- Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Herbert S Lewis
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Cultural anthropologist (PhD Columbia 1963). Research in Ethiopia (Oromo), Israel (Jews from Yemen and Morocco), Wisc... moreCultural anthropologist (PhD Columbia 1963). Research in Ethiopia (Oromo), Israel (Jews from Yemen and Morocco), Wisconsin (Euro-Americans, Oneidas). History of Anthropology, political anthropology, change, ethnicity, culture history. Boasian-Weberian.edit
"This book argues that the history and character of modern anthropology has been egregiously distorted to the detriment of this intellectual pursuit and academic discipline. The "critique of anthropology" is a product of the momentous and... more
"This book argues that the history and character of modern anthropology has been egregiously distorted to the detriment of this intellectual pursuit and academic discipline. The "critique of anthropology" is a product of the momentous and tormented events of the 1960s when students and some of their elders cried, "Trust no one over thirty!" The Marxist, postmodern, and postcolonial waves that followed took aim at anthropology and the result has been a serious loss of confidence; both the reputation and the practice of anthropology has suffered greatly. The time has come to move past this damaging discourse.
Herbert S. Lewis chronicles these developments, and subjects the "critique" to a long overdue interrogation based on wide-ranging knowledge of the field and its history, as well as the application of common sense. The book questions discourses about anthropology and colonialism, anthropologists and history, the problem of "exoticizing ‘the Other,’" anthropologists and the Cold War, and more. In Defense of Anthropology will require consideration by all anthropologists, historians, sociologists of science, and cultural theorists."
Herbert S. Lewis chronicles these developments, and subjects the "critique" to a long overdue interrogation based on wide-ranging knowledge of the field and its history, as well as the application of common sense. The book questions discourses about anthropology and colonialism, anthropologists and history, the problem of "exoticizing ‘the Other,’" anthropologists and the Cold War, and more. In Defense of Anthropology will require consideration by all anthropologists, historians, sociologists of science, and cultural theorists."
Research Interests: Anthropology and Africa
Page 1. HERBERT S. LEWIS University of Wisconsin The origins of African Kingdoms* The problem of the origins of African kingdoms is closely linked to the general theoretical problem of state formation. Various writers' views ...
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Commentary on K. Visweswaran, "Race and the Culture of Anthropology"
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This is a brief commentary responding to the presidential address of Akhil Gupta. The piece makes the case that there is no need for today's "decolonized anthropology" to reinterpret the discipline's history. The new field should stand on... more
This is a brief commentary responding to the presidential address of Akhil Gupta. The piece makes the case that there is no need for today's "decolonized anthropology" to reinterpret the discipline's history. The new field should stand on its own merits, its advocates should pursue the work they think best, and not spend so much time blaming a past that is no longer studied, understood, and that had more in common with the aims and values of the present than is recognized.
This is a serious book, intended as a weighty contribution to social theory. Although written by an anthropologist and Africanist, illustrated with ethnographic material from Ethiopia, this work is not directed to Africanists,... more
This is a serious book, intended as a weighty contribution to social theory. Although written by an anthropologist and Africanist, illustrated with ethnographic material from Ethiopia, this work is not directed to Africanists, Ethiopianists, or even a general anthropological audience. Addressed to those concerned with Marxism and social theory, it is an insider's book, written to convince those already well versed in Marxism. As is usual in this realm of discourse, the book is directed towards questions of the ultimate nature of the human condition—no less than "history, power, ideology," with material from the Maale of Ethiopia to demonstrate the applicability of the theory. To accomplish this task the author must, of course, take us once again through the mysteries of base and superstructure, the most useful interpretations of "forces of production," "relations of production," "reproduction," "ideology," "determinism," and much more. It is an earnest, learned, literate, and ingenious work, packed with an impressive number of citations from the voluminous recent literature of Marxist social thought and much more. Donham explains difficult topics with considerable skill and grace. In attempting to justify the ways of anthropologists to Marxists and Marxists to anthropologists he combines theoretical abilities with first-hand knowledge of the Maale. As an anthropologist who has done impressive field work and as a sophisticated theoretical writer, he has produced a book which should be considered seriously in the world of Marxist anthropology and social thought. The reviewer, while impressed, is far from convinced, however.
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This article deals with several of the most common charges leveled at anthropology, notably that it has regularly and necessarily exorcized "Others," has been ahistorical, and has treated each culture as if it were an isolate,... more
This article deals with several of the most common charges leveled at anthropology, notably that it has regularly and necessarily exorcized "Others," has been ahistorical, and has treated each culture as if it were an isolate, unconnected to any other.The paper demonstrates how inaccurate and easily refutable such claims are and recommends a critical reevaluation of these unexamined and destructive cliches.
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Ch. 4 of In Defense of Anthropology: An Investigation of the Critique of Anthropology. This is a discussion of the relationship of American and "British" anthropologists and anthropology to colonialism in the 20th century
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Page 1. BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS 429 The Dictionary of Anthropology. Thomas Barfield, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1997. 626 pp. Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Human-ity, Culture, and Social Life. Tim Ingold, ed. New York: Routledge,... more
Page 1. BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS 429 The Dictionary of Anthropology. Thomas Barfield, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1997. 626 pp. Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Human-ity, Culture, and Social Life. Tim Ingold, ed. New York: Routledge, 1997. 1128 pp. ...
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It is the contention of this paper that American anthropologists were not agents of the Cild War--knowingly or unknowingly--was the work that they produced characterized by usefulness in that "struggle." In fact it was a time in which... more
It is the contention of this paper that American anthropologists were not agents of the Cild War--knowingly or unknowingly--was the work that they produced characterized by usefulness in that "struggle." In fact it was a time in which Marxist or crypto-Marxist approaches to culture and evolution enjoyed considerable popularity.
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Despite the mythology, the individual and individuality was of central importance to Franz Boas throughout his life and work. This paper documents the various sources as well as the manifestations of these concerns In his anthropology.
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Franz Boas was honored with a Festschrift at age 48. This paper considers his circumstances at the time and especially the identities and the interests and backgrounds of the 40 or so individuals who sponsored and organized this massive... more
Franz Boas was honored with a Festschrift at age 48. This paper considers his circumstances at the time and especially the identities and the interests and backgrounds of the 40 or so individuals who sponsored and organized this massive volume. They include both American-born "Anglo" philanthropists and immigrant German (primarily Jewish) progressives and major figures In the financial world.
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's Career and Contributions to California's Indigenous Peoples", in Bérose-Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l'anthropologie, Paris. URL Bérose : article2536.html Télécharger en pdf Cet article fait partie d'une série de six... more
's Career and Contributions to California's Indigenous Peoples", in Bérose-Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l'anthropologie, Paris. URL Bérose : article2536.html Télécharger en pdf Cet article fait partie d'une série de six communications présentées le 19 novembre 2021, lors d'une session intitulée "Alfred L. Kroeber : The Man, His Work and His Legacy", organisée pendant la réunion annuelle de l'American Anthropological Association (AAA). Le 27 janvier 2021, l'Université de Berkeley (Californie) a débaptisé le "Kroeber Hall" qui abrite le département et le musée d'anthropologie-institutions fondées par Kroeber. Il nous a semblé intéressant d'offrir en lecture dans Bérose ces six contributions discutées en novembre. Sans prétendre à l'exhaustivité, elle offrent des éclairages complémentaires sur l'oeuvre d'une figure majeure de l'histoire de l'anthropologie états-unienne.
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Ethnographers have reported on a great profusion and varieties of spirit possession In Ethiopia. A number of interesting hypotheses have been suggested to account for particular cases. This paper looks at those as of the early 1970s and... more
Ethnographers have reported on a great profusion and varieties of spirit possession In Ethiopia. A number of interesting hypotheses have been suggested to account for particular cases. This paper looks at those as of the early 1970s and points out the similarities among them and suggests that "the many manifestations and permutations which these phenomena can take leads to the conclusion that no simple typology or the attribution of a few causes can adequately account for, or capture, the rich and complex reality of spirit possession In Ethiopia."
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Based on field research in western Shoa province in 1965-66.
Page 1. Part II. Prehistory and History HISTORICAL PKOBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN OF AFRICA* Herbert S. Lewis Colrinibia University, A'cw York, N . Y. This paper will consider two recurrent problems of the history of the... more
Page 1. Part II. Prehistory and History HISTORICAL PKOBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA AND THE HORN OF AFRICA* Herbert S. Lewis Colrinibia University, A'cw York, N . Y. This paper will consider two recurrent problems of the history of the Cush-ites.? ...
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Written shortly before Ethiopia was divided into major regions on the basis of language and ethnicity (nationality) this piece was directed against the "unusually powerful discourse of nationhood" that characterized elite and... more
Written shortly before Ethiopia was divided into major regions on the basis of language and ethnicity (nationality) this piece was directed against the "unusually powerful discourse of nationhood" that characterized elite and academic discussions of Ethiopian politics.
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Page 1. The Influence of Edward Said and Orientalism on Anthropology, or: Can the Anthropologist Speak? HERBERT S. LEWIS In Orientalism, Edward Said ignores anthropology almost entirely, except to allow that Clifford ...
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Page 1. A RECONSIDERATION OF THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE WESTERN GALLA HERBERT S. LEWIS The Galla of Ethiopia are generally represented as an egalitarian people whose characteristic political organization is said to be the gada... more
Page 1. A RECONSIDERATION OF THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE WESTERN GALLA HERBERT S. LEWIS The Galla of Ethiopia are generally represented as an egalitarian people whose characteristic political organization is said to be the gada (age-grade) system. ...
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Page 1. Neighbors, Friends, and Kinsmen: Principles of Social Organization Among the Cushitic-Speaking Peoples of Ethiopial Herbert S. Lewis University of Wisconsin-Madison The major ideas of Radcliffe-Brown (I952) and ...
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EJ182523 - European Ethnicity in Wisconsin: an Exploratory Formulation.
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Page 339. 15 The Galla State of Jimma Abba Jifar HERBERT S. LEWIS The Galla state known as Jimma (sometimes called Jimma Abba Jifar) arose in southwestern Ethiopia in the nineteenth century and endured as an entity for about 100 years,... more
Page 339. 15 The Galla State of Jimma Abba Jifar HERBERT S. LEWIS The Galla state known as Jimma (sometimes called Jimma Abba Jifar) arose in southwestern Ethiopia in the nineteenth century and endured as an entity for about 100 years, until 1932. ...
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Page 1. 209 African Political Systems: A Bibliographical Inventory of Anthropological Writings-I 1 Herbert S. Lewis [Accepted for publication: April 1972.] The connection between the anthropological study of political systems ...
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Page 210. § Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Ideologies, Policies, and Outcomes Herbert S. Lewis Twenty years ago, when we were young, we knew just how it would be. It was clear that in a generation there would be complete assimilation. But it... more
Page 210. § Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Ideologies, Policies, and Outcomes Herbert S. Lewis Twenty years ago, when we were young, we knew just how it would be. It was clear that in a generation there would be complete assimilation. But it didn't happen that way. ...
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This article deals with several of the most common charges leveled at anthropology, notably that it has regularly and necessarily exorcized "Others," has been ahistorical, and has treated each culture as if it were an isolate, unconnected... more
This article deals with several of the most common charges leveled at anthropology, notably that it has regularly and necessarily exorcized "Others," has been ahistorical, and has treated each culture as if it were an isolate, unconnected to any other.The paper demonstrates how inaccurate and easily refutable such claims are and recommends a critical reevaluation of these unexamined and destructive cliches.
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The contemporary profession of anthropology is marked to a considerable degree by “the hermeneutics of suspicion” and a fixation on misery and domination, relieved only by evidence of resistance by the weak. This trend, threatening to... more
The contemporary profession of anthropology is marked to a considerable degree by “the hermeneutics of suspicion” and a fixation on misery and domination, relieved only by evidence of resistance by the weak. This trend, threatening to overwhelm the field, can be traced to the multiple effects deriving from the political, social, and economic crises of the late 1960s and their aftermath. This paper documents the course of these developments as they were manifested at the annual meetings of the AAA from 1965 to 1974.
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This is a review essay of two books with distinctive claims about the history of anthropology. One offers a basically sympathetic view of American anthropologists of the Left as they struggled with an oppressive capitalist state and world... more
This is a review essay of two books with distinctive claims about the history of anthropology. One offers a basically sympathetic view of American anthropologists of the Left as they struggled with an oppressive capitalist state and world while the other volume is dedicated to the proposition that anthropology is inescapably the heir to the horrors of the colonial past--before there was a discipline of anthropology.
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Published in: The Tao of Anthropology, ed. Jack Kelso
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This is an unpublished lecture by Franz Boas about Charles Darwin, from 1909.
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Introduction to Franz Boas Biography and Contributions to Anthropology and Understanding of Human Culture and Behavior
The proclaimed aim of this collection of fourteen essays is to present the “world of Boas: the assemblage of individuals and communities who influenced the production and dissemination of modern concepts of diversity, identity, and... more
The proclaimed aim of this collection of fourteen essays is to present the “world of Boas: the assemblage of individuals and communities who influenced the production and dissemination of modern concepts of diversity, identity, and belonging,” with an emphasis on the “visions” of Indigenous intellectuals who influenced the way Boas developed his ideas. In the event only one of the articles grapples with that theme. There are some excellent articles about interesting, even brilliant, individuals and several good pieces about Boas himself, but the good intentions of the editors fail to produce the desired result.
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... The shaping of Somali society: Reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600-1900. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Cassanelli, Lee V. (b. 1946, d. ----. PUBLISHER: University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia). SERIES... more
... The shaping of Somali society: Reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600-1900. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Cassanelli, Lee V. (b. 1946, d. ----. PUBLISHER: University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1982. ...
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The Dictionary of Anthropology.; Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture, and Social Life.; A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory.:The Dictionary of Anthropology.;Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture, and Social Life.;A Dictionary of Cultural and Crit...more
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Page 1. ATSUKO MATSUOKA and JOHN SORENSON AND Construction of Identity and Community in an African Diaspora Page 2. Page 3. GHOSTS AND SHADOWS Construction of Identity and Community in an African Diaspora ...
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Peter Hempenstall has taken up the case for the man who caused the longest-lasting teapot-sized tempest in anthropology’s history. Truth’s fool, presents an account of Freeman’s intellectual life as background to and explanation for the... more
Peter Hempenstall has taken up the case for the man who caused the longest-lasting teapot-sized tempest in anthropology’s history. Truth’s fool, presents an account of Freeman’s intellectual life as background to and explanation for the mission that drove him to attack Margaret Mead, her work In Samoa, and anthropology generally, especially American. The author intends to put Freeman’s attack on Margaret Mead in a proper light and respond to some of the slings and arrows from those Americans he views as hysterically trying to protect the honour of the idol of their tribe.
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Fredrik Barth was a creative and outspoken theorist, an indefatigable fieldworker and world traveler, and he was fortunate in his biographer. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is not only obviously devoted to Barth, but he is also thorough,... more
Fredrik Barth was a creative and outspoken theorist, an indefatigable fieldworker and world traveler, and he was fortunate in his biographer. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is not only obviously devoted to Barth, but he is also thorough, comprehensive, fair—pointing out problems and occasional failings of his subject—and not too much over the top in his admiration. Above all he does an excellent job presenting and explaining Fredrik Barth's many works and his innovative methodological and theoretical positions as well as contextualizing his work in the anthropology of his time. Fredrik Barth (1928-2016) was one of the handful of leaders of world anthropology from his youth in the 1950s until early in this century. His name was not as widely known or frequently mentioned as Clifford Geertz or Lévi-Strauss, but for many anthropologists in the Anglophone world his numerous and varied works were an important stimulus and source of ideas. He rejected the more popular contemporary approaches of structural-functionalism, Lévi-Straussian structuralism, and American neo-evolutionism, symbolic and psychological anthropology, and developed his own form of actor-oriented processual perspective. Over five decades he would carry out fieldwork among an unusually large number of peoples in remarkably different cultural and environmental settings, and throughout this period and with respect to the many cultures and topics he dealt with, Fredrik Barth maintained a perspective that was in fundamental disagreement with those other popular approaches. However, as we shall see, his work had more in common with certain other anthropologists that Eriksen says very little about.
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Review of volume discussing in some detail the major figures of Boasian anthropology--and some of the less well-known ones.
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History of anthropology at Columbia University from the time of its establishment by Franz Boas.
Follows obituary of Lewis R. Binford in reprint;
With Thomas F. Thornton and Thomas S. Weisner
With Thomas F. Thornton and Thomas S. Weisner
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American Anthropologist, 104 (2): 637-640, June 2002
Published without some paragraphs--later added as:
Corrections to the Obituary of Morton Klass--
American Anthropologist
Volume 105, Issue 1, pages 235–236, March 2003
Published without some paragraphs--later added as:
Corrections to the Obituary of Morton Klass--
American Anthropologist
Volume 105, Issue 1, pages 235–236, March 2003
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Alexander Granach (1893-1945) was a celebrated stage and film star in Weimar Germany (Nosferatu) and later in Hollywood (Ninotchka). This Introduction was for a reissue of the English version of his autobiographical work, There Goes and... more
Alexander Granach (1893-1945) was a celebrated stage and film star in Weimar Germany (Nosferatu) and later in Hollywood (Ninotchka). This Introduction was for a reissue of the English version of his autobiographical work, There Goes and Actor (1945).
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Fashionable slogans have replaced actual knowledge of the nature and history of American anthropology. Half a century has passed since the rebellions of the late 1960s and today's anthropology students--and most of their teachers--have... more
Fashionable slogans have replaced actual knowledge of the nature and history of American anthropology. Half a century has passed since the rebellions of the late 1960s and today's anthropology students--and most of their teachers--have avoided confrontation with the actual works and ideas of remote times--such as before the 1980s. In place of an understanding of the motivations and accomplishments of olden days we have stereotypes carried by such terms as "savage slot" and "salvage." This brief paper suggests why these popular slogans need to be questioned.
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Anderson contends that despite the anti-racist intentions of Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and other American anthropologists their efforts, paradoxically, "reproduced notions that "equated 'America' with whiteness." This review contends... more
Anderson contends that despite the anti-racist intentions of Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and other American anthropologists their efforts, paradoxically, "reproduced notions that "equated 'America' with whiteness."
This review contends that the author not only fails to demonstrate any such result but that his account seriously discounts and even distorts
Boas' anti-racist publications and lifelong battle against that evil.
This review contends that the author not only fails to demonstrate any such result but that his account seriously discounts and even distorts
Boas' anti-racist publications and lifelong battle against that evil.