Herskovits, Melville J.

(born Sept. 10, 1895, Bellefontaine, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 25, 1963, Evanston, Ill.) American anthropologist noted for having opened up the study of the “New World Negro” as a new field of research. Herskovits was also known for his humanistic and relativistic writings on culture.

Herskovits took his Ph.B. at the University of Chicago (1920) and his M.A. (1921) and Ph.D. (1923) at Columbia University, where he came under the influence of Franz Boas. Herskovits was a lecturer in anthropology at Columbia and Howard University before moving in 1927 to Northwestern University, where he remained until his death. In 1951 he was named there to the first professorial chair of African studies in the United States.

From his initial studies of the African American as a physical type, Herskovits was led to an interest in their social problems and to their cultural roots in Africa. He systematically attacked some widely held myths in The Myth of the Negro Past (1941) and also opposed the assumption that Africa must follow the Western model and remain under the continuous direction of Europeans.

Herskovits also had interests in economics (especially in relation to anthropology) and African folk art and music. His major works include The Economic Life of Primitive Peoples (1940; 2nd ed. published as Economic Anthropology, 1952); Man and His Works (1948; rev. and abridged as Cultural Anthropology, 1955); Franz Boas (1953); and The Human Factor in Changing Africa (1962).