John Adair (1913 in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

– December 14, 1997 in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

), was an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

best known for work in

visual anthropology Visual anthropology is a subfield of social anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media. More recently it has been used by historians of science an ...

but also very much involved and interested in

applied anthropology Applied anthropology is the application of the methods and theory of anthropology to the analysis and solution of practical problems. In ''Applied Anthropology: Domains of Application'', Kedia and Van Willigen define the process as a "complex of ...

. After serving in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he moved to the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

to finish his graduate studies, becoming the university's first doctoral candidate in anthropology in 1948. Adair than moved to Zuni with his pregnant wife Casey and their son. His sole purpose of moving to Zuni was to gather information that he could use in his dissertation, "The Veterans of World War II at Zuni Pueblo", which was never published.

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

hired him in 1948. The school asked him to teach a series of field seminars in the Southwest. The resulting studies in the Southwest were published as the book ''First Look at Strangers'' in 1959. Adair joined the Cornell-Navajo Field Health Research Project at Many Farms, located on the

Navajo Reservation The Navajo Nation ( nv, Naabeehó Bináhásdzo), also known as Navajoland, is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American Indian reservation, reservation in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwe ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, working there as chief anthropologist from 1953 to 1960. He, along with many other anthropologists, played an important role in this project. They were asked to provide anthropological insight, perspectives, and methodologies. Adair and two other anthropologists published a report of the project in ''The People's Health'' in 1970 and later revised the report in 1988. Adair worked with the

National Institute of Mental Health The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...

(NIMH) from 1961 to 1964. At the conclusion of his work in the NIMH, he became Professor of Anthropology at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1978. He is also known for the 1972 book, ''Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology'', which he co-authored with

Sol Worth Sol Worth (August 19, 1922 in New York City – August 29, 1977) was a painter, photography and visual communication scholar. His parents, Ida and Jacob Wishnepolsky, were Russian immigrants who worked in the garment industry and were active membe ...

References

1913 births 1997 deaths Cornell University faculty Medical anthropologists San Francisco State University faculty Social anthropologists Visual anthropologists 20th-century American anthropologists American military personnel of World War II {{US-cultural-anthropologist-stub