Melville J. HerskovitsBorn 10 Sep 1895; died 25 Feb 1963 at age 67.American cultural anthropologist who was noted for having opened up the study of the New World Negro as a new field of research. Herskovits was also known for his humanistic and relativistic writings on culture. Herskovits turned to the study of Anthropology in 1920 in graduate work at Columbia University under Franz Boas. As a teacher at Northwestern University, IL, (1927-63), he founded the first US University Program in African Studies (1951). He advocated cultural relativism in Man and His Works (1948) that all standards of judgment are culture-bound. |
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