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| Weston La Barre | |
|---|---|
| Name | Weston La Barre |
| Birth date | 1898 |
| Death date | 1996 |
| Occupation | Anthropologist, Professor |
| Notable works | The Ghost Dance, The Human Animal |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
Weston La Barre was an American anthropologist and psychiatrist whose interdisciplinary work linked Native American religion studies, psychoanalysis, and cultural theory. Influenced by figures across anthropology, psychology, and religious studies, he produced ethnographies and comparative analyses that engaged with debates around shamanism, mana, and symbolic systems in indigenous societies. La Barre's scholarship intersected with institutions and intellectual movements of the mid-20th century and contributed to discussions at universities and museums across the United States.
Born in the late 19th century, La Barre studied under mentors connected to Columbia University, including scholars associated with the Franz Boas tradition and the emerging school of psychoanalytic anthropology. He undertook graduate work that brought him into contact with figures from Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, and he trained in psychiatric methods influenced by Sigmund Freud and followers who taught at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bellevue Hospital. During his formative years he attended seminars and lectures connected to the American Anthropological Association, the Psychoanalytic Society, and departments linked to institutions such as Radcliffe College and Barnard College.
La Barre held appointments that connected anthropology departments and psychiatric clinics, teaching at places that collaborated with museums like the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution. His career involved visiting lectureships and fellowships tied to organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council. He published in journals circulated through networks including the American Ethnological Society and the American Psychological Association, and he participated in conferences at Columbia University Teachers College and the New School for Social Research. Colleagues and interlocutors ranged from scholars at Princeton University and Stanford University to curators at the Field Museum and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
La Barre's monographs engaged comparative study across indigenous traditions, and he argued about the psychological functions of ritual and belief systems in works cited alongside texts by Bronisław Malinowski, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Mircea Eliade. His analyses addressed themes present in the literature of William James, Ernest Becker, and Carl Jung, situating discussions of totemism and spirit possession in broader debates about symbolism pursued by scholars at University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University. La Barre's writing dialogued with research published by the Royal Anthropological Institute and drew critiques from proponents of British social anthropology associated with Radcliffe-Brown and E. E. Evans-Pritchard.
La Barre conducted ethnographic fieldwork in regions commonly studied by American anthropologists, employing participant observation linked to methods taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. His methodological toolkit integrated clinical interviewing techniques used at Massachusetts General Hospital and observational strategies practiced at the Brooklyn Museum ethnology departments. He referenced comparative data sets curated by institutions such as the American Philosophical Society and collaborated with archivists at the Library of Congress and the Bureau of American Ethnology. His field protocols reflected contemporaneous debates at conferences sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.
La Barre's influence extended to subsequent generations of scholars connected to departments at University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University, and his work was mobilized in discussions at the Carnegie Institution for Science and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Critics and supporters invoked his arguments in debates involving thinkers associated with Stanley Diamond, Richard Shweder, and historians working at Harvard Divinity School. Museums and archives—including the Smithsonian Institution and the Peabody Museum—preserved materials shaped by his field collections, and scholars at journals such as those published by the University of Chicago Press continued to cite his contributions. His ideas influenced interdisciplinary programs at institutions like Yale University and the New School for Social Research.
La Barre received fellowships and recognitions from organizations such as the Guggenheim Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, and he took part in panels sponsored by the American Anthropological Association and the American Philosophical Society. He maintained professional correspondence with figures affiliated with Columbia University, Harvard University, and Princeton University and contributed to advisory boards for exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution. Later in life he was acknowledged by peers connected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and remembered in obituaries appearing in outlets related to the American Anthropological Association.
Category:American anthropologists