HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Roland Burrage Dixon (November 6, 1875 – December 19, 1934) 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 ...
.


Early life and education

Born at
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
,
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
, in 1897 he graduated from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he remained as an assistant in anthropology, taking the degree of Ph. D. in 1900 and then serving as instructor and after 1906 as an assistant professor, rising to professor in 1915. Dixon spent his entire career at Harvard.


Peabody Museum

In 1904, Dixon became Librarian of Harvard's Peabody Museum and has been credited for creating one of the most "comprehensive and functional anthropological libraries in the world". In 1909 he became the Peabody Museum's Secretary and in 1912 its Curator of Ethnology.


Influence of Franz Boas

Dixon studied linguistics and ethnology under
Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...
after working with Fredric Ward Putnam to obtain his PhD at Harvard. Dixon worked as a member of Boas's Jesup North Pacific Expedition, more specifically with the Huntington Expedition during the 1899-1905 field seasons with Native American groups in northeastern California. Dixon's early papers represent some of the earliest work inspired by Boas' views on culture. However, Boas did not fully articulate his views on culture until 1911, thus Dixon's work is less influenced by Boasian views than that of many of Boas' later students. Indeed, Boas and Dixon's views of culture clashed in numerous instances, in particular, over whether modern 'Stone Age' cultures could be used as analogs for prehistoric archaeological cultures. Boas was strongly opposed to this view. Dixon's approach towards cultures was geographic in orientation, and generally viewed cultures as static entities, with change primarily being induced by migration. Dixon's geographical-historical approach was not taken up by any later anthropologists.


Collaboration

Dixon was fellow Boas student
Alfred Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...
's closest professional colleague from 1897 until about 1906. They coordinated closely, published a number of papers jointly, and had an explicit agreement not to duplicate one another's work, Dixon working on languages and cultures in northeastern California and the northern Sierra Nevada, Kroeber in the remainder of the state.


Travel and field work

Dixon later travelled to . He also carried out ethnographic research in Siberia and Mongolia (1901); New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, and Fuji (1909); Mexico (1910); Himalayas, Assam and Upper Burma, the Malay Peninsula and Java, China and Japan (1912-13).


Ideas on race

Dixon was influenced in his ideas about race by his mentor, Putnam, who had been trained by
Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ...
and both of these 19th century anthropologists handed down a tradition of viewing the races as separate species. In his 1923 book,
The Racial History of Man
', Dixon disavowed earlier creationist
polygenism Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins (''polygenesis''). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views no ...
while embracing a new evolutionary view of the races as coming from different fossil ancestors giving rise to different species of humans.


Recognition

Dixon was vice president of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1910–1911 and president of the
American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...
from 1907 to 1908. He was
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
at
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
after 1916 and member of the
American Commission to Negotiate Peace The American Commission to Negotiate Peace, successor to The Inquiry, participated in the peace negotiations at the Treaty of Versailles from January 18 to December 9, 1919. Frank Lyon Polk headed the commission in 1919. The peace conference was su ...
(1916–1918) in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. Professor Dixon was a contributor to
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
and
ethnological Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...
journals.


Reputation

Obituaries by fellow anthropologists ascribed to Dixon an icy and demanding personality, with an attitude of "unsympathetic impartiality, of ruthless condemnation, or of detached approval."


Selected works

* ''Maidu Myths'' (1902) * ''The Chimariko Indians and Language'' (1910) * ''Maidu Texts'' (1912) * ''Oceanic Mythology'' (myths of the
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
n,
Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
n,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n region, published in 1916) * ''Racial History of Man'' (1923)


Archive

Dixon's ethnology and also his lecture notes and class materials are held at the
Harvard University Archives Harvard Library is the umbrella organization for Harvard University's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world. Its collection ...
.


References


External links

* http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1936.38.2.02a00100/pdf * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Roland Burrage Harvard University alumni People from Worcester, Massachusetts American people of World War I American anthropologists American science writers Harvard University faculty 1875 births 1934 deaths Linguists of Algic languages Linguists of Hokan languages Linguists of Penutian languages Linguists of Maiduan languages Linguists of Chimariko Paleolinguists Presidents of the American Folklore Society