Herbert S. Lewis

Herbert S. Lewis (born May 8, 1934) is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught from 1963 to 1998. He has conducted extensive field research. In Ethiopia, Lewis studied the both the history of the Oromo (Galla) Kingdom of Jimma Abba Jifar and the lives of contemporary Oromos from 1958–60 and in 1965–66. (Many of his ethnographic photographs are visible in the University of Wisconsin's Digital Library. See the link to Africa Focus below). His work in Ethiopia was concerned above all with political leadership and community organization as well as ethnohistory and culture history. The book, originally titled A Galla Monarchy: Jimma Abba Jifar, Ethiopia, 1830-1932, is a study of the nature of the monarchy, the sources of the ruler's power, as well as its origins. The study in 1965-66 centered on community life and the leadership of spirit mediums, k'allu, who effectively organized religious life and conflict resolution, and provided a degree of political leadership for rural districts.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Lewis studied ethnicity, class, and culture change in Israel, focusing on those Jews who immigrated from Yemen and Morocco. The major publication resulting from this work was After the Eagles Landed: The Yemenites of Israel. Contrary to the stereotype of the Yemenites as downtrodden and rather poor "Oriental" Jews (mizrachim in current usage) Lewis's evidence showed them to be confident, increasingly successful in status (occupation, education, political presence), as well as maintaining and developing aspects of their music, dance, arts, and persistent in the orthodox Jewish religious belief and practices they brought with them from Yemen.

His 2005 publication, Oneida Lives (see below), presents a large selection of personal accounts by Oneidas of Wisconsin that offer wide-ranging perspectives on the lives of men and women of various ages between 1885 to the beginning of World War II. (These accounts were collected by the Oneidas themselves through a WPA grant to the University of Wisconsin anthropology department. Morris Swadesh initiated the WPA project in 1937 and it was initially overseen by Floyd Lounsbury.)

His book In Defense of Anthropology: An Investigation of the Critique of Anthropology presents a series of chapters that make a sustained argument for the value (and honor) of modern (as in “prior to postmodern”) American and British anthropology. The work traces the major transformation undergone by American anthropology as a result of the cataclysmic events of the 1960s—the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the increasing rise of the women's and other identity movements, and the increasingly visible anti-colonial movements. The discipline of anthropology became the object of numerous critiques; "the critique of anthropology's complicity in projects of power is itself the main political act" (Sherry Ortner 1999). This work responds critically to these critiques, offering evidence to counter the widespread notion of anthropology as the handmaiden of colonialism, and of its liability for exoticizing and otherwise misrepresenting what post-1960s writers call "the Other."

Lewis' major research interests include: anthropological theory and history, cultural and social change, ethnicity, and political anthropology. Although initiated into anthropology by Marxian, materialist, neo-evolutionists at Brandeis and Columbia he soon became more of a Weberian-Boasian (see Lewis 2001b on Boas, Darwin, pragmatism, etc.). His conversion was mediated and facilitated by fieldwork in political anthropology in Africa, a concern for ethnicity before this was a common and acceptable subject, the teaching of Conrad Arensberg, the early writings of Fredrik Barth, Max Weber on forms of political action. These led to a concern with individual action in the context of culture. (Call it structure and agency before its time.)

Many of Lewis' published papers and book reviews are available at academia.edu

Biography

Early life

Although born across the Hudson River in New Jersey he grew up in several communities around New York City, spending his high school years in Lynbrook on Long Island. He also had the chance to work in Manhattan for several summers and to attend graduate school at Columbia University.

Education

Professional life

Currently, Lewis is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Family life

Lewis is married and has three children, each with children of their own. HIs wife of 49 years, Marcia Barbash Lewis, died in 2006, but urged him to "get together" with Francie Smith Saposnik, her dear friend—who also has three children, each with children of their own.

Significant works

Books

Articles

Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, 1955–2005.”  In Regna Darnell & Frederic Gleach (eds.) Histories of Anthropology Annual #5. 2009.

Awards and honors

References

    External links

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