Fred Eggan

Frederick Russell Eggan (September 12, 1906 in Seattle, Washington – May 7, 1991) was an American anthropologist best known for his innovative application of the principles of British social anthropology to the study of Native American tribes. He was the favorite student of the British social anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown during Radcliffe-Brown's years at the University of Chicago. His fieldwork was among Pueblo peoples in the southwestern U.S. Eggan later taught at Chicago himself. His students there included Sol Tax.

His best known works include his edited volume Social Anthropology of North American Tribes (1937) and The American Indian (1966).

His wife, Dorothy Way Eggan (1901–1965), whom he married in 1939, was also an anthropologist.

Frederick Eggan was a North American anthropologist in the 20th century and part of the anthropology department at the University of Chicago. He is a world-renowned social anthropologist, most famous for his works in the Southwest involving the Hopi Indians and many of the social changes that take place within the Western Pueblos. Ernest L. Schusky claims Fred Eggan is a founder of modern American anthropoly’s eclectic approach, which combines the functionalism of Radcliffe-Brown with the historical approach of Franz Boas. In a paper titled “Among the Anthropologist,” Eggan answers a question posed by Margaret Mead:“Shouldn’t we all be branches of one human science?” Eggan states that anthropology should center on man and his works, while providing a spectrum of specialized fields which interlock with those of the social and behavioral sciences.

Frederick Eggan was born in Seattle, Washington on September 12, 1906 to Alfred Eggan and Olive Smith. Eggan earned his master's degree in psychology with a minor in anthropology from the University of Chicago in the early 20th century. He received his PhD in anthropology from the same university several years later with a doctoral thesis entitled “Social Organization of the Western Pueblos” analyzing the social organization of Pueblo Indians in the Southwest. Fred was an active member in the discipline of anthropology at a critical time when new technologies and methods were being invented for archeological purposes. He mentions these innovations in his paper on “Social Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Comparison.” He speaks of the new aids to anthropological research such as radiocarbon dating, genetics, and the experimental method which are just a few of the many rapid technological advances that had taken place to aid the discipline in this time. Eggan married Dorothy Way in 1938; she was also an anthropologist of the Hopi. Fred died in his house in Santa Fe, New Mexico from heart failure on May 7, 1991; he was 84.

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