Fred Eggan
Encyclopedia
Frederick Russell Eggan was an American anthropologist best known for his innovative application of the principles of British social anthropology
to the study of Native American tribes. He was the favorite student of the British social anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown during Radcliffe-Brown's years at the University of Chicago
. His fieldwork was among Pueblo
peoples in the southwestern U.S. Eggan later taught at Chicago himself. His students there included Sol Tax
.
His best known works include his edited volume Social Anthropology of North American Tribes (1937) and The American Indian (1966).
His wife, Dorothy Way Eggan
(1901-1965), whom he married in 1939, was also an anthropologist.
Social anthropology
Social Anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular person: customs,...
to the study of Native American tribes. He was the favorite student of the British social anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown during Radcliffe-Brown's years at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. His fieldwork was among Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
peoples in the southwestern U.S. Eggan later taught at Chicago himself. His students there included Sol Tax
Sol Tax
Sol Tax was an American anthropologist. He is best known for his studies of the Meskwaki, or Fox, Indians, for "action-anthropological" research titled the Fox Project, and for founding the academic journal Current Anthropology. He received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1935.Tax...
.
His best known works include his edited volume Social Anthropology of North American Tribes (1937) and The American Indian (1966).
His wife, Dorothy Way Eggan
Dorothy Way Eggan
Dorothy Way Eggan was an American anthropologist noted for her research among the Hopi tribe.She was born October 31, 1901, in Dover Hill, Indiana. During her first marriage, to Jean C. Harrington, she lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and became acquainted with the Pueblo peoples...
(1901-1965), whom he married in 1939, was also an anthropologist.
Works
- (ed.) (1937) Social Anthropology of North American Tribes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Revised and enlarged, 1955.
- (1950) Social Organization of the Western Pueblos. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- (1966) The American Indian: Perspectives for the Study of Social Change. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
- (1974) Among the Anthropologists Annual Review of Anthropology.