Definition: American anthropologist Sol Tax was a true innovator in anthropological studies. Tax was educated at the Universities of Wisconsin and Chicago, and was professionally associated with the Carnegie Institute, the University of Chicago, the Smithsonian Institution and UNESCO. He founded Current Anthropology, a journal which provides articles adjacent to signed critiques, allowing issue debates to be addressed openly. In 1961 he invited 700 American Indians from 80 tribes to a conference, in an attempt to develop the first unified Native American position paper on the relation of Native American peoples to the federal government. Tax also commissioned Gian-Carlo Menotti to write an opera, called Tamu-Tamu ("The Guests"), in which Indonesian refugees appear at a suburban American home, a snippet of useless trivia if there ever was one.
Tax's most important contribution to the study of anthropology was action anthropology, in which he attempted to fuse applied and academic anthropology by using anthropological techniques for the direct benefit of indigenous peoples. His most famous action anthropology project was with the Fox (Mesquakie) Indian tribes of Tama Iowa. Although it was by no means a perfect project, for its period (late 1930s and early 1940s) the Fox Project was a remarkable study.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Tax's most important contribution to the study of anthropology was action anthropology, in which he attempted to fuse applied and academic anthropology by using anthropological techniques for the direct benefit of indigenous peoples. His most famous action anthropology project was with the Fox (Mesquakie) Indian tribes of Tama Iowa. Although it was by no means a perfect project, for its period (late 1930s and early 1940s) the Fox Project was a remarkable study.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
