Alfred Irving Hallowell
Alfred Irving Hallowell | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 28, 1892 |
| Died | October 10, 1974 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | American |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Anthropology |
Alfred Irving "Pete" Hallowell (/ˈhæləwɛl/; 1892–1974) was an award-winning American anthropologist, archaeologist and businessman.
Early life and education[edit]
Hallowell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania receiving his B.S. degree in 1914. It was assumed he would follow a career in business but Hallowell developed interests in sociology and became first a social worker for the Family Society.[1]
Hallowell expanded his interests, taking classes in anthropology. At the University of Pennsylvania, he completed his M.A. in 1920, and his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1924.[1] His doctoral dissertation was titled "Bear Ceremonialism in the Northern Hemisphere".[2] Hallowell was a student of the anthropologist Frank Speck but whilst studying for his Ph.D., Hallowell travelled to Columbia University to attend the weekly seminar led by Franz Boas - the ideas discussed at which greatly influenced Hallowell's development as an anthropologist.[1]
Career[edit]
From 1927 through 1963 Hallowell was a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania - excepting 1944 through 1947 when he taught the subject at Northwestern University. Hallowell played a central role in developing Northwestern's Anthropology department as a major centre in the United States for the study of the discipline.[2]
Hallowell's main field of study was Native Americans including the Abenaki, the Montagnais-Naskapi but particularly the Ojibwe, about whom he wrote nearly forty individual papers, articles, chapters, and one monograph.[2] This output has been described as "one of the most complete recordings of the changing way of life of a hunting-and-gathering population that is available in the ethnographic record".[2]
In his research he utilised anthropological techniques such as ethnography and linguistic studies but also methods drawn from clinical psychology - mainly the Rorschach, or ink-blot, test - to assess the personality structures of Native American populations. Use of such a methodology made Hallowell a controversial figure for many anthropologists.[2]
His students included the anthropologists Melford Spiro, Anthony F. C. Wallace, Raymond D. Fogelson, George W. Stocking, Jr., Regna Darnell, Erika Eichhorn Bourguignon, James W. VanStone and Marie-Françoise Guédon.
After his retirement, his position was filled by the linguistic anthropologist and folklorist Dell Hymes.
Honours[edit]
Hallowell received numerous honors and awards. He served as president of the American Anthropological Association (1949), the American Folklore Society (1940-41),[3] and the Society for Projective Techniques.[2]
Hallowell also served as chairman of the Division of Psychology and Anthropology of the National Research Council (1946–49) and was elected a Fellow of both the National Academy of Sciences (1961) and the American Philosophical Society (1963).[4]
He received the Viking Medal for outstanding achievement in anthropology in 1956.[2]
Selected publications[edit]
- Bear Ceremonialism in the Northern Hemisphere (1926)
- The Role of Conjuring in Saulteaux Society (1942)
- Culture and Experience (1955)
- Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View (1960)
- Contributions to Anthropology (1976)
Further reading[edit]
- Darnell, Regna (2006) "Keeping the Faith: A Legacy of Native American Ethnography, Ethnohistory, and Psychology." In: New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, and Representations, ed. by Sergei A. Kan and Pauline Turner Strong, pp. 3–16. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
- Kan, Sergei A., and Pauline Turner Strong (2006) Introduction. In: New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, and Representations, pp. xi-xlii. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Spiro, Melford E. (1976). "Alfred Irving Hallowell, 1892-1974". American Anthropologist. 78 (3): 608–611. doi:10.1525/aa.1976.78.3.02a00090. ISSN 0002-7294. JSTOR 674422.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wallace, Anthony F. C. (1980). "Alfred Irving Hallowell, 1892—1974: A Biographical Memoir" (PDF). National Academy of Sciences.
- ^ "Past AFS Presidents". The American Folklore Society. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- ^ "Alfred Irving Hallowell". January 24, 2005. Archived from the original on January 24, 2005. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- 1892 births
- 1974 deaths
- Hallowell family
- American anthropology writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- Psychological anthropologists
- Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni
- University of Pennsylvania faculty
- Northwestern University faculty
- Anthropology educators
- Writers from Philadelphia
- 20th-century American archaeologists
- 20th-century American anthropologists
- 20th-century American male writers
- Presidents of the American Folklore Society