The American anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876-1960) was one of the major proponents of the so-called Boasian school of American anthropology.

Alfred Kroeber was born on June 11, 1876, in Hoboken, N. J. He entered Columbia College in 1892, where he helped to found Morningside Magazine. He received a bachelor's degree in 1896 and a master's degree in 1897.

During his junior year Kroeber began to study with Franz Boas, who had come to Columbia in 1895 to build a department of anthropology. Kroeber signed up for Boas's course in North American Indian languages and became fascinated by the grammatical intricacies of Chinook. In 1897 Kroeber interviewed Eskimos brought to New York by Adm. Perry. His first articles, on their folklore, appeared in 1899. That same year Kroeber began his first fieldwork among the Arapaho, and this work formed the basis for his dissertation on Arapaho decorative art. He received his doctorate in 1901.

Kroeber then accepted...