LOWIE, ROBERT HARRY

LOWIE, ROBERT HARRY (1883–1957), U.S. anthropologist. Born in Vienna, Lowie was taken to the U.S. and educated in New York. He studied anthropology under franz boas , and served two institutions, the American Museum of Natural History (1907–17) and the University of California at Berkeley (1917–50). He did field work among various American Indian tribes, especially the Crows. His early interest in comparative mythology led to his publishing several works, notably Primitive Society (1920) and Primitive Religion (1924). Lowie's contribution to anthropology was widely recognized and he edited   the American Journal of Anthropology. During World War II he taught an "area" course on Germany and this experience, combined with ethnographical field trips, led to his publication of The German People – a Social Portrait to 1914 (1945), and Towards Understanding Germany (1954), which assessed the impact of the war on the German personality. Though generally a follower of the Boas school, which insisted on the scientific method, Lowie contended that more importance ought to be allotted to the biological factor in accounting for differences among individuals as well as groups. He also resisted Freudian generalizations, and envisaged the possibility of applying correlation techniques to culture variables. In his ethnographical studies Lowie was concerned to illuminate the interaction between social organization, religion, and folklore. He has been considered by some the precursor of structural anthropology. (Ephraim Fischoff)