Historical Development Anthropology

Edward Sapir

Edward was born in Lauenburg Germany, on January 26, 1884. Edward’s father, an orthodox Jewish rabbi, took him to the United States when he was young. Edward Sapir attended Columbia University, where he met and worked with Franz Boas. This was the first experience that led Edward to be truly interested in linguistic anthropology. Edward left Columbia with a master's in Germanics and a PhD in a language spoken in Oregon called Takelma. Edward spent the next 6 years studying languages of different cultures in the western United States, such as the Yana and Paitu. 

After leaving Columbia University entirely, Edward went to Ottawa where he worked as the chief of anthropology at the Canadian National Museum, from 1910-1925. Edward didn’t only provide new information regarding anthropology, but also made lots of progress in the study of ethnology (the study of characteristics of different peoples and the differences between them). He continued to study languages, specifically Indian languages in the west, while also writing his findings. Edward wrote about cultural change among American Indians in 1916, which is believed to be one of his most important contributions to anthropology. After studying linguistics of Indian languages for years, Edward stated that every Indian language in America, Canada, Mexico, and Central America could be sorted into 1 of 6 different major groups. Edward’s last great contribution to the study was in 1931 when he worked as a professor at Yale for two years and established the department of anthropology before he passed away. Sapir believed that language and culture had strong ties together and dedicated most of his life's work to both topics, through traveling, observing, and writing extremely informative pieces about his findings.