Meredith F. Small
Anthropologist • Writer • Educator
Meredith Small is a best-selling author, award-winning anthropologist, Professor Emerita at Cornell University, and Visiting Scholar in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania.
Meredith’s latest published book, Here Begins the Dark Sea; Venice, a Medieval Monk, and the Creation of the Most Accurate Map of the World tells the story of Fra Mauro’s world map, completed in Venice in 1459 and now hangs in the Museo Correr in Piazza San Marco in Venice. This 7-foot-in-diameter map was the first world map to move away from religion and toward science, showed that the southern tip of Africa could be circumnavigated, and was an encyclopedia of human activity for its time.
Current News: Here Begins the Dark Sea: Venice, a Medieval Monk, and the Creation of the Most Accurate Map of the World is out in paperback! Order now at all the usual online sites or your local bookstore. 
More News: Just signed contract with Pegasus Books for a book on the anthropology of family. Together: How the Human Need for Connection Forms and Shapes Families. Manuscript due Sept. 2025, pub date Spring 2026.
More News: Inventing the World is out in Italian from Leg Edizione!
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Blurbs
"In elegant, engaging prose, Meredith Small shows the mother-child relation to be a microcosm of society"
"[Small's] concise, readable treatment of cross-cultural differences in child-rearing will interest everyone from high school students to grandparents, with or without children."
"Lays out the fundamental wiring diagrams of human sexuality ... essential knowledge"
