Promotionstitel

“Aleš Hrdlička: Race and Nation in American Anthropology”

The general topics of this project are the history of anthropology, race, immigration, and national identity in the first half of the twentieth century. More specifically, it focuses on the Czech-American anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička (1869-1943), whose papers are stored at the Anthropology Archive at the Smithsonian Institution. Although Hrdlička is well-known as a foundational figure in the history of American anthropology, fundamental questions about his approach to race and white identity remain unanswered. This is partly because much of the Czech-language material in the Hrdlička Papers is still unexamined. Although he was deeply proud of his Czech identity and an outspoken proponent of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, historians have placed little emphasis on this aspect of his professional and private life. This study examines how Hrdlička constructed his own ideas about race and nationality and used his authority as a scientist to propagate them on both sides of the Atlantic. This project applies up-to-date historical methodology to the entirety of his work, including the largely neglected Czech-language material.