In American Anthropology and Company, linguist and sociologist Stephen O. Murray explores the connections between anthropology, linguistics, sociology, psychology, and history, in broad-ranging essays on the history of anthropology and allied disciplines. On subjects ranging from Native American linguistics to the pitfalls of American, Latin American, and East Asian fieldwork, among other topics, American Anthropology and Company presents the views of a historian of anthropology interested in the theoretical and institutional connections between disciplines that have always been in conversation with anthropology. Recurring characters include Edward Sapir, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Redfield, W. I. and Dorothy Thomas, and William Ogburn. While histories of anthropology rarely cross disciplinary boundaries, Murray moves in essay after essay toward an examination of the institutions, theories, and social networks of scholars as never before, maintaining a healthy skepticism toward anthropologists' views of their own methods and theories.

From the 1920s through the end of World War II, American anthropology grew in complexityøwhile its scope became increasingly global and contemporary. Much insightful and innovative work continued to be produced by scholars working with Native American and First Nation communities, but the significant contributions of those conducting research abroad soon became hard to ignore. The nature of culture and acculturation were scrutinized and theorized about repeatedly; the relationship between culture and personality became an important subject of inquiry; particular historical reconstructions were joined by more synchronic studies of cultures; and more anthropologists gave attention to current events and to unraveling the intricacies of modern culture. The discipline as a whole moved away from affiliations with museums and instead cast itself as a social science within the academy; at the same time, government sponsorship of anthropological research increased markedly through New Deal initiatives and wartime programs of the 1940s. The thirty-nine selections in this volume represent the increasingly diverse areas of research and range of lasting accomplishments in American anthropology during the interwar period. Introducing these essays is a historical overview of American anthropology during this era by George W. Stocking Jr.

This text evaluates how anthropological research in the Trust Territory has affected the Micronesian people, the US colonial administration and the discipline of anthropology itself. It analyzes the interplay between anthropology and history, in particular how American colonialism affected anthropologists' use of history, and examines the research that has been conducted by American anthropologists in specific topical areas of sociocultural anthropology. The text concentrates on disciplinary concerns, but also considers the connections between work done in the era of applied anthropology and that completed later when anthropology was persued mainly for its own sake.

From the early Cold War years through the social unrest and activism of the 1960s, American anthropology expanded considerably in size and outreach, becoming spectacularly global and cross-cultural in its interests. Complex societies and communities became increasingly popular subjects of inquiry; the influence of sociological methods upon fieldwork and interpretation grew; a reimagined cultural evolution emerged; and a pervasive interest in the broader forces of culture change shaped research, writing, and theory throughout the quarter century. A dynamic range of schools of anthropological thought flowered?cultural ecology, structural-functionalism, ethnoscience, and, in the last years of the era, French structuralism. The American Anthropological Association became a forum of political debate in the 1960s, and its membership included more people of color but fewer women than previously. The twenty-two selections in this volume highlight the many telling achievements and enduring insights in American anthropology during the first few decades after World War II. An introduction to these essays by Robert F. Murphy provides a historical and critical backdrop for understanding the changes and continuity in American anthropology during this time.

Comprised of 24 newly commissioned chapters, this defining reference volume on Latin America introduces English-language readers to the debates, traditions, and sensibilities that have shaped the study of this diverse region. Contributors include some of the most prominent figures in Latin American and Latin Americanist anthropology Offers previously unpublished work from Latin America scholars that has been translated into English explicitly for this volume Includes overviews of national anthropologies in Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil, and is also topically focused on new research Draws on original ethnographic and archival research Highlights national and regional debates Provides a vivid sense of how anthropologists often combine intellectual and political work to address the pressing social and cultural issues of Latin America

American anthropology in the late twentieth century interrogated and depicted the worldsøof others, past and present, in subtle and incisive ways while increasingly questioning its own authority to do so. Marxist, symbolic, and structuralist thought shaped the fieldwork and conclusions of many researchers around the globe. Practicing anthropology blossomed and grew rapidly as a subdiscipline in its own right. There emerged a keener appreciation of both the history of the discipline and the histories of those studied. Archaeologists witnessed a resurgence of interest in the concept of culture. The American Anthropologist also made systematic efforts to represent the field as a whole, with biological anthropology and linguistics particularly adept at crossing subdiscipline boundaries. Proliferation of specialized areas within sociocultural anthropology encouraged work across the subdisciplines. The thirty selections in this volume reflect the notable trends and accomplishments in American anthropology during the closing decades of the millennium. An introduction by Regna Darnell offers a historical background and critical context that enable readers to better understand the changes and continuity in American anthropology during this time.

The formative years of American anthropology were characterized by intellectual energy and excitement, the identification of key interpretive issues, and the beginnings of a prodigious amount of fieldwork and recording. The American Anthropological Association (AAA) was born as anthropology emerged as a formal discipline with specialized subfields; fieldwork among Native communities proliferated across North America, yielding a wealth of ethnographic information that began to surface in the flagship journal, the American Anthropologist; and researchers increasingly debated and probed deeper into the roots and significance of ritual, myth, language, social organization, and the physical make-up and prehistory of Native Americans. The fifty-five selections in this volume represent the interests of and accomplishments in American anthropology from the establishment of the American Anthropologist through World War I. The articles in their entirety showcase the state of the subfields of anthropology?archaeology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology?as they were imagined and practiced at the dawn of the twentieth century. Examples of important ethnographic accounts and interpretive debates are also included. Introducing this collection is a historical overview of the beginnings of American anthropology by A. Irving Hallowell, a former president of the AAA.

In recent years announcements of the birth of business anthropology have ricocheted around the globe. The first major reference work on this field, the Handbook of Anthropology in Business is a creative production of more than 60 international scholar-practitioners working in universities and corporate settings from high tech to health care. Offering broad coverage of theory and practice around the world, chapters demonstrate the vibrant tensions and innovation that emerge in intersections between anthropology and business and between corporate worlds and the lives of individual scholar-practitioners. Breaking from standard attempts to define scholarly fields as products of fixed consensus, the authors reveal an evolving mosaic of engagement and innovation, offering a paradigm for understanding anthropology in business for years to come.

Relying upon close readings of virtually all of his published and unpublished writings as well as extensive interviews with former colleagues and students, Robert Redfield and the Development of American Anthropology traces the development of Robert Redfield's ideas regarding social change and the role of social science in American society. Clifford Wilcox's exploration of Redfield's pioneering efforts to develop an empirically based model of the transformation of village societies into towns and cities is intended to recapture the questions that drove early development of modernization theory. Reconsideration of these debates will enrich contemporary thinking regarding the history of American anthropology and international development