Anthropologists and Their Traditions Across National Borders
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and University of Nebraska Press Chapters 2014 Anthropologists and Their rT aditions across National Borders Regna Darnell Frederic W. Gleach Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples Darnell, Regna and Gleach, Frederic W., "Anthropologists and Their rT aditions across National Borders" (2014). University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters. 285. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/285 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Nebraska Press at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Anthropologists and Th eir Traditions across National Borders Buy the Book Histories of Anthropology Annual Editors Regna Darnell, University of Western Ontario Frederic W. Gleach, Cornell University Editorial Board Lee D. Baker, Duke University Alexei Elfi mov, Russian Academy of Sciences Paul A. Erickson, Saint Mary’s University Davydd J. Greenwood, Cornell University Abdellah Hammoudi, Princeton University Robert L. Hancock, Victoria, British Columbia Richard Handler, University of Virginia Curtis M. Hinsley, Northern Arizona University Jason Baird Jackson, Indiana University Christer Lindberg, Lund University Jonathan Marks, University of North Carolina, Charlott e Marie Mauzé, l’École de Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales Tim May, University of Salford Stephen O. Murray, El Instituto Obregón H. Glenn Penny, University of Iowa Vilma Santiago- Irizarry, Cornell University Arlene Torres, University of Illinois, Urbana- Champaign Susan R. Trencher, George Mason University Book Review Editor Joshua Smith, University of Western Ontario Buy the Book Anthropologists and Th eir Traditions across National Borders Histories of Anthropology Annual, Volume 8 Edited by Regna Darnell & Frederic W. Gleach University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln and London Buy the Book © 2014 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947911 Set in Arno Pro by Renni Johnson. Designed by A. Shahan. Buy the Book Contents List of Illustrations vii Editors’ Introduction ix 1. “China to the Anthropologist”: Franz Boas, Berthold Laufer, and a Road Not Taken in Early American Anthropology 1 Laurel Kendall 2. A. M. Hocart: Refl ections on a Master Ethnologist and His Work 41 Charles D. Laughlin 3. Malinowski and the “Native Question” 69 Mark Lamont 4. Radcliff e- Brown and “Applied Anthropology” at Cape Town and Sydney 111 Ian Campbell 5. “Th e Department Was in Some Disarray”: Th e Politics of Choosing a Successor to S. F. Nadel, 1957 141 Geoffrey Gray and Doug Munro 6. An Elegy for a Structuralist Legacy: Lévi- Strauss, Cultural Relativism, and the Universal Capacities of the Human Mind 173 Regna Darnell 7. Lévi- Strauss’s Approach to Systems of Classifi cation: Categories in Northwest Coast Cultures 183 Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel Buy the Book 8. Lévi- Strauss on Th eoretical Th ought and Universal History 193 Michael Asch 9. Historical Massacres and Mythical Totalities: Reading Marshall Sahlins on Two American Frontiers 209 Lars Rodseth 10. Anthropologists as Perpetrators and Perpetuators of Oral Tradition: Th e Lectures of Kenelm O. L. Burridge and Robin Ridington, Storytellers 249 Lindy- Lou Flynn Book Reviews 271 Contributors 279 Buy the Book Illustrations 1. Berthold Laufer in Hankou 13 2. Paper kite collected by Laufer 14 3. Laufer’s hand- drawn map of his travels 17 4. Carpenters in Beijing 26 5. Cloisonné vase collected by Laufer 27 6. Model of a pott er’s kiln 31 7. Kenelm Burridge at retirement party 252 8. Robin Ridington celebrating another thirty- ninth birthday 253 9. Robin Ridington recording Dunne- za singers 262 Buy the Book Buy the Book Editors’ Introduction We begin by apologizing to our readers for the recent hiatus in publi- cation of our ostensibly annual publication. Histories of Anthropology Annual began in the University of Nebraska book division and moved to the journals category aft er it had established reasonable visibility among anthropologists and historians. We discovered, however, that our readers are more inclined to buy single volumes than to subscribe. Th us we are returning to the book division. Th is has required rethink- ing and rescheduling, especially to accommodate the peer review pro- cess now in place through the Press in addition to the editors’ review. We are confi dant that this will improve the quality of each issue and that the regular annual appearance of HoAA is sustainable into the foreseeable future. Another important change is that each volume will now appear with a subtitle indicating something about the nature of its contents. Hence Volume 8: Anthropologists and Th eir Traditions across National Borders. We emphasize that this does not mean we are moving to thematic vol- umes. HoAA was established to provide a publication outlet across subject matt ers and approaches to history for specialists and for schol- ars whose primary interests lie elsewhere but who on occasion delve into historical questions of wider interest to the discipline. Volume 8 integrates fairly easily around how anthropologists’ careers have inter- sected across diff erent professional generations and allowed them to navigate national boundaries and national traditions. Th e essays are partly biographical, moving from the iconic heroes of the discipline to their litt le known contemporaries. Authors oft en deal with the foun- dational relationship of anthropologists to the people(s) they study. In each previous volume, while consciously encouraging the greatest possible diversity, we have in practice been startled by recurrent pat- terns as we juxtapose the scholarship of diverse contributors. Hence- ix Buy the Book forth, we will make this explicit at the point of assembling a volume, rather than seeking out integrated themes in advance. Likewise we have sought variation in genres of historical writing. Lindy- Lou Flynn’s meticulous documentation of the teaching styles of two quite diff erent undergraduate mentors off ers an informal and deeply personal commentary about professional socialization. Simul- taneously, the paper provides a fascinating glimpse of how a British- trained social anthropologist and a First Nations cultural anthropologist coexisted as departmental colleagues and were perhaps not as far apart as a more abstract treatment might suggest. We continue to be open to refl exive memoir and oral history materials from or about anthropolo- gists as well as to more conventional research articles. National traditions dominate volume 8, but these traditions refuse to stay in their separate boxes. Anthropologists working in the American- ist tradition will be aware of Boas’s Jesup expedition foray into Asian ethnography, whereas Laurel Kendall explores Berthold Laufer’s Chi- nese work and its abortive anthropological context at the American Museum of Natural History, which has been largely forgott en. Several papers trace the British national tradition through its far- fl ung geograph- ical distribution: Charles Laughlin reexamines the comparative ethno- graphic approach of A. M. Hocart, which was eclipsed in its own time by the reputations of Radcliff e- Brown and Malinowski. Mark Lamont places Malinowski squarely within British colonialism and att ributes the success of his functionalism to its administrative utility in dealing with the “native question.” Another guise of functionalism, Radcliff e- Brown’s “applied anthropology,” was tested at the far ends of empire during his appointments at Sydney, Australia, and Cape Town, South Africa; Ian Campbell demonstrates that British social anthropology was not a position confi ned to or developed solely within the Brit- ish Isles. Geoff rey Gray and Doug Munro continue their institutional documentation of anthropology in Australia and New Zealand as they skip ahead in time to 1957 and the politics of fi lling S. R. Nadel’s chair at Australian National University aft er his sudden death the previous year. Th ree short papers, best read as a set, assess the legacy of struc- turalism not long aft er the death of Claude Lévi- Strauss, its founder and most distinguished anthropological proponent. Regna Darnell x Editors’ Introduction Buy the Book emphasizes the interplay between culture- specifi c patt ern and cog- nitive universals in the widespread empirical exemplars of kinship, myth, and language. Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel focus on the application of Lévi- Strauss’s structuralist method to the classifi catory systems of the North Pacifi c Coast, where Boas established an ethno- graphic database that has become iconic for the discipline. Michael Asch assesses Lévi- Strauss’s claim to have accessed universal mental structures in his renditions of history, tying the French anthropologist to the European philosophical traditions usually outside the sphere of att ention of practicing anthropologists. Th e death of the major fi gure in a theoretical school of thought off ers the disciplinary historian a unique opportunity to stand back and take stock. Th ese papers begin to defi ne the ongoing legacy. Lars Rodseth contextualizes the complex career of Marshall Sahlins, albeit