The Complicated Career of Hugh Smythe … Anthropologist and Ambassador: The Early Years, 1940–50

Abstract

As you know, I am anxious to build for myself a life work which will use my capacities to the fullest and permit me as normal a development as is possible in our culture. In my case it has been more difficult a fight to get placed than is generally the case with your students, because of the racial handicap; and since the present administrative setups in most Negro colleges are discouraging to scientific research, my opportunities are further restricted. I say this so that you will understand how much keener is my disappointment in learning that you find it so difficult to push me for opportunities such as the one now under discussion.1

Field Station Bahia

“…However, this liberal stance can become more conservative when it concerns the "Other" at home. Herskovits often mistrusted African-American scholars on the grounds of their supposed lack of scientific objectivity (Anderson 2008;Gershenhorn 2004). He also doubted the "Others" abroad in the tropical alter ego of the US, Brazil, whom he considered, for different reasons, self-seeking and not entirely trustworthy.8 My position on the liberal vs conservative stand of Herskovits is ambivalent and shifting.…”