Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a study in depth of the work of Franz Boas and twenty of his students at Columbia University in the early years of the twentieth century. Collectively they laid the entire institutional as well as the intellectual foundations of American anthropology as it exists today. The book begins with a discussion of the historical context of Boasian anthropology, and an overview of its nature and limitations. The work of Boas and his leading students is then discussed in detail, including biographical data, a review and critique of their research, a review in detail of each of their major publications, and an overall assessment of their contribution to anthropology, as seen in their own time and today.
Trade ReviewWilliam Adams has...produced a valuable work by marshalling so much information about the men and women who created the distinctive discipline that is (or was) American anthropology. * Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute *
Table of ContentsPHOTO CREDITS PART ONE: BACKGROUND 1.Introduction 2.Antecedents and circumstances 3.The founding grandfather: Franz Boas, 1858–1942 PART TWO: THE FOUNDING FATHERS 4.Clark Wissler, 1870–1947 5.A. L. Kroeber, 1876–1960 6.Robert H. Lowie, 1883–1957 7.Edward Sapir, 1884–1939 8.Paul Radin, 1883–1959 9.Melville J. Herskovits, 1895–1963 10.The journeymen Frank G. Speck, 1881–1950 Alexander Goldenweiser, 1880–1940 Fay-Cooper Cole, 1881–1961 Leslie Spier, 1893–1961 Melville Jacobs, 1902–1971 Alexander Lesser, 1902–1982 PART THREE: THE FOUNDING MOTHERS 11.Elsie Clews Parsons, 1874–1941 12.Ruth Benedict, 1887–1948 13.Margaret Mead, 1901–1978 14.The handmaidens Gladys Reichard, 1893–1955 Erna Gunther, 1896–1982 Esther Goldfrank, 1896–1997 Ruth Bunzel, 1898–1990 Gene Weltfish, 1902–1980 Ruth Underhill, 1883–1984 Marian W. Smith, 1907–1961 Zora Neale Hurston, 1901(?)–1960 PART FOUR: RETROSPECTIVE 15.Achievements and failures 16.The legacies BIBLIOGRAPHY
