Robert Redfield facts for kids

Robert Redfield (born December 4, 1897 – died October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologist. This means he studied human societies and cultures. He was also an ethnolinguist, someone who looks at how language connects to culture.

Redfield is famous for his studies in Tepoztlán, a village in Mexico. His work there is seen as very important for understanding Latin American cultures. He spent his whole career at the University of Chicago. He studied there, became a professor in 1927, and stayed until he passed away in 1958. He even led the Social Sciences department for many years.

Redfield's Career and Discoveries

In 1923, Robert Redfield and his wife, Margaret Park Redfield, traveled to Mexico. There, he met Manuel Gamio, another anthropologist. Redfield earned several degrees from the University of Chicago, including a law degree and a PhD in cultural anthropology. He started teaching cultural anthropology in 1927.

He studied many communities in Mexico, like Tepoztlán and Chan Kom. He wrote books about his findings, such as The Primitive World and its Transformation (1953) and Peasant Society and Culture (1956).

Redfield believed in looking at different subjects together. He combined ideas from archeology, linguistics (the study of language), physical anthropology (the study of human evolution), and cultural anthropology.

Understanding Communities

In 1955, Redfield wrote about his own research in Latin America. He realized something important while studying villages. At first, he was taught to study each society as if it were completely separate. But he found that people traded with each other, and villages were connected to larger towns and states.

He saw that a village's culture was not isolated. Beliefs and practices spread between different places. Redfield understood that it made more sense to study people as part of a bigger picture. He looked at the "little tradition" (local customs) and how it connected to the "great tradition" (broader civilization).

One of Redfield's students at the University of Chicago was the famous writer Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut was inspired by Redfield's ideas. He even mentioned them in his novel Slapstick. Vonnegut remembered:

when I went to the University of Chicago, and I heard the head of the Department of Anthropology, Robert Redfield, lecture on the folk society, which was essentially a stable, isolated extended family, he did not have to tell me how nice that could be.

This shows how Redfield's ideas about simple, close-knit communities influenced others.

Redfield's Personal Life

Robert Redfield was married to Margaret Park Redfield. His father-in-law was Robert E. Park, a sociologist at the University of Chicago.

Robert and Margaret had four children. Their daughter, Lisa Redfield Peattie, became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their son, James M. Redfield, became a classics professor at the University of Chicago. They also had a daughter named Joanna Redfield Gutmann. Sadly, another son, Robert (called Tito), died at age twelve after a sledding accident.

Robert Redfield passed away in October 1958. He died from problems related to lymphatic leukemia, a type of cancer.

The writings and papers of Robert and Margaret Redfield are kept at the University of Chicago Library.

Published Works

Here are some of the books Robert Redfield wrote:

• Tepoztlan, a Mexican Village: A Study in Folk Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1930).
• Folk Cultures of the Yucatán. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1948).
• The Primitive World and Its Transformations. Ithaca: Cornell University Press (1953).
• The Role of Cities in Economic Development and Cultural Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1954).
• The Little Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1956).
• Talk with a Stranger. Stamford, Connecticut: Overbrook Press (1958).

See also

In Spanish: Robert Redfield para niños

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