George W. Stocking Jr. (December 28, 1928July 13, 2013) was a German-born American scholar noted for his scholarship on the history of

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

Early life and education

Stocking was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1928. His father, the economist George W. Stocking Sr., was conducting research on the German potash industry. Stocking senior moved frequently to take different academic positions, as well as to conduct research and undertake policy and applied work. As a result, George Stocking Jr. moved around frequently as a child. The majority of his childhood, however, was spent in Texas, where his father was a professor at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. He graduated from high school in New York, however, where he graduated from Horace-Mann Lincoln School in 1944.

Career

Stocking went on to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He graduated from Harvard in 1949. From 1949 to 1956 he was a member of the Communist Party, taking a number of jobs in manufacturing and industry an attempt to organize workers. Eventually Stocking grew disaffected with politics, and in 1957 he entered graduate school at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. There, he was a student in the interdisciplinary program on "American Civilization", where he was a student of A. Irving Hallowell. In 1960 he earned his Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled "American Social Scientists and Race Theory: 1890–1915". Stocking's work was a content analysis of articles written by academics and intellectuals, and was influenced by social-scientific thought current in the American Civilization program at the time. Nevertheless, his work is usually classified as history and he is usually considered a historian. Stocking's first academic position was at 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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...

, where he was hired in 1959 as a social historian. He subsequently taught for a semester at the

in 1967. In 1968 Stocking took a position at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, where he had a joint appointment in the departments of anthropology and history for some years. He moved to a full position in anthropology in 1974. Stocking's scholarly work takes several forms. He has published several volumes which anthologize already-published journal articles. These include ''Race, Culture, and Evolution ''(1968), ''The Ethnographer's Magic ''(1992), and ''Delimiting Anthropology ''(2001). Stocking has also edited the work of other scholars. Work in this vein includes ''The Shaping of American Anthropology ''(1974), an anthology of writings by

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...

. as well as ''Selected Papers from the American Anthropologist ''(1976). Most notably, he was the editor in chief of the annual book series "History of Anthropology" published by the

University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a Non-profit organization, non-profit university press publishing Peer review, peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic comm ...

. In 1973, in conjunction with Robert Bieder and Judith Modell, he founded th
History of Anthropology Newsletter
as "a medium of communication for active researchers in this area" providing "information as to archival holdings, bibliographic aids, research in progress, recent publications, and so on." In addition to these works, Stocking has produced several monographs. Most notably these include two volumes which trace the history of British anthropology: ''Victorian Anthropology ''(1987) and ''After Tylor ''(1995). He has also written an autobiography, ''Glimpses into my own Black Box ''(2010) and the exhibition catalog ''Anthropology at Chicago ''(1979).

Criticism

In 1964, Stocking published an influential article entitled ‘French Anthropology in 1800’, in the journal ''Isis'' (vol. 55, part. 2, no. 180, pp. 134–50). In it, he mistakenly suggested that the French zoologist

François Péron François Auguste Péron (22 August 1775 – 14 December 1810) was a French naturalist and explorer. Life Péron was born in Cérilly, Allier, in 1775, the son of a tailor (not a harness maker as is frequently asserted). Although intended fo ...

was an advocate of

polygenism Polygenism is a theory of human origins which posits the view that humans are of different origins (polygenesis). This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Modern scientific views find little merit ...

. He was challenged by Péron's biographer,

Edward Duyker Edward Duyker (born 21 March 1955) is an Australian historian, biographer and author born in Melbourne. Edward Duyker's books include several ethno-histories – ''Tribal Guerrillas'' (1987), ''The Dutch in Australia'' (1987) and ''Of the Star ...

, who asserted that ‘one of Péron’s most significant anthropological findings’ was the recognition of ‘strong physical and cultural differences’ between the inhabitants of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and mainland

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. These differences, and the absence of the

dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...

, led Péron to conclude, in a memoir he presented to the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

, that ‘la séparation de ces deux régions doit remonter à une époque beaucoup plus ancienne qu’on ne pourroit le soupçonner d’abord’ ��the separation of these two regions must have dated from an époque very much more ancient than one could suspect at first’ Duyker pointed out that Stocking had mistranslated this crucial statement as: ‘before the epoch of the population of these countries’, to justify his erroneous assertion about Péron's belief in distinct human creations.

Later life and death

Stocking was a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the

. He died in 2013 after years of declining health.

Legacy

Upon his death, an article in the ''

Indian Country Today Media Network ''ICT'' (formerly known as ''Indian Country Today'') is a nonprofit, multimedia news platform that covers the Indigenous world, with a particular focus on American Indian, Alaska Native and First Nations communities across North America. Fo ...

'' called Stocking "The Man Who Forced Anthropologists to Respect Native Cultures".

Bibliography

In addition to the titles listed below Stocking has edited many works, been the editor of the series ''History of Anthropology'', and contributed to many journals. Some of his essays are collected in ''Race, Culture and Evolution'', ''The Ethnographer's Magic'' and ''Delimiting Anthropology''. A complete bibliography of his works is in his autobiography ''Glimpses Into My Own Black Box.'' *1968 ''Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology''. *1982 ''Race, Culture, and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology''. eprint with new preface *1987 ''Victorian Anthropology''.
1991 pbk reprint
*199
''The Ethnographer's Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology''
*1995 ''After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888–1951''. *200
''Delimiting Anthropology: Occasional Essays and Reflections.''
*2010 ''Glimpses Into My Own Black Box''.