1988/12/01 by William J. Peace · 16 citations
Social Sciences · #Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture #Academic Freedom and Politics #Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice #Anthropology #Politics #Political anthropology #Applied anthropology #Focus (optics) #Cultural anthropology #Sociology #Economic anthropology #History #Ethnology #Political science #Law
paper · doi:10.1086/jar.44.4.3630507
published in Journal of Anthropological Research 44(4), 417-433 (University of Chicago Press)
openalex publication_date 1988/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Vere Gordon Childe's academic career has recently attracted a considerable amount of attention, which has been characterized by Tringham as the "let-us-know-Childe-better movement." These publications have failed to address adequately the broader cultural traditions within which Childe and other archaeologists had to operate, specifically social, political, and economic assumptions. In this paper I focus on these broader issues, particularly contemporary politics and Marxism, and examine the extent to which Childe was influenced by American anthropology and anthropologists. Utilizing unpublished letters which have never been analyzed in any depth, I demonstrate that Childe's association with anthropology in the United States was both long and significant.