Melville J. Herskovits and the Racial Politics of Knowledge (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)

368 Pages·2004·1.67 MB·English

by  Jerry Gershenhorn

Melville J. Herskovits and the Racial Politics of Knowledge
Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology
Series Editors
Regna Darnell
Stephen O. Murray
jerry gershenhorn
Melville J. Herskovits
and the Racial Politics
of Knowledge
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
Copyright ∫ 2004 by the University of Nebraska Press
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States
of America !
Typeset in CC Galliard. Book design by R. Eckersley
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gershenhorn, Jerry.
Melville J. Herskovits and the racial politics of knowl-
edge / Jerry Gershenhorn.
p. cm. – (Critical studies in the history of anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn
0-8032-2187-8 (cloth alkaline paper)
1. Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895–1963.
2. Anthropologists – United States – Biography. 3. An-
thropologists – Africa, West – Biography. 4. African
Americans – Anthropometry. 5. African Americans –
Social life and customs. 6. Racism in anthropology –
United States. 7. Cultural relativism – Africa, West.
8. African diaspora. 9. Self-determination, National –
Africa, West. 10. Africa, West – Social life and customs.
I. Title. II. Series.
gn21 .h47 g47 2004 301%.092–dc22 2003016335
In Memory of Rhoda Gershenhorn

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editors’ Introduction xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 1
1. The Making of an Anthropologist 11
2. The Attack on Pseudoscientific Racism 27
3. Transforming the Debate on Black Culture 59
4. Subverting the Myth of the Negro Past 93
5. Objectivity and the Development of Negro Studies 123
6. The Postwar Expansion of African Studies 169
7. Foreign Policy Critic 201
Epilogue 231
Notes 241
Bibliography 305
Index 329

Illustrations
1. Herman Herskovits following page 130
2. Franz Boas
3. Melville and Frances Herskovits
4. Herskovits with Suriname artifact
5. Carter G. Woodson
6. Board of Advisors of the Encyclopedia of the
Negro project
7. Ralph Bunche
8. Gunnar Myrdal
9. E. Franklin Frazier
10. Herskovits at Northwestern University
11. Herskovits and J. Roscoe Miller with Liberian
president William V. S. Tubman
12. Frances Herskovits