Viking Fund Medalists 1954

Abstract

THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION medalist for 1954 is distinguished for the breadth of his interests and the stimulation this has given to the entire profession. Publications of his field researches represent creative pioneer studies in many areas. Tepoztlan (1930) was one of the earliest community studies. Chan Kom (co-authored with Alfonso Villa in 1934) initiated a series of studies of Yucatecan communities which culminated in The Folk Culture of Yucatdn (1941)-the major statement of his theoretical position to that time. His subsequent works are noteworthy for extending anthropological horizons to the broadest historical and philosophical problems. A Village That Chose Progress (1950) offers observations, after a return to Chan Kom, on the conditions and consequences of acceptance of social change. In The Primitive World and Its Transformations (1953), Dr. Redfield turns his attention to the study of values, and of civilization and the moral order. The Little Community (1955) considers the problem of relating to the study of complex civilizations research on their component parts. Dr. Redfield's influence has been many-directional. As teacher, author, and lecturer, as administrator and participant in interdisciplinary councils, he has carried the influence of anthropology to diverse fields of scholarship, including all of the social sciences and humanities interpreting each to the others.