View source for Alfred Kroeber

{{short description|American anthropologist (1876–1960)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox academic
| image = Alfred Louis Kroeber.jpg
| caption = Kroeber in 1920
| birth_name = Alfred Louis Kroeber
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1876|6|11}}
| birth_place = [[Hoboken, New Jersey]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|10|5|1876|06|11}}
| death_place = [[Paris]], France
| alma_mater = [[Columbia University]]
| thesis_title = Decorative symbolism of the Arapaho
| doctoral_advisor = [[Franz Boas]]
| discipline = [[Anthropology]]
| sub_discipline = [[Cultural anthropology]]
| spouse = {{unbulleted list | {{marriage|Henriette Rothschild|1906|1913|end=died}} | {{marriage|[[Theodora Kroeber|Theodora Kracaw Brown]]|1926}}<ref name="Steward">[http://www.americanethnography.com/article.php?id=10 Julian H. Steward, "Alfred L. Kroeber 1876–1960: Obituary"], ''American Ethnography'', first published in ''American Anthropologist'', October 1961, New Series 63(5:1):1038–1087, accessed 5 Nov 2010</ref>}}
| 4 children. Clifton, Ted, [[Karl Kroeber|Karl]] and [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula]]
| awards = [[Viking Fund Medal]] (1946)
| workplaces = [[University of California, Berkeley]]
| doctoral_students = [[Cora Du Bois]], [[Margaret Lantis]], [[Katharine Luomala]], [[Laura Maud Thompson]], [[Charles F. Voegelin]],
| influenced = [[H. Stuart Hughes]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilkeson |first=John S. |year=2010 |title=Anthropologists and the Rediscovery of America, 1886–1965 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=217 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511779558 |isbn=978-1-139-49118-1}}</ref>
}}
'''Alfred Louis Kroeber''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|oʊ|b|ər}} {{respell|KROH|bər}}; June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American [[cultural anthropologist]]. He received his PhD under [[Franz Boas]] at [[Columbia University]] in 1901, the first doctorate in [[anthropology]] awarded by Columbia. He was also the first professor appointed to the Department of Anthropology at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref name="ucb-anthro-history">{{cite web | url=http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/content/history | title=History, Anthropology Department, UC Berkeley | publisher=University of California, Berkeley | access-date=7 January 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009153302/http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/content/history | archive-date=2014-10-09 | url-status=dead }}</ref> He played an integral role in the early days of its [[Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology|Museum of Anthropology]], where he served as director from 1909 through 1947.<ref>[http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/museum/history.php Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology – History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725180800/http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/museum/history.php |date=2011-07-25 }}</ref> Kroeber provided detailed information about [[Ishi]], the last surviving member of the [[Yahi people]], whom he studied over a period of years. He was the father of the author [[Ursula K. Le Guin]].

==Life==
[[File:Ishi.jpg|thumb|Kroeber (left) with [[Ishi]] in 1911]]
Kroeber was born in [[Hoboken, New Jersey]], to parents of German Protestant origin. His mother, Johanna Mueller, was an American of German descent; his father, Florenz Friederick Martin Kroeber, came to the United States from Germany at the age of ten, with his parents and family, and became an importer of French clocks as his wife's father, Nicholas Mueller.<ref>The Clock Guy, [https://www.clockguy.com/SiteRelated/SiteReferencePages/KroeberHistory.html F. Kroeber Clock Company].</ref> The family belonged to a German-American milieu that was upper middle-class, classical and rationalistic, and schooled in the German intellectual tradition.<ref>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1960/10/06/archives/drkroeberdies-anthropologist-authority-on-indians-taught-at.html "Dr. Kroeber Dies; Anthropologist; Authority on Indians Taught at California 45 Years—Wrote Standard Text"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 6, 1960. Accessed February 6, 2013. "A native of Hoboken, N. J., Dr. Kroeber was graduated from Columbia in 1896."</ref><ref>J.H. Steward, "Alfred Louis Kroeber, 1876-1960", American Anthropologist 63 (1961), p. 1038-1087.</ref>

Alfred's family moved into New York City when Alfred was quite young, and he was tutored and attended private schools there.  He had three younger siblings and all had scholarly interests. The family was bilingual, speaking German at home, and Kroeber also began to study [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] in school, beginning a lifelong interest in languages.<ref name="Steward" /> He attended [[Columbia College, Columbia University|Columbia College]] at the age of 16, joining the [[Philolexian Society]] and earning an BA in English in 1896 and an MA in Romantic drama in 1897. Changing fields to the new one of [[anthropology]], he received his PhD under [[Franz Boas]] at [[Columbia University]] in 1901,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Parsons |first=Talcott |date=1961 |title=In Memoriam: Alfred L. Kroeber 1876-1960 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2773399 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=66 |issue=6 |pages=616–617 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref> basing his 28-page dissertation on decorative symbolism on his field work among the [[Arapaho]]. It was the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia.

Kroeber spent most of his career in California, primarily at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].  He was both a professor of Anthropology and the Director of what was then the University of California Museum of Anthropology (now the [[Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology]]). The anthropology department's headquarters building at the University of California was named Kroeber Hall in his honor, before being unnamed January 26, 2021, in order to "help Berkeley recognize a challenging part of our history, while better supporting the diversity of today's academic community."<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Kell|first1=Gretchen|date=2021-01-26|title=Kroeber Hall, honoring anthropologist who symbolizes exclusion, is unnamed|url=https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/01/26/kroeber-hall-unnamed/|access-date=2021-01-27|website=Berkeley News|language=en-US}}</ref> He was associated with Berkeley until his retirement in 1946. He died in [[Paris]] on October 5, 1960.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thrupp |first=Sylvia L. |date=1961 |title=Alfred L. Kroeber |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/177923 |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=351–352 |issn=0010-4175}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Kroeber married Henriette Rothschild in 1906.  She contracted [[tuberculosis]] and died in 1913, after several years of illness.<ref name="Steward" />

In 1926 he married again, to [[Theodora Kroeber|Theodora Kracaw Brown]], a widow who had been a student in one of his graduate seminars.<ref name="Steward" /> They had two children: [[Karl Kroeber]], a literary critic, and the science fiction writer [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula Kroeber Le Guin]]. In addition, Alfred adopted Theodora's sons by her first marriage, Ted and [[Clifton Kroeber|Clifton Brown]], who both took his surname.

In 2003, Clifton and Karl Kroeber published a book of essays on [[Ishi]]'s story, which they co-edited, called, ''Ishi in Three Centuries''.<ref>Clifton and Karl Kroeber (2002) ''Ishi in Three Centuries'', Univ. of Nebraska Press {{ISBN|978-0-8032-2250-2}}</ref> This is the first scholarly book on Ishi to contain essays by Native American writers and academics.

After her husband's death, Theodora Kroeber wrote a biography of him, titled ''[[Alfred Kroeber: A Personal Configuration]]''. It was published by the [[University of California Press]] in 1970. [[David G. Mandelbaum]], a cultural anthropologist and former colleague of Alfred,<ref>{{cite news |title=David G. Mandelbaum |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/23/obituaries/david-g-mandelbaum.html?gwh=9A4549CC8CC711ED08F1F029ACDDF80E |access-date=October 29, 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 23, 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516235301/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/23/obituaries/david-g-mandelbaum.html?gwh=9A4549CC8CC711ED08F1F029ACDDF80E |archive-date=May 16, 2022 |location=New York City |page=D31}}</ref> stated that this biography was just as important a work from an anthropologist's perspective as ''[[Ishi in Two Worlds]]''.<ref name="Mandelbaum">{{cite journal |last1=Mandelbaum |first1=David |title=Memorial to Theodora Kroeber Quinn (1897–1979) |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |year=1979|pages=237–239|volume=1 |issue=2 |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt1p62d714/qt1p62d714.pdf |access-date=January 25, 2019}}</ref>

==Influence==
Although he is known primarily as a [[Cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologist]], he did significant work in [[archaeology]] and [[anthropological linguistics]], and he contributed to anthropology by making connections between archaeology and culture. He conducted excavations in [[New Mexico]], [[Mexico]], and [[Peru]]. In Peru he helped found the [[Institute for Andean Studies]] (IAS) with the Peruvian anthropologist [[Julio C. Tello]] and other major scholars.

Kroeber and his students did important work collecting cultural data on western tribes of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. The work done in preserving information about Californian tribes appeared in ''Handbook of the Indians of California'' (1925). In that book, Kroeber first described a pattern in Californian groups where a social unit was smaller and less hierarchically organized than a [[tribe]],<ref name="kroeber1976handbook">{{cite book | last = Kroeber | first = A | title = Handbook of the Indians of California | pages = [https://archive.org/details/handbookofindian00kroe/page/160 160–163, 228–230, 234–235] | publisher = Dover Publications | location = New York | year = 1976 | isbn = 978-0-486-23368-0 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/handbookofindian00kroe/page/160 }}</ref><ref name="golla2011">{{cite book | last = Golla | first = Victor | title = California Indian languages | publisher = University of California Press | location = Berkeley | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0-520-26667-4 }}</ref> which was elaborated upon in ''The Patwin and their Neighbors''<ref name="kroeberpatwin">{{Cite book | publisher = bUniversity of California Press | last = Kroeber | first = A.L. | title = The Patwin and their neighbors | year = 1932
| url = http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp029-005.pdf }}</ref> in which Kroeber first coined the term "'''tribelet'''" to describe this level of organization. Kroeber is credited with developing the concepts of [[culture area]], cultural configuration (''Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America'', 1939), and '''cultural fatigue''' (''Anthropology'', 1963).

Kroeber influenced many of his contemporaries in his views as a cultural historian. During his lifetime, he was known as the "Dean of American Anthropologists".  Kroeber and [[Roland Burrage Dixon|Roland B. Dixon]] were very influential in the genetic classification of [[Native American languages]] in North America, being responsible for theoretical groupings such as [[Penutian languages|Penutian]] and [[Hokan languages|Hokan]], based on common languages.

He is noted for working with [[Ishi]], who was claimed to be the last California [[Yahi]] Indian. (Ishi may have been of mixed ethnic heritage, with a father from the [[Wintun]], [[Maidu]] or [[Nomlaki]] tribes.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arf.berkeley.edu/archaeology-news/arf-newsletter-1996-v3-2 |title=ARF Newsletter 1996 v3-2 &#124; Archaeological Research Facility |publisher=Arf.berkeley.edu |access-date=2013-08-29}}</ref> His second wife, [[Theodora Kroeber|Theodora Kracaw Kroeber]], wrote a well-known biography of Ishi, ''[[Ishi in Two Worlds]]''. Kroeber's relationship with Ishi was the subject of a film, ''[[The Last of His Tribe]]'' (1992), starring [[Jon Voight]] as Kroeber and [[Graham Greene (actor)|Graham Greene]] as Ishi.<ref name="LAT">{{cite web|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-20-vw-4294-story.html|title=Makers of HBO's 'Tribe' Given a Warm Reception|date=March 20, 1992|first=Bill|last=Higgins}}</ref><ref name="Fleras">{{cite journal |last1=Fleras |first1=Augie |title=Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America |journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development |date=2006 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=265–268 |doi=10.1080/01434630608668780|s2cid=216112743 }}</ref>

Kroeber's textbook, ''Anthropology'' (1923, 1948), was widely used for many years. In the late 1940s, it was one of ten books required as reading for all students during their first year at [[Columbia University]]. His book, ''Configurations of Cultural Growth'' (1944), had a lasting impact on social scientific research on [[genius]] and [[greatness]]; Kroeber believed that genius arose out of culture at particular times, rather than holding to "the great man" theory.<ref>Simonton, D.K. 1994.  ''Greatness: Who Makes History and Why''.  New York: The Guilford Press. p. 375–382</ref>

Kroeber's childhood friend Carl Alsberg described him as a "good listener" and able "to be objective, to see the other point of view, to penetrate behind another person's behavior to his underlying thought [...] These traits indicate a sincerity and simplicity of character that primitive peoples sense at once and to which they respond by giving their confidence."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Burnham|first=John C.|date=2012|title=Anthropologist A. L. Kroeber's Career as a Psychoanalyst: New Evidence and Lessons from a Significant Case History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26304897|journal=American Imago|volume=69|issue=1|pages=5–27|jstor=26304897|issn=0065-860X}}</ref>

From 1920 to 1923 Kroeber conducted an active practice as a lay psychoanalyst, with an office in San Francisco.<ref name=":0" />

==Indian land claims==
Kroeber served early on as the plaintiffs' director of research in ''Indians of California v. the United States'', a land claim case.<ref>13 ''Ind. Cl. Comm.'' 369 (1964)</ref> [[Omer Stewart]] of the University of Colorado served as associate director. [[Ralph Beals]] of the University of California, Los Angeles, served as director of research for the federal government in the case. Both men were former students of Kroeber.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Beals | first1 = R. L. | year = 1985 | title = The Anthropologist as Expert Witness: Illustrations from the California Indian Land Claims Case," in ''Irredeemable America: the Indians' Estate and Land Claims,'' ed. I. Sutton (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press); ch. 6. Heizer, Robert F., and Alfred L. Kroeber (1976). "For Sale: California at 47 Cents per Acre | journal = Journal of California Anthropology | volume = 3 | pages = 38–65 }}</ref> Kroeber's impact on the [[Indian Claims Commission]] may well have established the way expert witnesses presented testimony before the tribunal.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Stewart | first1 = Omer C | year = 1961 | title = Kroeber and the Indian Claims Commission Cases | journal = Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers | volume = 25 | pages = 181–190 }}</ref> Several of his former students also served as expert witnesses; for instance, Stewart directed the plaintiff research for the [[Ute people|Ute]] and for the [[Shoshone]] peoples.<ref>Stewart, Omer C. (1985). "The Shoshone Claims Cases," in ''Irredeemable America...,'' op. cit., ch. 8.</ref>

==Awards and honors==
*Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1912)<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=June 1, 2011}}</ref>
* Kroeber received five honorary degrees (Yale, California, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago)
* He was awarded two gold medals.{{citation needed|date=June 2011}}
* He held honorary membership in 16 scientific societies.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Steward|first1=Julian H.|last2=Gibson|first2=Ann J.|last3=Rowe|first3=John H.|date=1961|title=Alfred Louis Kroeber, 1876–1960|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=63|issue=5|pages=1039|jstor=667051|doi=10.1525/aa.1961.63.5.02a00100|doi-access=}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=June 2011}}
* President of the [[American Anthropological Association]] (1917–1918)
* Member of the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] (1928)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alfred Kroeber |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001113.html |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref>
* Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1941)<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Alfred+Kroeber&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-04-26 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==Partial list of works==
* [https://archive.org/details/indianmythsofsou00kroerich/mode/2up ''Indian Myths of South Central California''] (1907), in ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 4:167–250. Berkeley.
* [https://archive.org/details/bp_842603 ''The Religion of the Indians of California''] (1907), in ''University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology'' 4:6.
* {{cite journal |last1=Kroeber |first1=Alfred Louis |last2=Waterman |first2=Thomas Talbot |last3=Sapir |first3=Edward |last4=Sparkman |first4=Philip Stedman |author1-link=Alfred Louis Kroeber |author2-link=Thomas Talbot Waterman |author3-link=Edward Sapir |title=Notes on California folk-lore |journal=Journal of American Folklore |date=January–March 1908 |volume=21 |issue=80 |pages=35–42 |doi=10.2307/534527 |jstor=534527 |hdl=2027/uc1.31822005860226 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102138665 <!-- |access-date=10 April 2021 -->|hdl-access=free }}
* [https://archive.org/details/handbookofindian0000kroe ''Handbook of the Indians of California'' (1925)], Washington, D.C.: ''Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin'' No. 78
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/661755 "Native American Population"] (1934) in ''American Anthropologist'', Vol. 36, No. 1.
* [https://archive.org/details/natureofculture0000unse ''The Nature of Culture''] (1952). University of Chicago.
* with [[Clyde Kluckhohn]]: ''Culture. A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions'' (1952). Cambridge.
* [[doi:10.30920/letras.19.49.3|''Paracas Cavernas and Chavin'']] (1953). ''Letras (Lima)'', ''19''(49), 49–71.
* ''Style and Civilizations'' Westport Conn.: Greenwood, 1957.
* ''Anthropology: Culture Patterns & Processes'' (1963). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World (earlier editions in 1923 and 1948).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}<!--BEGIN biblio format. -->

*{{cite book |author=Darnell, Regna  |author-link=Regna Darnell|year=2001 |title=Invisible Genealogies: A History of Americanist Anthropology |series=Critical studies in the history of anthropology series, vol. 1 |location=Lincoln |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=978-0-8032-1710-2 |oclc=44502297}}
*{{cite book |author=Kroeber, Theodora  |author-link=Theodora Kroeber |year=1970 |title=Alfred Kroeber; A Personal Configuration |url=https://archive.org/details/alfredkroeberper00kroe_0  |url-access=registration  |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-03720-5 |oclc=6202748}}
*{{cite book |author=Wolf, Eric R.  |author-link=Eric Wolf |year=2004 |chapter=Alfred L. Kroeber|editor=Sydel Silverman|title=Totems and Teachers: Key Figures in the History of Anthropology |edition=2nd  |location=Walnut Creek, CA |publisher=[[AltaMira Press]] |pages=27–50|isbn=978-0-7591-0459-4 |oclc=52373442}}
{{refend}}<!-- END biblio format style -->

==External links==
{{commons|Alfred L. Kroeber}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=40065}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Alfred Louis Kroeber}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11029}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070621113405/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/audiofiles.html#kroeber Alfred L. Kroeber, ''Sex in Natural History'' (talk at UC Berkeley, 1956) (online audio recording)]
*[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3d5n99tn/ Guide to the A. L. Kroeber Papers], [[The Bancroft Library]]
* {{LCAuth|n86111471|A. L. Kroeber|130|}}
{{American Anthropological Association presidents|state=uncollapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kroeber, Alfred}}
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[[Category:Kroeber family|Alfred]]
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