Charles Wagley (1913 – November 25, 1991)
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 ...
and leading pioneer in the development of Brazilian anthropology. Wagley began graduate work in the 1930s at
Columbia University, where he fell under the spell of
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 ...
and what later became known as the "
historical particularist” mode of anthropology.
Wagley completed his dissertation (''Economics of a Guatemalan Village)'' in 1942, but had already begun exploring other field sites in
Brazil. Along with
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Wagley was one of the chief exponents in Brazilian anthropology.
During
World War II, Wagley’s familiarity with
Brazil’s agriculture industry led him to urge the US government to channel aid to
Latin America to facilitate
rubber production. During this time, he conducted long trips in the
Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
, researching specifically among the
Tapirapé
The Tapirapé indigenous people of Brazil survived the European conquest and subsequent colonization of the country, sustaining most of their culture and customs. Stationed deep into the Amazon rainforest, they had little direct contact with E ...
of central Brazil and with the
Tenetehara people in the eastern portion of the country.
Wagley returned to Columbia and took several key
leadership roles. Also teaching in Columbia at the time was
Julian Steward, another former student of Boas’ and whose idea of
areal studies greatly impacted a new shift in American anthropology. Wagley would also become the director for the Latin American Institute at Columbia. He later left Columbia for an
Emeritus position at the
University of Florida, where he spearheaded the development of the Center for Tropical Conservation and Development. He was a member of both the
American Philosophical Society and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Contributions
Wagley would borrow expound on the concept of area studies in an influential paper presented at one of the first social science meetings devoted to the
Caribbean region. Titled “Plantation America: A Culture Sphere,” Wagley’s short paper sets forth a number of criteria used to establish varying “culture spheres” as frames of reference. The idea was central to redistributing area studies in the New World, and divided it up into three culture spheres: Euro-America, Indo-America, and Plantation-America.
[Wagley, Charles. 1957. "Plantation America: A Culture Sphere," in ''Caribbean Studies, A Symposium'' edited by Vera Rubin, pp. 3–13.]
The criteria Wagley used to categorize these spheres demonstrates a new research design in American anthropology. Taking into account
geography,
the environment,
linguistic material, local and specific
histories
Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to:
* the plural of history
* ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus
* ''The Histories'', by Timaeus
* ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius
* ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), ...
, and especially
modes of production, Wagley belonged to a generation of academics which united
British social anthropology and
American cultural anthropology.
For the Caribbean, at least, this shift is important. Until then, British social science of the Caribbean and
West Indies followed a modified version of
structural-functionalism known as
cultural pluralism. This theoretical stance had popular support among West Indian intellectuals and
Independence movements, but was seen by others as a justification for
racism between
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
s through the denial of
class conflict
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
s and class dynamics among ethnic groups. As a result, cultural pluralist thinkers were reluctant to consider modes of production or economic histories on par with
social institutions such as
marriage or
religion. With the idea of “culture sphere,” the work of Wagley, along with Steward,
Sidney Mintz,
Eric Wolf, and others, helped construct a much more comparative approach for Caribbean studies.
Published works
*Wagley, Charles. 1957. "Plantation America: A Culture Sphere," in ''Caribbean Studies, A Symposium'' edited by Vera Rubin, p. 3–13.
*Wagley, Charles. 1959. "On the Concept of Social Race in the Americas" in ''Actas del XXXIII Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, San Jose, 20–27 Julio 1958, Tomo 1''. San Jose, Costa Rica: Lehman, p. 403–417.
*Wagley, Charles. 1963. ''An Introduction to Brazil''. New York, Columbia University Press.
*Wagley, Charles. 1976. ''Amazon Town: A Study of Man in the Tropics''. London, Oxford University Press.
*Wagley, Charles. 1977. ''Welcome of Tears: The Tapirapé Indians of Central Brazil''. Waveland Press 1983. .
References
External links
Charles Wagley Papers Digital Collection at the University of Florida
Charles Wagley interview Oral History Collection — University of Florida
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagley, Charles
1913 births
1991 deaths
20th-century American anthropologists
Members of the American Philosophical Society