description Hortense Powdermaker Overview
Hortense Powdermaker was an American cultural anthropologist whose research spanned diverse subjects and geographic locations. She is recognized for applying ethnographic fieldwork techniques, originally trained under Bronisław Malinowski, to study communities ranging from a Melanesian island to a town in Mississippi. Her 1950 book, "Hollywood, the Dream Factory," was a pioneering study of the studio system, analyzing movie production as a cultural and social process. Her work is foundational for students and scholars in media anthropology and the study of race.
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Who trained Hortense Powdermaker in anthropology?
She was trained under Bronisław Malinowski, a major figure in British social anthropology. That training helped shape her use of sustained ethnographic fieldwork.
What communities did Hortense Powdermaker study?
Her research ranged from a Melanesian community to Harlem and Hollywood in the United States. The breadth of those settings is one reason she is remembered as a wide-ranging cultural anthropologist.
What is Hortense Powdermaker's book Hollywood, the Dream Factory about?
Her 1950 book examines Hollywood as a social and industrial world rather than treating films only as finished artworks. It applies anthropological observation to the American movie business.
Why is Hortense Powdermaker important to cultural anthropology?
She showed that ethnographic fieldwork could be applied to communities and institutions in modern Western society, not only to distant or rural groups. Her 1939 book After Freedom, for example, grew from research in the American South.
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