climatic change on Quaker health, 1647-1659" (2007)[13]
  • "Visions and the Origins of Christianity" (2009)[19]
  • Plants, Stars, and the Origins of Religion: With a Decipherment of the Phaistos Disk (2014)[24]

Personal life

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Kilbourne married Garabed Setrak "Garo" Matossian, an Armenian physician; they met during her graduate work in Beirut. They had four children. They later divorced.[25] She died in 2023, on her 93rd birthday, in Portola Valley, California.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Matossian, Lou Ann (2023-08-10). "Armenian studies pioneer Mary A. Kilbourne Matossian passes away". The Armenian Weekly. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "In Memoriam: Mary Allerton Kilbourne Matossian (1930-2023)". NAASR. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  3. ^ "Southland Students Win Stanford School Honors". The Los Angeles Times. 1949-10-29. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-12-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Seminar Set to Discuss Russ Peasant". The Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet. 1966-11-24. p. 18. Retrieved 2023-12-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Henry VIII and Modern Family Life/Gerri Kobren". The Baltimore Sun. 1976-01-04. p. 177. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  6. ^ Hamilton, Susan (1984-04-20). "UM women charge salary inequity". The Evening Sun. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-12-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "New Study Backs Thesis on Witches". The New York Times. August 29, 1982. p. 30. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  8. ^ "Historian blames French Revolution panic attack on rye wheat fungus". Southern Illinoisan. 1989-11-23. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-12-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Hudson, Lou (1982-10-01). "Witchin' linked to rye whit; Bedevilment due to poisoned grain". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-12-09 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b Matossian, Mary (December 1957). "Two Marxist Approaches to Nationalism". American Slavic and East European Review. 16 (4): 489–500. doi:10.2307/3000775. ISSN 1049-7544. JSTOR 3000775.
  11. ^ a b Matossian, Mary Kilbourne (Autumn 1986). "Climate, Crops, and Natural Increase in Rural Russia, 1861–1913". Slavic Review. 45 (3): 457–469. doi:10.2307/2499051. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 2499051. PMID 11618114.
  12. ^ a b Matossian, M. K. (January 1981). "Mold poisoning: an unrecognized English health problem, 1550-1800". Medical History. 25 (1): 73–84. doi:10.1017/s0025727300034116. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 1138987. PMID 7012476.
  13. ^ a b Matossian, Mary K. (2007). "Why the Quakers Quaked: The Influence of Climatic Change on Quaker Health, 1647-1659". Quaker History. 96 (1): 36–51. doi:10.1353/qkh.2007.0012. ISSN 1934-1504. PMID 17508460.
  14. ^ a b Matossian, Mary Kilbourne (1973). "In the Beginning, God Was a Woman". Journal of Social History. 6 (3): 325–343. doi:10.1353/jsh/6.3.325. ISSN 0022-4529. JSTOR 3786544.
  15. ^ a b Magnarella, Paul J. (1983). "Review of Armenian Village Life before 1914". Middle East Journal. 37 (2): 260–261. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4326566.
  16. ^ a b Matossian, Mary (April 1958). "Ideologies of Delayed Industrialization: Some Tensions and Ambiguities". Economic Development and Cultural Change. 6 (3): 217–228. doi:10.1086/449767. ISSN 0013-0079.
  17. ^ a b Matossian, Mary Kilbourne (1986). "Did Mycotoxins Play a Role in Bubonic Plague Epidemics?". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 29 (2): 244–256. doi:10.1353/pbm.1986.0000. ISSN 1529-8795. PMID 3951959.
  18. ^ a b Matossian, Mary Kilbourne (1991). "Fertility Decline in Europe, 1875-1913: Was Zinc Deficiency the Cause?". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 34 (4): 604–616. doi:10.1353/pbm.1991.0026. ISSN 1529-8795. PMID 1923698.
  19. ^ a b Matossian, Mary K. (August–September 2009). "Visions and the Origins of Christianity". Free Inquiry 29(5). Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  20. ^ "The Transformation of Armenian Society under Stalin (1980)". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kennan Institute Occasional Paper Series #100. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  21. ^ Matossian, Mary K. (1982). "Views: Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair: An outbreak of a type of food poisoning known as convulsive ergotism may have led to the 1692 accusations of witchcraft". American Scientist. 70 (4): 355–357. ISSN 0003-0996. JSTOR 27851542.
  22. ^ Kiple, Kenneth F. (1991). "Review of Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History". The American Historical Review. 96 (3): 826. doi:10.2307/2162439. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 2162439.
  23. ^ Matossian, Mary Allerton Kilbourne (1997). Shaping World History: Breakthroughs in Ecology, Technology, Science, and Politics. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-0062-2.
  24. ^ "Plants, Stars and the Origins of Religion: With a Decipherment of the Phaistos Disk (Hardcover)". Book Culture. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
  25. ^ "Garo Matossian Obituary". Ann Arbor News, via Legacy.com. 2004. Retrieved 2023-12-09.
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