Anthropological Intelligence: The Deployment and Neglect of American Anthropology in the Second World War

395 Pages·2008·3.123 MB·English

by  David H. Price

anthropological intelligence

david h. price
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Anthropological Intelligence
the deployment and neglect of american anthropology
in the second world war
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duke university press durham and london 2008
© 2008 duke university press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper $
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
Typeset in Minion by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
appear on the last printed page of this book.
For Jack and Fernell with love,
wonderful parents who taught me
about patience, caring, and choices.

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Non-doers were the ones who chose not to fight the Nazis in
the only way they could have been fought; they were the ones
who drew their window blinds to shut out the shameful spec-
tacle of Jews and political prisoners being dragged through the
streets; they were the ones who privately deplored the horror
of it all—and did nothing. This is the nadir of immorality. The
most unethical of all means is the non-use of any means.
—saul alinsky
(1971: 26)
Due to the war e√ort, many American anthropologists who have
never before worked in the applied field are now bending all
their energies in this direction. As a result, anthropologists are
making rapid progress in the development of scientific methods
for the application of the results to the practical problems of
administration. . . . To state the matter bluntly for the sake of
clarity, are practical social scientists to become technicians for
hire to the highest bidder?
—laura thompson
(1944: 12)
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contents
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preface xi
abbreviations xxi
one American Anthropology and the War to End All Wars 1
two Professional Associations and the Scope of American
Anthropology’s Wartime Applications 18
three Allied and Axis Anthropologies 53
four The War on Campus 74
five American Anthropologists Join the Wartime Brain
Trust 91
six Anthropologists and White House War Projects 117
seven Internment Fieldwork: Anthropologists and the War
Relocation Authority 143
eight Anthropology and Nihonjinron at the O≈ce of War
Information 171
nine Archaeology and J. Edgar Hoover’s Special Intelligence
Service 200
ten Culture at War: Weaponizing Anthropology at the
oss 220
eleven Postwar Ambiguities: Looking Back at the War 262
notes 283
bibliography 317
index 353