Audrey Cantlie was an anthropologist who worked at the Anthropology Department of SOAS for over forty years after completing a PhD in Sociology at the London School of Economics. Having spent her early childhood in Assam and returned there to undertake field research, she published a widely read monograph 'The Assamese: Religion, Caste and Sect in an Indian Village' (1984) and contributed seminal articles on the anthropology of Indian religion. Her subsequent work at Kalighat led to some extraordinary papers, anticipating current discussions on ontology and the status of statements regarding the "real". Later she developed her interest in psychoanalysis and anthropology and taught at SOAS until her death in 2013.
