Economic Anthropology

“Herskovits was the author of influential general works. These include: The Myth of the Negro Past (1941), in which he exploded pervasive racial myths; The Economic Life of Primitive People (1940), still considered a basic text in economic anthropology… weakness of the early studies of primitive economics has led to the appearance of a new “school” of anthropologists who have devoted themselves to studies of primitive economic life in great detail, using the terminologies of economic analysis in order to make comparisons between different societies… the goal of this newer group of anthropologists is to derive some general principles of economic behaviour among primitive peoples out of detailed studies of everyday economic affairs. Melville Herskovits’ book is a product of this… school of anthropologists”.—By Dr. Daniel R. Fusfeld, in The Journal of Economic History, published by the Cambridge University Press

Herskovits turned to the study of anthropology in 1920 when he began graduate work at Columbia University under Franz Boas. In 1921, he received a master’s degree and began his teaching career at Columbia. He continued to work with Boas and received his Ph.D. in 1923, with a dissertation entitled The Cattle Complex in East Africa. New York City, in particular Columbia, was an important centre of anthropological activity in the 1920s and Herskovits not only encountered ideas and disciplines that shaped his career, but also made lifelong friends and colleagues all of whom shaped the development of anthropology as a discipline. In addition to his work with Boas, Herskovits studied at the New School for Social Research under Thorstein Veblen. Among his colleagues and fellow students were Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, Elsie Clews Parsons and Frances Shapiro. The monographs resulting from this field research, many of which were jointly authored with Frances Herskovits, are considered classic works today.