Elliott P. Skinner
Elliott Percival Skinner (June 20, 1924 – April 1, 2007) was an American anthropologist and United States Ambassador to the Republic of Upper Volta. Background Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in a family with four siblings and Barbadian ancestry on his father's side, Skinner came to the United States in 1943. He supported American values, and enlisted in the United States Army in 1944 and fought in World War II in France, which later allowed him to obtain citizenship. Skinner earned a bachelor's degree from New York University in 1951. He then attended Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in 1952 and a doctorate in 1955. He was rejected for a PhD at Northwestern by Melville J. Herskovits who believed that "black scholars" could not study Africa objectively. His PhD thesis, working with Morton Fried, was "Ethnic Interaction in a British Guiana Rural Community: A Study in Secondary Acculturation and Group Dynamics." but his interests soon shifted back to Africa. Career Skinner remained in universities for most of his career. From 1955 to 1957 as a post-doc, he shifted his research focus from Latin America to Upper Volta, living in the country and learning the More (Language)