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The Religion of the Indians of California (Forgotten Books)
The Religion of the Indians of California - Forgotten Books Author:Alfred Louis Kroeber The Religion of the Indians of California is A. L. Kroebers' classic article on the religion of Native California. It covers the entire culture region. (Quote from sacred-texts.com) — About the Author — Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876 - 1960) — Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876-October 5, 1960) was one of the most influential figures in ... more »American anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century.
Kroeber was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He received his doctorate under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, basing his dissertation on his field work among the Arapaho. He spent most of his career in California, primarily at the University of California, Berkeley where he worked as both a Professor of Anthropology and the Director of what was then The University of California Museum of Anthropology (now the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology). The anthropology department's headquarters building at the University of California is known as Kroeber Hall.
Although he is known primarily as a cultural anthropologist, he did significant work in archaeology, and he contributed to anthropology by making connections between archaeology and culture. He conducted excavations in New Mexico, Mexico, and Peru. Kroeber and his students did important work collecting cultural data on western tribes of Native Americans. The work done in preserving California tribes appeared in Handbook of Indians of California (1925). These efforts to preserve remaining data on these tribes has been termed "Salvage ethnography." He is credited with developing the concepts of Culture Area and Culture Configuration (Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, 1939).
His influence was so strong that many contemporaries adopted his style of beard and mustache« less