Lawrence Krader (December 9, 1919 – November 15, 1998) was an American

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

anthropologist and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

Early life

Krader was born on December 9, 1919 in

Jamaica, New York Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springf ...

. In 1936, at the Philosophy Department of the City College of New York (CCNY), he studied

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

with Abraham Edel,

Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ma ...

with Philipp P. Wiener, and

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of formal ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

with

Alfred Tarski Alfred Tarski (, born Alfred Teitelbaum;School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews ''School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews''. January 14, 1901 – October 26, 1983) was a Polish-American logician a ...

. In 1937–38, he also studied

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

with Rudolf Carnap and

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

with Franz Boas. In 1941, Krader graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree at CCNY and was granted the Ketcham Award for Philosophy. As the US entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Krader joined the merchant navy and traveled to the Russian Arctic port of Archangelsk before travelling to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

where he learned the Russian language.

Post-war career

After the war, Krader returned to the US and studied linguistics (1945–47) at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with

Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18,André Martinet. During this time, he developed an interpretation of

human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of '' Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development o ...

which resulted in him leaving his focus on philosophy and commencing an intensive study of the

Eurasian nomads The Eurasian nomads were a large group of nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppe, who often appear in history as invaders of Europe, Western Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and South Asia. A nomad is a member of people having no permanent ab ...

; becoming a fellow of the Far Eastern Institute at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

in Seattle. His new research interests probably also owed something to his meeting with

Karl Wittfogel Karl August Wittfogel (6 September 1896 – 25 May 1988) was a German-American playwright, historian, and sinologist. He was originally a Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party of Germany, but after the Second World War, he was an e ...

in 1947, whom he helped with research and Russian translations and also to his contact with Karl Korsch. Krader was Wittfogel's assistant from 1948 to 1951. In 1952, Krader taught linguistics as a Fellow of the Russian Research Center at Harvard and married his wife Dr. Barbara Lattimer in 1953. In 1954 he graduated at Harvard with a PhD on "Kinship Systems of the Altaic-speaking peoples of the Asian Steppes" (supervised by

Clyde Kluckhohn Clyde Kluckhohn (; January 11, 1905 in Le Mars, Iowa – July 28, 1960 near Santa Fe, New Mexico), was an American anthropologist and social theorist, best known for his long-term ethnographic work among the Navajo and his contributions to the ...

). From 1953 to 1956, he was appointed Research Associate at the Bureau of Social Science Research at the American University of Washington DC in the area of Central Asian Studies. In 1956–1958 he became Professor in anthropology and director of the Nomads Program at the Syracuse University and leader of the China Population Program at the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...

. From 1957–1959, Krader became President of the Anthropological Society of Washington. From 1958 to 1963, he taught as ordinary Professor at the American University in Washington DC, as well as being representative for ethnology and anthropology at the Social Science Council and Human Science Council of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

, leader of the anthropological section of the sociology and anthropology department at CCNY, and chairman of the sociology and anthropology department at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

in Canada. In 1962, Krader traveled for the first time to outer

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. From 1963 to 1968 Krader received finance for his research project on the Evolution of the State and Nomadism, from the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

. From 1964 to 1978, Krader became Secretary-General of the IUAES. For his study of the roots of the

theory of evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variatio ...

in the 19th century, he received support from the

International Institute of Social History The International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) is one of the largest archives of labor and social history in the world. Located in Amsterdam, its one million volumes and 2,300 archival collections include the papers of major figu ...

(Amsterdam) during 1963–1975. From 1970 to 1972, Krader was Professor at the University of Waterloo but in 1972 joined the Institute for Ethnology at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

where he became director until 1982. From 1989 until his death, Krader produced 156 manuscripts including works on Labour and Value: a Theory of the Russian Revolution, Mathematical Logic, a Critique of Evolution, Linguistics and other topics. It is intended that some of this material will be published via a research project at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

with the aid of an endowment.Rod Hay, "Lawrence Krader in Memoriam", in: Lawrence Krader, ''Labour and value''. New York: Lang, 2003, p. viii.

Quotation

Works

*''Peoples of Central Asia.'' Bloomington: Univ. u.a., 1963 (Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 20) *''Social organization of the Mongol-Turkic pastoral nomads''. The Hague : Mouton, 1963 * (ed.) ''Anthropology and Early Law.'' Selected from the writings of

Paul Vinogradoff Sir Paul Gavrilovitch Vinogradoff (russian: Па́вел Гаври́лович Виногра́дов, transliterated: ''Pavel Gavrilovich Vinogradov''; 18 November 1854 (O.S.)19 December 1925) was a Russian and British historian and medieval ...

Frederic William Maitland Frederic William Maitland (28 May 1850 – ) was an English historian and lawyer who is regarded as the modern father of English legal history. Early life and education, 1850–72 Frederic William Maitland was born at 53 Guilford Street, L ...

, Frederick Pollock, Maxime Kowalewsky, Rudolf Huebner, Frederic Seebohm. Basic Books 1966 *''Formation of the state'' (Foundations of modern anthropology series) Prentice-Hall 1968 *''The ethnological notebooks of Karl Marx''. (studies of Morgan, Phear, Maine, Lubbock). Assen : Van Gorcum .a. 1972 **''Karl Marx, die ethnologischen Exzerpthefte''. hrsg. von . �bers. von Angelika Schweikhart Edition Suhrkamp, 800, 1. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp 1976 *''Ethnologie und Anthropologie bei Marx''. - München : Hanser, 1973 *''The Asiatic mode of production: sources, development and critique in the writings of Karl Marx''. Assen : van Gorcum, 1975 *''Dialectic of civil society''. Assen: van Gorcum, 1976. *''A Treatise of Social Labour''. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1979 (Dialectic and Society, 5) *(Vorwort) ''Karl Marx: Die technologisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Exzerpte''. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe. Transkribiert u. hg. v. Hans-Peter Müller. Mit e. Vorwort v. Lawrence Krader. 1. Aufl. Frankfurt/M. etc., Ullstein, 1982 *''Die Anfänge des Kapitalismus in Mitteleuropa'. Frankfurt am Main .a.: Lang, 1993 *''Labor and value'', ed. by Cyril Levitt and Rod Hay. New York, N.Y. tc.: Lang, 2003. *''Noetics: The Science of Thinking and Knowing'', ed. by Cyril Levitt. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.

References

Sources

*Dittmar Schorkowitz (Hrsg.): ''Ethnohistorische Wege und Lehrjahre eines Philosophen: Festschrift für Lawrence Krader zum 75. Geburtstag'' (Frankfurt a.M. / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Wien: Peter Lang, 1995). *Fritz W. Kramer, "Vita activa: Lawrence Krader", in: ''Dialektik: Enzyklopadische Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und Wissenschaften'', 1991/92, ed. H.J. Dandkuhler et al. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1991), p. 149ff.

External links

Lawrence Krader research project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krader, Lawrence Harvard Fellows 1919 births 1998 deaths American ethnologists People from Jamaica, Queens City College of New York alumni Columbia University alumni University of Washington alumni American University faculty and staff Syracuse University faculty University of Waterloo faculty Free University of Berlin faculty United States Merchant Mariners of World War II Harvard University alumni 20th-century American anthropologists