Stanley Diamond facts for kids
Stanley Diamond was an American poet and anthropologist. He was born in New York City on January 4, 1922, and passed away there on March 31, 1991.
As a young man, Stanley loved poetry. He strongly disliked the idea of fascism, which was a big problem in the 1930s. This feeling shaped many of his ideas. He taught at many universities, spending most of his time at The New School. He wrote several books and started a journal called Dialectical Anthropology in 1975. This journal focused on a type of anthropology related to Marxism.
Early Life and Values
Stanley Diamond grew up in a smart, middle-class Jewish family in New York City. His family was connected to the city's Yiddish community. His grandfather even started a Yiddish theatre. However, Stanley didn't often talk about his Jewish background in his work.
From a young age, Stanley cared deeply about civil rights for African Americans. He wrote about it when he was only fourteen. He became good friends with an African-American artist he looked up to.
During World War II, he served in North Africa with the British army. There, he met soldiers who had been sold by their tribal leaders. These experiences shaped his strong belief in social justice. He once said that the unfair treatment of Jewish people and African people were "twin horrors." He felt that his own background as a Jew made him connect with the struggles of others.
Education and Early Career
Stanley went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later graduated from New York University with a degree in English and philosophy. When World War II began, he joined the British Army Field Service. He served in North Africa during the war.
After the war, like many veterans, he used the G.I. Bill to go to graduate school. In 1951, he earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University. There, he was greatly influenced by the anti-racism ideas of Franz Boas. His Ph.D. paper was about a West African kingdom called Dahomey.
Teaching and Research
After finishing school, Stanley's first teaching job was at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, he spoke out against the "McCarthyist politics" of that time. This led to him being fired, and he couldn't find another teaching job for three years.
During this time, he did his first fieldwork. He visited an Israeli kibbutz (a community farm) and an Arab village nearby. When he returned to the United States, he taught at Brandeis University from 1956 to 1961. At Brandeis, he became close friends with Paul Radin, another important anthropologist.
In the 1960s, Stanley was part of a team studying schizophrenia. They were the first to look at this mental health condition from a cultural point of view. After teaching at Syracuse University, he moved to The New School for Social Research in 1966. There, he started the anthropology program.
This program quickly became a leading department for critical anthropology in the U.S. Stanley was the department chair until 1983. He became a respected professor of Anthropology and Humanities. He also taught as a visiting professor in Berlin, Mexico, and at Bard College.
Stanley was a social critic and researcher. Besides his work in Israel, he also studied the Anaguta people in Nigeria. He worked with the Seneca Nation of New York in upstate New York. He even went to Biafra during the Biafran War (1967-1970). During this war, he supported Biafra's independence. He is also known for starting the journal Dialectical Anthropology in 1976.
His books include poetry collections like Totems and Going West. He also wrote a collection of essays called In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization (1974). In 1968, he signed a pledge to refuse tax payments. This was a protest against the Vietnam War.
After he passed away, the journal he founded honored his work. They said he was one of the first anthropologists to point out power differences in research. He showed how unfair colonial rule affected people. His work on Arab villages and Israeli kibbutzim was unique. He always fought against racism in his writings and teaching.
Stanley Diamond passed away from liver cancer on March 31, 1991, at 69 years old.
Key Books
- Culture in History, Columbia University Press, 1960.
- Primitive Views of the World, Columbia University Press, 1964.
- Music of the Jos Plateau and Other Regions of Nigeria (audio recording), Folkways Records, 1966.
- The Transformation of East Africa: Studies in political anthropology (edited with Fred G. Burke), Basic Books, 1967.
- In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization, Transaction Books, 1974.
- Dahomey: Transition and Conflict in State Formation, Bergin & Garvey, 1983, ISBN: 978-0-89789-024-3
