Primitive Man as Philosopher

by Paul Radin, Neni Panourgiá (Preface by), John Dewey (Foreword by)

Overview

This classic anthropology text describes the belief systems of a variety of aboriginal cultures from around the world. Radin (affiliation not cited) quotes extensively from interviews he conducted, allowing the subjects to speak for themselves. They discuss topics such as magical rituals, right and wrong, fate, and the nature of personality. The volume is a reprint of the 1956 revised, enlarged Dover edition. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590177686
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	02/21/2017
Series:	NYRB Classics Series
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	1,141,014
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Paul Radin (1883–1959) was born in Łódź in what is now Poland but immigrated with his family to Elmira, New York, in 1884. As a doctoral student in anthropology at Columbia University, he studied under Franz Boas, who had developed many of the modern methods of the discipline. While at Columbia, Radin began doing fieldwork with the Ojibwa and, in particular, the Winnebago Indians of Wisconsin, an ethnographic study that would continue for the rest of his life. He produced a series of landmark books and monographs documenting the tribe’s culture and customs, including The Winnebago Tribe (1923), Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian (1926), The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians (1945), and The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (1956). Dedicated to studying and preserving the oral traditions and philosophies of both primitive and modern societies across the United States and the world, Radin pursued his research at more than a dozen universities and institutions, including the University of California at Berkeley, Black Mountain College, the C.G. Jung Institute in Switzerland, and Brandeis University, his final appointment. In the 1930s, he organized an ambitious ethnographic project with the Works Progress Administration to document the folk narratives from dozens of minority communities in the California Bay Area, while his later work focused on the languages of various Mexican-Indian communities. His books Primitive Religion: Its Nature and Origin (1937), The World of Primitive Man (1953), and Primitive Man as Philosopher (1927), collections of interviews that he conducted with members of dozens of “primitive” cultures, are classics in the field of anthropology.

John Dewey (1859–1952) was one of the leading American thinkers of the twentieth century. A psychologist and educational philosopher, he was one of the founders of the New School for Social Research. He is the author of more than two dozen books, including Democracy and Education (1916), Art as Experience (1934), and Freedom and Culture (1939).

Neni Panourgiá is a writer, translator, and professor of anthropology at the New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of Dangerous Citizens: The Greek Left and the Terror of the State. She lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Paul Radin’s neglected classic.” —Clifford Geertz, The Antioch Review

“By skillful use of texts from native informants and his own colorful prose, I believe [Radin] succeeds well enough so that the book is a landmark. . . . [Radin] is a fertile and imaginative scholar who can be infuriating but never dull . . . full of rich ideas.” —Evon Z. Vogt, American Anthropologist

“Radin’s approach to anthropology [was widespread], ranging from culture, ritual, myth and religion, to history, social theory, law and language.” —E.O. James, Folklore
 
“By linking modes of thought and conduct with social types, Radin developed some leads towards a social anthropology of knowledge.” —Edward Rose, American Sociological Review
 
“A minor masterpiece of the Americanist tradition.” —Regna Darnell
 
“[Primitive Man as Philosopher] did more than any other [book] to dispel the mischievous notion that human beings in small, technologically simple cultures exist at a dead level of uniformity and conformity.” —New York Herald Tribune
 
“Excellent.” —Nature (London)
 
“A significant addition to the body of work that deals with the nature of religion.” —The New Republic

From the Publisher