Biographical Memoirs Volume 61 (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Clark Wissler
Clark Wissler
Pages 468-497
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FREED AND RUTH S FREED WISSLER LIVED his professional life when anthropological theory in the United States was dominated by the Boasian paradigm of historical particularism.
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into modern anthropological theory. Some of his influence has been largely unperceived, particularly concerning the culture pattern, later made famous by Ruth Benedict in Patterns of Culture.2 His innovative and sophisticated concept of the universal pattern of culture was misunclerstoo(1 and largely overlooked for decades after he proposed it, although its classificatory aspect was routinely used in ethnographies.
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From page 471... ...
To this clay ~ clislike mass emotionalism." Nevertheless, he closely observed the behavior of the chief actor anc! later when he "read about abnormal behavior and religious extravagance, it all sounclect very real and natural."3 One of the strongest influences in Wissler's life was a neighboring farmer, a man of high intelligence but little ~ ..
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Also, he married Etta Viola Gebhart on June 14, 1899, and the responsibility of marriage was an aciclitional incentive. The couple eventually had two children, a son, Stanley Gebhart Wissler, ant!
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His psychological work clearly influenced his approach to anthropology, which is peppered with psychological insights, as in the 'concept of the universal pattern of culture, the culture pattern, and the culture area. WissTer "hacl a feeling that Anthropology and psychology]
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At the time, there were more ~ <~ ~ _~_ openings for anthropologists than psychologists "owing to a burst of expeditionary activity at the American Museum. Wissler received opportunities there first for field work, anti then of a curatorial position."7 PROFESSIONAL LIFE Wissler joined the American Museum in 1902 as assistant in ethnology under Franz Boas.
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However, in ~ 924, in the "greatest surprise" of his life, Yale University offered WissTer a research appointment in the newly founclect Institute of Psychology.9 WissTer's training and interest in psychology made him the logical anthropologist for the position. Within a few years, the Institute of Psychology was expanded into the Institute of Human Relations, and Wissler maintained an association with it until he left Yale.
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at least 365 titles, chiefly in ethnology, but including a few in pedagogy, psychology, physical anthropology, anct archeology. Wissler cleveloped his major theoretical ideas against the background of his Plains Tnclian research.
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In Wissler's hands, the culture area became more than just a geographical grouping of social units with similar cultures; it was a significant theory of culture change and, as he was well aware, offered an alternative to the Boasian style of anthronolo~v. What the concert Slid we to shift ~n~lvtirn1 —— — r a ~ A ~ ~ ~ ~ _—~ ~ ~ ~ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ .
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The pattern phenomenon refers to the fact that in a tribe or region there are clominant concepts that retard diffusion or serve to modify borrowed trait-complexes. "The conception is that in certain phases of culture each social unit clevelops a style, or pattern, for its traits and that borrowed traits will be worked over to make them conform to this pattern."~3 Although the concept of the culture pattern, like the culture area, may have been in the air at the time that Wissler wrote, we have found little evidence that any other anthropologist hac3 established clear priority.
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From page 479... ...
has clone enough with the age-area concept to show that it is not a mere instrument of speculation but a legitimate means of inferential reconstruction when other data fail."~5 Universal Pattern of Culture The major importance of the universal pattern of culture at the time it was proposed was probably in the context of particularism versus comparison. The culture-area concept had furnished a historical basis for cross-cultural comparison; trait-complexes could be abstracted from cultural context and comparer!
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By the phrase, human being, we usually mean a primate that possesses a culture conforming to this basic pattern. Thus, the universal pattern is deeply involved in what Wissler consiclered the fundamental problem in education, psychology, zoology, and anthropology, namely, the analysis of humanity's original biological equipment for culture.
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From page 481... ...
It is basic to all culture complexes. Wissler asserts that "The universal pattern for culture is then largely cietermined by the number and kind of these inborn responses...." The cletails of the trait-complexes, in turn, "are largely variants in the conditioning of inborn responses." Archeology and Physical!
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From page 482... ...
Spier published studies in that series from 1914 to 1919 that revolutionized American archeology. It is also noteworthy that Kroeber's monumental study of Zuni social organization was publishecl during the same periocl.~8 Other work of great importance in Southwestern archeology was carrier!
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S Reed's doctoral dissertation, "Clark Wissler: A Forgotten Influence in American Anthropology," Ball State University, 1980, is useful.
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National Park Service (member of the Committee on the Study of Educational Problems in the National Parks, superceded by the National Park Service Educational Advisory Board, superceded by the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments 1929-47) National Research Council, Division of Anthropology and Psychology (vice chairman, 1920; chairman, 1920-21 )
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Clark Wissler, unpublished data, American Museum of Natural History, Archives 8. Wissler, autobiographical statement, p.
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Reyman, "Note on Clark Wissler's contribution to American archeology," American Anthropologist 87~1985~:390.
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Transactions of the Thirteenth International Congress of Americanists, 1902, pp.
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9:397-99. Review of Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1, ed.
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11:1-99. North American Indians of the Plains.
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16: 1-25. Material cultures of the North American Indians.
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18:129-43. The relation of nature to man as illustrated by the North American Indian.
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8:119-24. The influence of aboriginal Indian culture on American life, with reference to traces of Oriental origins.
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30: 670-71. 1931 Observations on the face and teeth of the North American Indians.
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36:1-67. Star Legends Among the American Indians.
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Nat.Hist.49:181. The American Indian and the American Philosophical Society.
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63 pp. Reviews of Changing Confguration in the Social Organization of a Blackfoot Tribe During the Reserve Period, by E
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