Robert Redfield (December 4, 1897 October 16, 1958) was an American anthropologi st and ethnolinguist.

Redfield graduated from the University of Colorado at Boul der with Communication Studies, eventually with a J.D. from its law school and t hen a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, which he began to teach in 1927. After a s eries of published field studies from Mexican communities (Tepoztl?n in Morelos and Chan Kom in Yucat?n), in 1953 he published The Primitive World and its Trans formation and in 1956, Peasant Society and Culture. Moving further into a broade r synthesis of disciplines, Dr Redfield embraced a forum for interdisciplinary t hought that included archeology, anthropological linguistics, physical anthropol ogy, cultural anthropology, and ethnology. Redfield wrote in 1955 about his own experience doing research in Latin America on peasants. As he did research, he realized he had been trained to treat the so ciety as an isolated culture. However, he found people were involved with trade, and there were connections between villages and states. More than that, the vil lage culture was not bounded. Beliefs and practices were not isolated. Redfield realized it did not make sense to study people as isolated units, but rather it would be better to understand a broader perspective. Traditionally, anthropologi sts studied folk ways in the "little tradition", taking into account broader civ ilization, the "great tradition". He was elected a Fellow of the American Academ y of Arts and Sciences in 1950.[1] Redfield and his wife Margaret are the parents of Lisa Redfield Peattie, Profess or Emerita, Department of Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, James M. Redfield, a professor of classics at the University of Chicago and Joa nna Redfield Gutmann (1930 2009). Another son, Robert (called Tito), died at the a ge of twelve from injuries suffered in a sledding accident. The papers of Robert Redfield and Margaret Redfield are located at the Special C ollections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Contents 1 2 3 4 Published works See also References External links

Published works Redfield's published works include: Redfield, Robert 1930 Tepoztlan, a Mexican village: A study in folk life Chi cago: University of Chicago Press. Redfield, Robert 1948 Folk Cultures of the Yucat?n. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Redfield, Robert 1954 The Role of Cities in Economic Development and Cultura l Change Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Redfield, Robert 1956 The little community. Chicago: University of Chicago P ress. Redfield, Robert 1958 Talk with a Stranger. Stamford, Connecticut: Overbrook Press.