William Lloyd Warner (October 26, 1898 – May 23, 1970) was a pioneering anthropologist and sociologist noted for applying the techniques of
British functionalism to understanding American culture.
Background
William Lloyd Warner was born in
Redlands, California, into the family of William Taylor and Clara Belle Carter, middle-class farmers. Warner attended
San Bernardino High School
San Bernardino High School (SBHS) is an American public high school and city located at 1850 North E Street within San Bernardino, California and a member of the San Bernardino City Unified School District. SBHS was granted charter as a city in 196 ...
, after which he joined the army in 1917. He contracted
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
in 1918 and was released from the service. In 1918 he married Billy Overfield, but the marriage lasted only briefly.
Warner enrolled in the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where he studied English and became associated with the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
.
In 1921, he transferred to New York to pursue a career in acting. The plan did not work well, and Warner returned to Berkeley to complete his studies in English.
At Berkeley, he met
Robert H. Lowie, professor of anthropology, who encouraged him to turn to anthropology. Warner became fascinated by the work of
Bronislaw Malinowski and
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, who introduced him to the
British functionalist approach to social anthropology. He also developed friendships with anthropologists
Alfred L. 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 ...
and
Theodora Kroeber
Theodora Kroeber (March 24, 1897 – July 4, 1979) was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for her accounts of several Native Californian cultures. Born in Denver, Colorado, Kroeber grew up in the mining town of Telluride, and wor ...
. Warner received his B.A. from Berkeley in 1925.
Research in Australia
From 1926 to 1929, Warner spent three years as a researcher for the
Rockefeller Foundation and the
Australian National Research Council
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...
, studying the
Murngin people of
Arnhem Land in northern Australia with his base at the
Milingimbi Methodist Mission. He formed a deep friendship with Mahkarolla, his main Murrgin informant, whom he described in an appendix to his 1947 book. From 1929 to 1935, Warner studied at Harvard in the department of anthropology and the Business School, trying to obtain his Ph.D. He used his study among Murngin for his dissertation, which was later published in his first book, ''A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe'' (1937). He never defended the thesis, and accordingly, did not receive his doctoral degree.
While at Harvard, Warner taught at the
Graduate School of Business Administration. From 1930 to 1935, he conducted his most influential study, which was known by the name ''The Yankee City project''. In 1932, he married Mildred Hall, with whom he had three children.
Career at Harvard
Warner enrolled at
Harvard (1929–1935) as a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate School of Business School Administration. His first book, ''A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe'' (1937), followed the conventional anthropological path of studying so-called "primitive people."
During his years at Harvard, he became a member of a group of social scientists, led by Australian social psychologist
Elton Mayo
George Elton Mayo (26 December 1880 – 7 September 1949) was an Australian born psychologist, industrial researcher, and organizational theorist.Cullen, David O'Donald. ''A new way of statecraft: The career of Elton Mayo and the development ...
, the father of the
Human Relations Movement, best known for his discovery of the
Hawthorne Effect
The Hawthorne effect is a type of reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The effect was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorne Western Electric ...
in the course of his motivational research at the
Western Electric Company
The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment m ...
. Mayo was exploring the social and psychological dimensions of industrial settings, and stimulated Warner's interest in contemporary society. Warner became involved in Mayo's project of studying the workplace and organizational structure, using the Western Electric Hawthorne plant in Chicago as its location. Warner's contribution consisted in the introduction of anthropological techniques of observation and interviewing, an innovation that helped cultural explanations to emerge from data analysis. He was largely responsible for the design of the third phase of the Hawthorne project known as the ''Bank Wiring Observation Room'' (BWOR) which examined how workers actually performed their jobs, as opposed to what they stated they would do during interviews.
Career in Chicago
In 1935, he was appointed professor of anthropology and sociology at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, where he remained until 1959, when he was appointed professor of social research at
Michigan State University. During his Chicago years, Warner's research included important studies of black communities in Chicago and the rural South, of a New England community ("Yankee City"/
Newburyport, MA
Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...
), and a Midwestern community ("Jonesville"). In addition to these community studies, Warner researched business leaders and government administrators, as well as producing important books on race, religion, and American society.
Warner's Yankee City study lasted nearly a decade and produced 5 volumes: ''The Social Life of a Modern Community'' (1941), ''The Status System of a Modern Community'' (1942), ''The Social Systems of American Ethnic Groups'' (1945), ''The Social System of a Modern Factory'' (1947), and ''The Living and the Dead: A Study in the Symbolic Life of Americans'' (1959).
Criticisms
Despite his impressive productivity and wide range of interests, Warner's work has long been out of fashion. The noted Marxist sociologist
Oliver Cromwell Cox
Oliver Cromwell Cox (24 August 1901 – 4 September 1974) was a Trinidadian- American sociologist noted for his early Marxian viewpoint on fascism.
Cox was born into a middle-class family in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and emigrate ...
's vigorous critique of Warner's framing of race in the Southern US as
caste contributed to the disappearance of this once-fashionable conception.
[Herbert M. Hunter, Sameer Y. Abraham, "Race, class, and the world system: the sociology of Oliver C. Cox", Monthly Review Press, 1987] An empiricist in an era when the social disciplines were increasingly theoretical, fascinated with economic and social inequality in a time when Americans were eager to deny its significance, and implicitly skeptical of the possibilities of legislating social change at a time when many social scientists were eager to be policymakers, Warner's focus on uncomfortable subjects made his work unfashionable. Warner's interest in communities (when the social science mainstream was stressing the importance of urbanization) and religion (when the fields' leaders were aggressively secularist) also helped to marginalize his work. More positive assessments of his work have recently emerged.
Sources
* Easton, John. 2001. Consuming Interests. University of Chicago Magazine 93(6)
* Marquand, John P. 1939. Wickford Point.
* Marquand, John P. 1947. Point of No Return.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1967. The Emergent American Society.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1963. The American Federal Executive: A Study of the Social and Personal Characteristics of the Civil Service.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1963. Big Business Leaders in America.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1962. The Corporation in the Emergent American Society.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1961. The Family of God: A Symbolic Study of Christian Life in America.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1960. Social class in America: A Manual of Procedure for the Measurement of Social Status.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1959. The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans.
* Warner, W. Lloyd (ed.). 1959. Industrial Man: Businessmen and Business Organizations.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1955. Big Business Leaders in America,
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1955. Occupational Mobility in American Business and Industry, 1928–1952.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1953. American Life: Dream and Reality.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1952. Structure of American Life.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1949. Democracy in Jonesville; A Study of Quality and Inequality.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1949. Social Class in America: A Manual of Procedure for the Measurement of Social Status.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1948. The Radio Day Time Serial: A Symbolic Analysis.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1947. The Social System of the Modern Factory. The Strike: A Social Analysis.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1946. Who Shall Be Educated? The Challenge of Unequal Opportunities.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1945. The Social Systems of American Ethnic Groups.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1944. Who Shall Be Educated? The Challenge of Unequal Opportunities.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1942. The Status System of a Modern Community.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1941. Color and Human Nature: Negro Personality Development in a Northern City.
* Warner, W. Lloyd. 1937. A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe.
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Guide to the W. Lloyd Warner Papers 1913-1981at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, W. Lloyd
1898 births
1970 deaths
Social psychologists
People from Redlands, California
20th-century American anthropologists
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
Harvard Business School faculty
University of Chicago faculty
Michigan State University faculty