1940s in anthropology
Timeline of anthropology, 1940–1949
Timeline of anthropology, 1940–1949

Events
1940

The oldest known North American mummy, Spirit Cave Man, is excavated
Prehistoric paintings in the Lascaux caves are discovered1949

The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) is founded at Yale University

Publications
1940

Race, Language and Culture, by Franz Boas
African Political Systems, ed. by Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard1944

The People of Alor by Cora Du Bois
Configurations of Culture Growth by Alfred Kroeber
The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi1949

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
Les structures élémentaires de la parenté (The Elementary Structures of Kinship), by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Births
1940

Michael Taussig
Bruce Kapferer1941

H. James Birx
Richard Dawkins1942

Yoram Bilu
Ulf Hannerz
Meave Leakey1943

Eduardo Archetti1944

Richard Leakey
Nancy Scheper-Hughes1948

Kirsten Hastrup
Ian Hodder
Tim Ingold
David Kertzer1949

Stephen Feld
Ian Hodder

Deaths
1940

James Frazer
Alexander Goldenweiser
Alfred Cort Haddon
Charles Seligman1941

Carl Vilhelm Hartman
Elsie Clews Parsons
Benjamin Whorf1942

Franz Boas
Bronislaw Malinowski1943

Mark Cohen
Katsuyoshi Fukui
Aleš Hrdlička
Donald Johanson1948

Ruth Benedict