W. Lloyd Warner

W. Lloyd Warner
Born	October 26, 1898 Redlands, California
Died	May 23, 1970 Chicago, Illinois
Fields	Anthropology
Influenced	Erving Goffman, Edward Laumann

William Lloyd Warner (October 26, 1898 – May 23, 1970) was a pioneering socio-anthropologist noted for applying the techniques of his discipline to contemporary American culture.

William Lloyd Warner was born in Redlands, California, into the family of William Taylor and Clara Belle Carter, middle-class farmers. Warner attended San Bernardino High School, after which he joined the army in 1917. He contracted tuberculosis in 1918 and was released from the service. In 1918 he married Billy Overfield, but the marriage lasted only briefly.

Warner enrolled in the University of California, where he studied English and became associated with Socialist Party. However, in 1921 he left for the New York City to pursue a career in acting. The plan did not work well, and Warner returned to Berkeley to complete his studies.

At Berkeley he met Robert H. Lowie, professor of anthropology, who encouraged him to turn to anthropology. Warner became fascinated by the work of Bronislaw Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown, who introduced him to the British functionalist approach to social anthropology. He also developed friendships with anthropologists Alfred L. Kroeber and Theodora Kroeber. Warner received his B.A. from Berkeley in 1925.

Warner spent three years, from 1926 to 1929, as a researcher for the Rockefeller Foundation and the Australian National Research Council, studying the Murngin people of northern Australia. From 1929 to 1935 Warner studied at Harvard in the department of anthropology and the Business School, trying to obtain his Ph.D. He used his study among Murngin for his dissertation, which was later published in his first book, A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe (1937). He never defended the thesis, though, and accordingly, did not receive his doctoral degree.

During his years at Harvard, Warner became a member of a group of social scientists, led by Australian social psychologist Elton Mayo. Mayo was exploring the social and psychological dimensions of industrial settings, and evoked Warner's interest in contemporary society. Warner became involved in Mayo's project of studying the workplace and organizational structure, using the Western Electric Hawthorne plant in Chicago as its location. This work led to the famous discovery called "Hawthorne Effect," which revealed that social and psychological influences were more motivating to workers than economic incentives.

While at Harvard, Warner taught at the Graduate School of Business Administration. From 1930 to 1935 he conducted his most influential study, which was known by the name The Yankee City project. In 1932, he married Mildred Hall, with whom he had three children.

Warner received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1925. After serving as a researcher for the Rockefeller Foundation and the Australian National Research Council (1926–1929), Warner enrolled at Harvard (1929–1935) as a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology and the Graduate School of Business School Administration. His first book, A Black Civilization: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe (1937), followed the conventional anthropological path of studying so-called "primitive people."

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