Eric Robert Wolf (February 1, 1923 – March 6, 1999)[1] was an anthropologist Anthropology is the study of humanity. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, the humanities, and social sciences. The term "anthropology", pronounced /ænθrɵˈpɒlədʒi/, is from the Greek ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos, "human", and -λογία, -logia, "discourse" or "study", and was first, best known for his studies of peasants A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district . The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers, Latin America Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2009, its, and his advocacy of Marxian Marxian economics are economic theories on the functioning of capitalism based on the works of Karl Marx. Adherents of Marxian economics, particularly in academia, distinguish it from Marxism as a political ideology and sociological theory, arguing that Marx's approach to understanding the economy is intellectually independent of his advocacy of perspectives within anthropology.

Contents

Early Life

Wolf was born in Vienna Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million (2.3 million within the metropolitan area,[citation needed] more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and, but his Jewish family moved first to England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant and then America ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language to avoid persecution, and Wolf was raised largely in New York New York City, which is geographically the largest city in the state and most populous in the United States, is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, it is also a destination of choice. He fought overseas in WWII Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · and saw action in Italy with an alpine brigade. Like many returning soldiers he took advantage of the newly-minted G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill was an omnibus bill that provided college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s) as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It also provided many different types of loans for returning veterans to buy homes and start businesses. Since the original act, the term has come to to get a college education and developed an interest in other cultures. Wolf began studying anthropology Anthropology is the study of humanity. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, the humanities, and social sciences. The term "anthropology", pronounced /ænθrɵˈpɒlədʒi/, is from the Greek ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos, "human", and -λογία, -logia, "discourse" or "study", and was first at Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, and is the 5th oldest in the United States making it one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution. Columbia's.

Career

Columbia had been the home of Franz Boas Franz Boas was a German American anthropologist a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did post-doctoral work in geography. He applied and Ruth Benedict She was born in New York City, and attended Vassar College, graduating in 1909. She entered graduate studies at Columbia University in 1919, studying under Franz Boas, receiving her PhD and joining the faculty in 1923. Margaret Mead, with whom she may have shared a romantic relationship, and Marvin Opler were among her students and colleagues for many years, and was the central location for the spread of anthropology in America. By the time Wolf had arrived Boas had died and his anthropological style, which was suspicious of generalization and preferred detailed studies of particular subjects, was also out of fashion. The new chair of the anthropology department was Julian Steward, a student of Robert Lowie Robert Henry Lowie was an Austrian-born American anthropologist. An expert on North American Indians, he was instrumental in the development of modern anthropology and Alfred Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber was one of the most influential figures in American anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century. Steward was interested in creating a scientific anthropology which explained how societies evolved and adapted to their physical environment.

Wolf was one of the coterie of students who developed around Steward. Older students' leftist beliefs, Marxist Marxism is a particular political philosophy, economic and sociological worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and a view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The three primary aspects of Marxism are: in orientation, worked well with Steward's less politicized evolutionism. Many anthropologists prominent in the 1980s such as Sidney Mintz Sidney Wilfred Mintz is an anthropologist best known for his studies of Latin America and the Caribbean. Mintz studied at Brooklyn College (now Brooklyn College of the City of New York) gaining his B.A in 1943. He got his doctoral degree from Columbia University under the supervision of Julian Steward and Ruth Benedict. Mintz was one of a group of, Morton Fried, Elman Service He was born on May 18, 1915 in Tecumseh, Michigan and died on November 14, 1996 in Santa Barbara, California. He earned a Bachelors Degree in 1941 from the University of Michigan. He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1951 and taught there from 1949 to 1953. From there, Service went back to the University of Michigan to, Stanley Diamond, and Robert F. Murphy were among this group.

Wolf's dissertation research was carried out as part of Steward's 'People of Puerto Rico' project. Soon after, Wolf began teaching at the University of Michigan The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan. It also includes two regional campuses in Flint and Dearborn. He held a joint position as a Distinguished Professor at both Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York is the main doctorate-granting institution of the City University of New York. (While other CUNY schools may house doctoral degree programs, the degrees are granted through the GC.) It is housed in the former B. Altman and Company department store on Fifth Avenue in beginning in 1971, where he spent the remainder of his career. In addition to his Latin American work, Wolf also did fieldwork Field work is a general descriptive term for the collection of raw data. The term is mainly used in the natural and social sciences studies, such as in anthropology, folkloristics, archaeology, biology, ecology, environmental science, ethnomusicology, geography, geology, geophysics, linguistics, paleontology, and sociology, although it is also in Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the.

Wolf's relevance to anthropology lies in the fact that he focused on issues of power, politics, and colonialism during the 1970s and 1980s when these topics were moving to the center of disciplinary concerns. His most well-known book, Europe and the People Without History Europe and the People Without History is a book by anthropologist Eric Wolf. First published in 1982, it focuses on the expansion of European societies in the Modern Era. It argues that this expansion affected both the societies that Europeans encountered in their expansion and European societies themselves. It asserts that non-European peoples, is famous for demonstrating that non-Europeans were caught up in global processes like the fur Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the Early Middle Ages, first through the Baltic and Black Seas. With the development of railways, Russia traded through the German city of Leipzig. In 1950 it came to an abrupt and slave trades The history of slavery covers systems throughout human history in which one human being is legally the property of another, can be bought or sold, is not allowed to escape and must work for the owner without any choice involved. A critical element is that children of a slave mother automatically become slaves. It does not include forced labor by. Thus they were not 'frozen in time' or 'isolated' but had always been deeply implicated in world history.

Towards the end of his life he warned of the 'intellectual deforestation' that occurred when anthropology focused on high-flown theory instead of sticking to the realities of life and fieldwork. Wolf struggled with cancer later in life, and died in 1999.

Published works

Notes

  1. ^ Date information sourced from Library of Congress Authorities data, via corresponding WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 71,000 libraries in 112 countries which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative. It is built and maintained collectively by the participating libraries Identities linked authority file (LAF) .

References

External links

Categories: 1923 births | 1999 deaths Categories: 1999 | 1990s deaths | 1999 deaths | American anthropologists Categories: Anthropologists | Anthropologists by nationality | American scientists | American social scientists | American people by occupation | Guggenheim Fellows | MacArthur Fellows The MacArthur Fellowship is an award made by the MacArthur Foundation each year, typically to 20 to 40 citizens or residents of the USA, of any age and working in any field, who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work"

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