Mary Catherine Bateson, anthropologist and author of ‘Composing a Life,’ dies at 81 Matt Schudel Mary Catherine Bateson, an anthropologist and writer of wide-ranging interests whose books included a memoir about her parents, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, and another book about how women “compose” their lives through a series of conflicting responsibilities, died Jan. 2 at a hospice facility in Dartmouth, N.H. She was 81. She had a fall in the preceding week, said her daughter, Sevanne Margaret Kassarjian. Dr. Bateson was a multilingual scholar whose first book was titled “Arabic Language Handbook.” She taught at many colleges and universities, including George Mason University in Northern Virginia, and explored the intersections of language, women’s studies, public policy and cross-cultural understanding.