June 25, 2004

'Significant Others: Interpersonal and Professional Commitments in Anthropology'

By NINA C. AYOUB

"He is a bastard," was Jaime de Angulo's opinion of Alfred Kroeber, a pioneer in American anthropology who established the department at the University of California. Theirs was a relationship gone sour.

A talented linguist and ethnologist, Angulo published many papers on the Indians of California and Mexico. However, he never managed to hold a teaching position, except for one summer lectureship at Berkeley, in 1920. He blamed Kroeber, not entirely without cause. His mentor had at