Alfred Louis Kroeber Biography

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World of Sociology on Alfred Louis Kroeber

An authority on the culture of native American tribes, Alfred Kroeber was known among colleagues as the "man who shaped the science of anthropology." His most noted publication is the massive textbook Anthropology , considered the most authoritative work in the field.

Kroeber was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, June 11, 1876, the son of Florence, a dealer in clocks, and Johanna Mueller Kroeber. As a youth, Kroeber began to collect natural history specimens. He was educated at Columbia University in New York City, earning an B.A. in 1896, an M.A. in 1897, and a Ph.D. in 1901. While at Columbia, he came under the influence of noted German-American anthropologist Franz Boas. During his tenure (1899-1942), Boas developed one of the foremost departments of anthropology in the United States. Choosing anthropology as his life's work, Kroeber made collecting trips during summer breaks, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, to native American sites in the Great Plains area.

In the summer of 1900, Kroeber was named curator at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. He left in 1901 to begin his career as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the museum and Department of Anthropology, newly formed under the patronage of Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Joining museum research with university instruction was a common pattern at the turn of the century. Between 1903 and 1931, this dual pattern meant university instruction at Berkeley and museum research carried out in San Francisco.

In 1906, Kroeber married Henriette Rothschild, who died in 1913. In 1908, he became curator of the San Francisco museum, but gradually, teaching began to occupy more and more of his time at Berkeley. In 1926, he married Theodora Kracaw Brown, a psychologist, and the couple raised Clifton and Theodore, Kroeber's stepsons, as well as another son and daughter, Karl and Ursula. In all, Kroeber spent 45 years at Berkeley, becoming professor of anthropology in 1919, a post he held until 1946 when he was named professor emeritus. He kept that title until he died in Paris of a heart attack on October 5, 1960, returning home from a conference in Vienna, Austria, on anthropological linguistics. He was 84 years old.

In addition to the demands of his teaching career, Kroeber was curator of Berkeley's anthropological museum, 1908-1925, and its director, 1925-1946. He took part in Columbia University's anthropological expeditions in New Mexico, 1915-1920; Mexico, 1924, 1930; and Peru, 1925, 1926, 1942. Beginning in 1925, he became a research associate at the Chicago Natural History Museum and was a visiting professor at Harvard, 1947-1948; at Columbia University, 1948-1952; at Brandeis University, 1954; and at Yale University, 1955-1956. Kroeber was also a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California, 1955-1956.

As influenced by Boas, Kroeber tried to salvage the remnants of pre-contact cultures. Some of his extensive work involved the Yurok and Mojave tribes of California. He collected tools, unfinished objects such as a bow, and unusual items such as a shell that was used to cover the thumb when making string. He tried to avoid collecting objects made for sale. "The requirements of our museum make it most desirable," he said, "that we should obtain old pieces that have seen use." Some critics sight Kroeber's inattention to documentation, but others point out that for Kroeber, the artifact was not the goal. Rather, artifacts were only one part of the approach to learning about native culture. Everything--photographs, sound recordings, writings--were artifacts as well.

Kroeber is the author of numerous articles and books, most to do with his observations. His writings on his California collections include: Basket Designs of the Mission Indians of California, 1905, republished in 1964 asBasket Designs of the Indians of Northwestern California;Handbook of the Indians of California ; andYurok Narratives. For his outstanding work in anthropology, in 1945, Kroeber received the Huxley Medal, the highest award from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, as well as the Viking Medal of the American Anthropological Association. After retirement, he was honored with a building on the Berkeley campus to house the departments of art and anthropology named Kroeber Hall.