Julian Steward and the Great Basin
The Making of an Anthropologist

Edited by Richard O. Clemmer, L. Daniel Myers, Mary Elizabeth Rudden

6 photographs, 5 maps
Cloth $24.00 (Sale Price!)
ISBN 978-0-87480-594-9

A critical assessment of Steward's (1902-1972) work, the factors that influenced him, and his effects on American anthropology.

Julian Steward and the Great Basin is a critical assessment of Steward’s work, the factors that influenced him, and his deep effect on American anthropology. Stward 91902-1972) was one of the foremost American exponents of cultural ecology, the idea that societies evolve in adaptation to their human and natural environments. He was also central in shaping basic anthropological constructs such as “hunter-gatherer” and “adaptation.” But his fieldwork took place almost entirely in the Great Basin.

In one sense, the phases of Steward’s career epitomize the successive schools of anthropological theory and practice. Each chapter explores a different aspect of his work ranging from early efforts at documenting trait distributions to his later role in the development of social transformation theory, area studies, and applied anthropology.

Julian Steward and the Great Basinalso corrects long-standing misperceptions that originated with Steward about lifeways of the Indians living between the Great Plains and California. It charts new directions for research, demanding a more exacting study of environmental conditions, material adaptations, and organizational responses, as well as an appreciation of the ideological and humanistic dimensions of Basin Life.

Contributors
Virginia Kerns, College of William and Mary
Joel Janetski, Brigham Young University
Brooke Arkush, Weber State University
Catherine Fowler, University of Nevada, Reno
Deward Walker, University of Colorado, Boulder
James Goss, Texas Tech University
Elmer Rusco, University of Nevada, Reno
Steven Crum, University of California, Davis
Richard Clemmer, University of Denver
L. Daniel Myers, Epochs Past, Dunkirk, MD
Alice Kehoe, Marquette University
Sheree Ronaasen, University of Queensland
Ned Blackhawk, School of American Research
Thomas Patterson, Temple University
Antonio Lauria-Percelli, The New School of Social Research

Richard Clemmer is associate professor of anthropology, University of Denver. He is the author of Roads in the sky: The Hopi Indians in a Century of Change

L. Daniel Myers is a consulting anthropologist with Epochs Past, Dunkirk, Maryland.

Mary Elizabeth Rudden is a free-lance data analyst and documentary researcher.