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Paul Radin
Paul Radin from American Anthropologist, 61 (1959)
Born	April 2, 1883 Lodz, Poland
Died	February 21, 1959 New York City
Alma mater	Columbia University
Scientific career
Fields	anthropology linguistics
Doctoral advisor	Franz Boas

Paul Radin (April 2, 1883 – February 21, 1959) is a widely read American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century. Born the son of a rabbi in the cosmopolitan Polish city of Lodz, he became a student of Franz Boas at Columbia, where he counted Edward Sapir and Robert Lowie among his classmates. He engaged in years of productive fieldwork among the Winnebago (Hocąk) Indians, primarily from 1908-1912, culminating in 1923 with the publication of his magnum opus, The Winnebago Tribe. In 1929, as a result of his fieldwork, he was able to publish a grammar of the nearly extinct language of the Wappo people of the San Francisco Bay area. Late in his career he edited several anthologies of folk tales from different continents. His most enduring publication to date is The Trickster (1956), which includes essays by the pioneering scholar of Greek mythology Karl Kerényi and the prominent psychoanalyst C.G. Jung.

Radin taught at a number of colleges and universities, never staying at anyone more than a few years. He concluded his career at Brandeis, where he was chairman of the Department of Anthropology.

Sources/Further Reading

Books by Radin

• 1920. The Sources and Authenticity of the History of the Ancient Mexicans (Berkeley: University of California Press). ISBN B001N11VKI.
• 1923. The Winnebago Tribe, in Thirty-seventh Annual Report of the United States Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution), 35-550. Reprint (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990). ISBN 0-8032-5710-4.
• 1924. Monotheism among Primitive Peoples (London: George Allen & Unwin). ISBN B0007E3XQW.
• 1926. Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian. Edited by Paul Radin (New York and London: Appleton and Co.). ISBN B000NPAW0A.
• 1927. Primitive Man As Philosopher, (New York: D. Appleton Co.). Introduction by John Dewey. ISBN B000H7FS1M.
• 1929. A Grammar of the Wappo Language, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, v. 27 (Berkeley: University of California Press). ISBN B001N9J62K.
• 1932. Social Anthropology (New York: McGraw-Hill). ISBN B000P0QTZA.
• 1933. The Method and Theory of Ethnology: An Essay in Criticism. Introduction by Arthur J. Vidich. ISBN B0017GY4QW.
• 1934. The Racial Myth (New York: Whittlesey House). ISBN B0006DBYYW.
• 1937. Primitive Religion: Its Nature and Origin (New York: Viking Press). ISBN B000OL5C3K.
• 1944. The Story of the American Indian (New York: Liveright). ISBN B000OL8BRY.
• 1945. The Road of Life and Death: A Ritual Drama of the American Indians (New York: Pantheon Books. Bollingen Series, #5). Foreword by Mark van Doren. ISBN B000JVI9FS.
• 1947 . The Culture of the Winnebago as Described by Themselves, Special Publications of the Bollingen Foundation, #1 (Baltimore: Waverly Press). ISBN B002B01B0K.
• 1948. Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics, Memoir 1. Republished in the International Journal of American Linguistics, Memoir 1, Supplement to International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 14, #3. ISBN B0012KNYZU.
• 1953. The World of Primitive Man. The Life of Science Library, no. 26 (New York: H. Schuman). ISBN B000S88DAS.
• 1954/1956. The Evolution of an American Indian Prose Epic, Bollingen Foundation, Special Publications, 3 (1954): 1-99; 5 (1956): 103-148. ISBN B0006CQUBA.
• 1956. The Trickster: A Study in Native American Mythology (New York: Schocken Books, 1956). Commentaries by Karl Kerenyi and C. G. Jung. ISBN 0-8-52-0351-6.

Articles

• 1909. "Winnebago Tales," Journal of American Folklore, 22: 288-313.
• 1910. "The Clan Organization of the Winnebago," American Anthropologist, N.S., 12, #2: 209-219. Reprint (Lancaster, Pa.: New Era Printing Co., 1910)
• 1910. (with James Owen Dorsey), "The Winnebago Tribe," in Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30 (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology), 2: 958-61.
• 1911. (with Oliver Lamere), "Descriptions of a Winnebago Funeral," American Anthropologist, N.S., 13, #3: 437-44.
• 1911. "The Ritual and Significance of the Winnebago Medicine Dance," Journal of American Folklore, 24, #92: 148-208.
• 1911. "Some Aspects of Winnebago Archaeology," American Anthropologist, N.S., 13, #4: 517-38.
• 1911. "Winnebago Text," in Handbook of American Indian Languages, ed Franz Boas, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40 (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology), 1: 959-65.
• 1912. Appendix to The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley, by Emma H. Blair. Vol. 2 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co.).
• 1913. "The Influence of the Whites on Winnebago Culture," Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin State Hist. Soc.), 137-45.
• 1913. "Personal Reminiscences of a Winnebago Indian," Journal of American Folklore, 26, #102: 293-318.
• 1914. "Religion of the North American Indians," Journal of American Folklore, 27, #106: 335-73
• 1914. "A Semi-Historical Account of the War of the Winnebago and the Foxes," in Proceedings of the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin: Wisc. State Hist. Soc.), 191-207.
• 1914. "A Sketch of the Peyote Cult of the Winnebago: A Study in Borrowing." Journal of Religious Psychology, 7 (January).
• 1915. "The Hare Cycle of the Winnebago Indians," in Studies in North American Mythology, Vol. 1, Part 1 (Santa Fe, New Mexico).
• 1915. "Literary Aspects of North American Mythology." Anthropology Series of the Canada Geological Survey, 6: Museum Bulletin #16.
• 1915. "Religion of the North American Indians," in Anthropology in North America, Franz Boas, et al (New York: G.E. Stechert), 259-305.
• 1915. "The Social Organization of the Winnebago Indians, an Interpretation." Anthropology Series of the Canada Geological Survey 5: Museum Bulletin #10.
• 1915. "The Winnebago Myth of the Twins," Papers of the Southwestern Anthropological Society, 1: 1-56.
• 1918. "Ethnology and History," University of California Chronicle, 20 (2): 16-21.
• 1919. "The Genetic Relationship of the North American Indian Languages," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, 14: 489-502.
• 1920. "The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian," University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, 16: 381-473.
• 1922. "Thunder-Cloud, a Winnebago Shaman, Relates and Prays," in American Indian Life, Elsie Clews Parsons (New York: B.W. Huebsch), 75-80.
• 1926. "Literary Aspects of Winnebago Mythology," Journal of American Folklore, 39: 18-52.
• 1926. "Winnebago Myth Cycles," Primitive Culture 1: 8-86.
• 1931. "The Thunderbird Warclub: A Winnebago Tale," Journal of American Folklore 44: 143-65.
• 1937. "Economic Factors in Primitive Religion," Science and Society, 1 (3).
• 1945. "The Journey of the Soul to Spiritland," Circle, 5: 70-73.
• 1948. "Music and Medicine among Primitive Peoples," in Music and Medicine, ed. Dorothy Schullian and Max Schoen (New York: Schuman), 3-24.
• 1950. "The Culture of the Winnebago as Descibed by Themselves," International Journal of American Linguistics, Memoirs, 3: 1-78.
• 1950. "The Origin Myth of the Medicine Rite: Three Versions - The Historical Origins of the Medicine Rite," Supplement to International Journal of American Linguistics, 16 (1).
• 1950. "The Religious Experiences of a Winnebago Indian," Eranos Jahrbuch, 18: 250-290.
• 1955. "The Dreams of An American Indian: Their Meaning and Function," in Studien zur Analytischen Psychologie C.G. Jungs, (Zurich: Rascher Verlag) 2: 146-170.
• 1958. "Monotheistic Tendencies among the Winnebago Indians," International Congress of Americanists, Proceedings, 32: 176.
• 1959. "The Sacral Chief among the American Indians," Studies in the History of Religions, Numen, Supplement IV (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
• 1960. "Winnebago Ethical Attitudes," in Walter R. Goldschmidt, ed. Exploring the Ways of Mankind (New York: Holt): 556-560.
• 1966. "Social Organization — General Discussion," Journal of the Wisconsin Indians Research Institute, 2, #1: 83-101. = Winnebago Tribe, 181-206.
• 1966. "Warfare and the Council Lodge," Journal of Wisconsin Indians Research Institute, 2, #1): 74-83. = Winnebago Tribe, 156-165.
• 1970. "An Indian Skeptic Takes Peyote," in Philip K. Bock, ed., Culture Shock (New York: Alfred A. Knopf): 316-326.
• 1970. "Report on the Mescaline Experience of Crashing Thunder," in Bernard S. Aaronson and Humphrey Osmand, eds., Psychedelics: the Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs (Garden City: Doubleday), 86-90.

Writings on Radin

• Diamond, Stanley (ed.). 1960. Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin (New York: Columbia University Press).
• Lindberg, Christer. 2000. "Paul Radin: The Anthropological Trickster," in European Review of Native American Studies 14 (1).
• Lurie, Nancy Oestreich. 1988. "Relations Between Indians and Anthropologists," in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 4. (Washington, D. C.).
• Sullivan, Lawrence E. 1982. "Multiple Levels of Religious Meaning in Culture: A New Look at Winnebago Sacred Texts," The Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 2 (2): 221-247.

External links

• Paul Radin's Winnebago Notebooks at the American Philosophical Library
• Paul Radin Papers Special Collection at Marquette University Special Collections and University Archives Libraries

• Polish Jews
• American anthropologists
• Anthropologists of religion
• 1883 births
• 1959 deaths
• Kenyon College faculty