Kroeber, << KROH buhr, >> Alfred Louis (1876-1960), an American anthropologist, made important contributions to the theoretical study of human culture. Kroeber also became noted for his studies of the Native Americans of California.
Kroeber studied under the German-born anthropologist Franz Boas and was strongly influenced by his ideas. However, unlike Boas, Kroeber felt that the behavior of individuals contributed little to the development of their culture. Instead, Kroeber believed that culture largely determined behavior of individuals. Kroeber developed his idea of the superorganic, a force within society that causes individuals to conform to patterns of living determined by their culture. Kroeber wrote extensively on how particular environments shaped cultures. This idea is now known as environmental determinism.
Kroeber also worked to record the cultural practices of Native American tribes whose ways were disappearing. In 1911, he began working with a man named Ishi, the last surviving member of the Yahi people of California. Kroeber studied Ishi’s tool-making, language, and recollections of tribal life until Ishi’s death in 1916. Kroeber also wrote about the archaeology of North American tribes.
Kroeber was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 11, 1876. He received his Ph.D. degree in anthropology from Columbia University in New York City in 1901. From 1901 to 1946, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, helping build the school into a major center of anthropological study. After his retirement in 1946, he continued to lecture and write. His major works include the textbook Anthropology (1923) and the books Handbook of Indians of California (1925); Configurations of Culture Growth (1947); and Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America (1954). He died on Oct. 5, 1960.
Kroeber’s wife Theodora wrote a popular account of Ishi’s life, Ishi in Two Worlds (1961). His daughter, Ursula K. Le Guin, became a popular writer of science fiction and fantasy.
See also Boas, Franz .
