The influence of Radcliffe-Brown on American anthropology, as measured citations to his work in American Anthropologist. This piece by Elvin Hatch shows a large spike of interest in the late 1930s. Radcliffe-Brown taught at the University of Chicago from 1931 to 1937, which explains the growing interest in his work. Early citations were mostly to the documentary value of his 1922 volume Andaman Islanders. Hatch points out that prior to 1930 American anthropology was focused almost solely on studying Native Americans and only later grew more interested in theoretical approaches -- especially those from outside the US. This chart thus tracks not only R-B’s personal influence in the States but also American anthropology’s move away from ethnography of a single area.
