Conrad Maynadier Arensberg (September 12, 1910 – February 10, 1997) was an American anthropologist and scholar. He was born in

Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania Wilkinsburg is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough has a population of 14,349 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Wilkinsburg is part of the Greater Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh ...

. He graduated

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1931. He was exempted from his final exams by the College Dean who viewed them as "being completely unnecessary in Conrad's case" (Comitas 2000). In 1937, his doctorate dissertation titled ''The Irish Countryman'' became a college textbook. Arensberg helped found The Society for Applied Anthropology and was elected its President (1945–1946) as well as President of the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...

(1980). In 1957, he co-analyzed economies of ancient empires in ''Trade Markets in the Early Empires'' together with

Karl Polanyi Karl Paul Polanyi (; ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964)''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist, economic sociologist, and politician, best kno ...

. In 1984, Owen Lynch, a former student of Arensberg organized a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

for his mentor, titled ''Culture and Community in Europe''. In 1991, he received the Society of Applied Anthropology's Malinowski Award. He was married to Vivian E. Garrison. He held the

Joseph L. Buttenwieser Joseph Leon Buttenwieser (1865–1938) was an American lawyer, philanthropist, and civic leader in New York. Biography Buttenwieser was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of immigrants from Germany. Bu ...

Professorship of Human Relations at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

from 1970 until his retirement in 1980. Thereafter, he joined the faculty of the Joint Applied Anthropology Program at Teachers' College.

References

1910 births 1997 deaths Harvard University alumni People from Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania Presidents of learned societies Founders of learned societies Columbia University faculty 20th-century American anthropologists {{US-anthropologist-stub