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Alexander Aleksandrovich Goldenweiser (February 10 [O.S. January 29] 1880 – July 6, 1940) was a Russian-born U.S. anthropologist and sociologist.

Biography

Alexander Alexandrovich Goldenweiser was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1880. He emigrated to the United States in 1900. He studied anthropology under Franz Boas, and earned his AB degree from Columbia University in 1902, his AM degree in 1904, and his Ph.D. in 1910.

In addition to many books, articles, and reviews, Goldenweiser taught at the following institutions: Lecturer, Anthropology, Columbia University, 1910–1919; New School for Social Research, NY, 1919–1926; Lecturer, Rand School of Social Science, 1915–1929; Professor, Thought and Culture, Oregon State System of Higher Education, Portland Extension, 1930–1938; Visiting professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1937–1938; Professor, University of Washington, 1923; Visiting professor of sociology, Reed College, 1933–1939.

Among his other contributions, Goldenweiser introduced the term "involution" to social sciences research. It was applied by Clifford Geertz in his Agricultural Involution.

He died on July 6, 1940, in Portland, Oregon.

Works

• Totemism; An analytical study, 1910
• Early civilization, An Introduction to Anthropology, 1922
• Robots or Gods, 1931
• Anthropology, An Introduction to Primitive Culture, 1937
• History, psychology and culture, 1937

Further reading

• Goldenweiser, Alexander (1933). History Psychology, and Culture.
• Kan, Sergei (2023). A Maverick Boasian: The Life and Work of Alexander A. Goldenweiser. Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology Series. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1-4962-3348-6.

References

1. ^ Benedict, Ruth (1940). "Obituary Notice: Alexander A. Goldenweiser (1880-1940)". American Sociological Review. 5 (5): 782–782. ISSN 0003-1224.
2. Alexander Goldenweiser, an American Anthropologist with Russian Jewish Roots, The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University
3. Wilson D. Wallis. Alexander A. Goldenweiser, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 43, No. 2, Part 1, April–June, 1941, pp. 250-255
4. Clifford Geertz. Change without progress in a wet rice culture: A citation classic commentary on Agricultural Involution, in Current Contents/Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa., Institute for Scientific Information, vol. 22 no. 12, 1991, p. 8. Archived
5. Benedict, Ruth (1940). "Obituary Notice: Alexander A. Goldenweiser (1880-1940)". American Sociological Review. 5 (5): 782–782. ISSN 0003-1224.

External links

• Works by or about Alexander Goldenweiser at the Internet Archive

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• American sociologists
• Columbia University faculty
• Anthropology writers
• American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
• Columbia College (New York) alumni
• 1880 births
• 1940 deaths
• Ukrainian Jews
• Jewish anthropologists
• 20th-century American anthropologists
• Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
• Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States