Sociology, Progressivism, and the Undergraduate Training of Anthropologists at the University of Wisconsin, 1925–30

This research was prompted by my serendipitous notice while working on a volume of biographical sketches (Darnell and Gleach 2002) that four presidents of the American Anthropological Association had been students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the 1920s: Clyde Kluckhohn, Adamson Hoebel, John Gillin, and Sol Tax.¹ Gillin and Tax both had also participated in the 1930 North Africa expedition sponsored by Beloit's Logan Museum, along with Lauriston Sharp. Sharp was never an AAA president, but his place in the professional memory was ensured by his classic and oft-reprinted article "Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians"—even if his other work and his role in establishing the department at Cornell might not be so generally remembered. Several other Wisconsin undergraduates from this period also went on to successful careers in anthropology, perhaps most notably future applied anthropologist and Bureau of Indian Affairs commissioner Philleo Nash.

What was it about the Wisconsin situation in the mid to late 1920s that resulted in the production of so many noted anthropologists—and their general orientation towards socially progressive forms of anthropology? Although certainly recognized today as a strong anthropology department, and known for Ralph Linton's presence beginning in 1928, Wisconsin is not generally recognized as an anthropology powerhouse of the 1920s—indeed, anthropology was taught through the economics department until 1929, when a new sociology and anthropology department was created. In his book on longtime program chair E. A. Ross, Julius Weinberg suggested,

The [sociology] graduate program at the University of Wisconsin during Ross's tenure as chairman was little better than average. Although the number of doctoral students at the university increased from decade to decade, few Ph.D.'s from Wisconsin made a contribution to the development of American sociology. . . . The department under Ross achieved a measure of respectability; it did not attain a high level of academic distinction until after his retirement.

(1972:194–195)

But the men I focus on here (and it must be recognized that they were all men) were undergraduate students together, not graduate students. As scholars we all recognize the role of graduate training—formal and informal—in shaping our work, and that's when most scholars begin to establish the professional networks that will sustain their careers. But we often downplay the undergraduate years. Indeed, the memoirs and obituaries of these students frequently credit people they worked with as graduate students, but seldom their undergraduate professors, and the memoirs of their professors similarly tend to include only graduate students. Beyond cursory mention, perhaps along with high school in a summary of formative years, the undergraduate period is generally neglected in studies of the lives and development of scholars. But it shapes the career trajectories of many people—particularly in a field such as anthropology that is not typically encountered in earlier education—and thus warrants more regular consideration.

The Students

I focus here on six students: John P. Gillin (AB 1927), Clyde Kluckhohn (AB 1928), Ad Hoebel (AB 1928), Lauri Sharp (AB 1929), Sol Tax (PhB 1931), and Philleo Nash (AB 1932). All except Nash were born within two years of each other, and all except Kluckhohn grew up in Wisconsin. Gillin's entry into anthropology at Wisconsin came as a graduate student, but connections with the others warrant his inclusion here.

John P. Gillin (Reina 1976, NCAB 1979) was the son of Wisconsin sociologist John Lewis Gillin; the family had moved to Madison when the son was five. After he completed his undergraduate studies he traveled around the world with his father studying prisons, then returned to Wisconsin to start his graduate studies.² In 1930, with Sharp and Tax, Gillin went to North Africa with the (Beloit College) Logan Museum Expedition—primarily an archaeological project, but also entailing work with the local people. Gillin had considered a career in journalism, but his first course with Ralph Linton—as a master's student—persuaded him to go into anthropology. Gillin went on for his PhD at Harvard. He did archaeological and ethnographic work in Latin...