Prejudice and Its Intellectual Effect in American Anthropology: An Ethnographic Report¹

This article deals with some deep forms of prejudice in American anthropology in terms of its dominant ideas and its products. The foundation of this prejudice seems to be Western individualism. It expresses itself by excluding contrary ideas from its public forums (publications, symposia, and so forth) and by elaborating and escalating ideas in conformity with it. In spite of its cross‐cultural protestations, American anthropology will become White American anthropology unless our fraternity consciously takes a more open‐minded approach to other competing assumptions—rooted in other cultures—about man and what makes him run. There is a world of difference between a truly cross‐cultural science of man and a White centered science of man with cross‐cultural decorations