Fred Eggan - Background

Background

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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