Lawrence Krader
Encyclopedia
Lawrence Krader was an important American
socialist anthropologist and ethnologist. At the Philosophy Department of the City College of New York
(CCNY) from 1936 onwards he studied Aristotle
with Abraham Edel
, Leibniz with Philipp P. Wiener and mathematical logic
and linguistics
with Alfred Tarski
. In 1937-38, he also studied logic
with Rudolf Carnap
and ethnology
with Franz Boas
. In 1941 Krader graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
degree at CCNY and was granted the Ketcham Award for philosophy.
As the USA entered World War II, Krader joined the merchant navy within the framework of the Lend-Lease Act, and via Archangelsk ended up in Leningrad
, where he learnt Russian language. After the war, Krader returned to the USA and studied linguistics (1945–47) at Columbia University
with Roman Ossipovič Jakobson and André Martinet
. During this time, he developed an interpretation of human evolution which stimulated him to leave philosophy, and commence an intensive study of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, becoming a fellow of the Far Eastern Institute at the University of Washington
in Seattle. His new research interests probably also owed something to meeting Karl Wittfogel in 1947 whom he helped with research and Russian translations, and his contact with Karl Korsch
. Krader was Wittfogel's assistant from 1948 to 1951. In 1952 Krader taught linguistics as Fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard, and married his wife Dr Barbara Lattimer in 1953. In 1954 he graduated at Harvard with a Phd on “Kinship systems of the Altaic-speaking peoples of the Asian Steppes” (supervised by Clyde Kluckhohn
).
From 1953 to 1956 he was appointed Research Associate at the Bureau of Social Science Research at the American University
of Washington DC in the area of Central Asian Studies. In 1956-58 he became Professor in anthropology and director of the Nomads Program at the University of Syracuse and leader of the China Population Program at the United States Census Bureau
. From 1957-1959 Krader became President of the Anthropological Society of Washington. From 1958 to 1963 he taught as ordinary Professor at the American University in Washington DC, as well as being representative for ethnology and anthropology at the Social Science Council and Human Science Council of UNESCO
, leader of the anthropological section of the sociology and anthropology department at CCNY, and chairman of the sociology and anthropology department at the University of Waterloo
in Canada. In 1962 Krader traveled for the first time to outer Mongolia
. From 1963 to 1968 Krader received finance for his research project on the evolution of the state and nomadism from the National Science Foundation
.
From 1964 to 1978 Krader became Secretary-General of the IUAES
. For his study of the roots of the theory of evolution in the 19th century he received support from the International Institute of Social History
(Amsterdam) during 1963-1975. During 1970-1972 Krader was Professor at the University of Waterloo, but in 1972 joined the Institute for Ethnology at the Free University of Berlin
, where he became director until 1982. From 1989 until his death, Krader produced 156 manuscripts including works on labour and value, noetics, a theory of the Russian revolution, mathematical logic, a critique of evolutionism, linguistics and other topics. It is intended that some of this material will be published via a research project at McMaster University
with the aid of an endowment.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
socialist anthropologist and ethnologist. At the Philosophy Department of the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
(CCNY) from 1936 onwards he studied Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
with Abraham Edel
Abraham Edel
Abraham Edel was a North American philosopher and ethicist. He was the younger brother of North American literary critic and biographer Leon Edel, the uncle of composer Joel Mandelbaum. He was married three times; the first two were fellow academics and co-authors.Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,...
, Leibniz with Philipp P. Wiener and mathematical logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
and linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
with Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski
Alfred Tarski was a Polish logician and mathematician. Educated at the University of Warsaw and a member of the Lwow-Warsaw School of Logic and the Warsaw School of Mathematics and philosophy, he emigrated to the USA in 1939, and taught and carried out research in mathematics at the University of...
. In 1937-38, he also studied logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
with Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap was an influential German-born philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism....
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
with Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
. In 1941 Krader graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree at CCNY and was granted the Ketcham Award for philosophy.
As the USA entered World War II, Krader joined the merchant navy within the framework of the Lend-Lease Act, and via Archangelsk ended up in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, where he learnt Russian language. After the war, Krader returned to the USA and studied linguistics (1945–47) at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
with Roman Ossipovič Jakobson and André Martinet
André Martinet
André Martinet was a French linguist, influential by his work on structural linguistics....
. During this time, he developed an interpretation of human evolution which stimulated him to leave philosophy, and commence an intensive study of the nomadic peoples of Central Asia, becoming a fellow of the Far Eastern Institute at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in Seattle. His new research interests probably also owed something to meeting Karl Wittfogel in 1947 whom he helped with research and Russian translations, and his contact with Karl Korsch
Karl Korsch
-Biography:Korsch was born in Tostedt, near Hamburg, to Carl August Korsch, a secretary at the cantonal court and his wife Therese. In 1898 the family moved to Meiningen, Thuringia and Korsch senior attained the position of a managing clerk in a bank...
. Krader was Wittfogel's assistant from 1948 to 1951. In 1952 Krader taught linguistics as Fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard, and married his wife Dr Barbara Lattimer in 1953. In 1954 he graduated at Harvard with a Phd on “Kinship systems of the Altaic-speaking peoples of the Asian Steppes” (supervised by Clyde Kluckhohn
Clyde Kluckhohn
Clyde Kluckhohn , was an American anthropologist and social theorist, best known for his long-term ethnographic work among the Navajo and his contributions to the development of theory of culture within American anthropology.-Early life and education:...
).
From 1953 to 1956 he was appointed Research Associate at the Bureau of Social Science Research at the American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
of Washington DC in the area of Central Asian Studies. In 1956-58 he became Professor in anthropology and director of the Nomads Program at the University of Syracuse and leader of the China Population Program at the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
. From 1957-1959 Krader became President of the Anthropological Society of Washington. From 1958 to 1963 he taught as ordinary Professor at the American University in Washington DC, as well as being representative for ethnology and anthropology at the Social Science Council and Human Science Council of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
, leader of the anthropological section of the sociology and anthropology department at CCNY, and chairman of the sociology and anthropology department at the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
in Canada. In 1962 Krader traveled for the first time to outer Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
. From 1963 to 1968 Krader received finance for his research project on the evolution of the state and nomadism from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
.
From 1964 to 1978 Krader became Secretary-General of the IUAES
IUAES
The IUAES is the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the largest world forum of anthropologists and ethnologists, with members from more than fifty countries. Every five years, in different parts of the world, the IUAES sponsors a major Congress , gathering researchers...
. For his study of the roots of the theory of evolution in the 19th century he received support from the International Institute of Social History
International Institute of Social History
The International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
(Amsterdam) during 1963-1975. During 1970-1972 Krader was Professor at the University of Waterloo, but in 1972 joined the Institute for Ethnology at the Free University of Berlin
Free University of Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...
, where he became director until 1982. From 1989 until his death, Krader produced 156 manuscripts including works on labour and value, noetics, a theory of the Russian revolution, mathematical logic, a critique of evolutionism, linguistics and other topics. It is intended that some of this material will be published via a research project at McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
with the aid of an endowment.
Quotation
Main books
- Peoples of Central Asia. Bloomington: Univ. u.a., 1963 (Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 20)
- Social organization of the Mongol-Turkic pastoral nomads. The Hague : Mouton, 1963
- (ed.) Anthropology and Early Law. Selected from the writings of Paul VinogradoffPaul VinogradoffSir Paul Vinogradoff November 1854, Kostroma, Russia– 19 December 1925, Paris, France) was a highly reputable Anglo-Russian historian-medievalist.-Career:...
, Frederic William MaitlandFrederic William MaitlandFrederic William Maitland was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history.-Biography:...
, Frederick Pollock, Maxime Kovalevsky, Rudolf Huebner, Frederic SeebohmFrederic SeebohmFrederic Seebohm may refer to:*Frederic Seebohm , British economic historian*Frederic Seebohm, Baron Seebohm , British life peer and banker; grandson and namesake of the historian...
. Basic Books 1966 - Formation of the state (Foundations of modern anthropology series) Prentice-Hall 1968
- The ethnological notebooks of Karl Marx. (studies of Morgan, Phear, Maine, Lubbock). Assen : Van Gorcum [u.a.], 1972
- Karl Marx, die ethnologischen Exzerpthefte. hrsg. von . [Übers. von Angelika Schweikhart], Edition Suhrkamp, 800, 1. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp 1976
- Ethnologie und Anthropologie bei Marx. - München : Hanser, 1973
- The Asiatic mode of production: sources, development and critique in the writings of Karl Marx. Assen : van Gorcum, 1975
- Dialectic of civil society. Assen: van Gorcum, 1976.
- A Treatise of Social Labour. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1979 (Dialectic and Society, 5)
- (Vorwort) Karl Marx: Die technologisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Exzerpte. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe. Transkribiert u. hg. v. Hans-Peter Müller. Mit e. Vorwort v. Lawrence Krader. 1. Aufl. Frankfurt/M. etc., Ullstein, 1982
- Die Anfänge des Kapitalismus in Mitteleuropa'. Frankfurt am Main [u.a.] : Lang, 1993
- Labor and value, ed. by Cyril Levitt and Rod Hay. New York, N.Y. [etc.] : Lang, 2003.
- Noetics: The Science of Thinking and Knowing, ed. by Cyril Levitt. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.
Biographical details and bibliography of scholarly articles
- Dittmar Schorkowitz (Hrsg.): Ethnohistorische Wege und Lehrjahre eines Philosophen: Festschrift für Lawrence Krader zum 75. Geburtstag (Frankfurt a.M. / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Wien: Peter Lang, 1995)
- Fritz W. Kramer, “Vita activa: Lawrence Krader”, in: Dialektik: Enzyklopadische Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und Wissenschaften, 1991/92, ed. H.J. Dandkuhler et al. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1991), p. 149ff.