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Robert Harry Lowie (1883-1957), born in Vienna to a German-speaking Jewish family, was a disciple of Franz Boas and a major representative of North American culturalism. From 1907 onwards, he carried out salvage ethnography on Plains Indian reserves, particularly those of the Crow, one of his major life subjects. He was curator of the American Museum of Natural History, and later became professor at the University of Berkeley, California, and president of the American Anthropological Association in 1935. His extensive bibliography includes works such as Primitive Society (1920) and Primitive Religion (1924), which contributed to delivering the death blow to evolutionary ideas.

Keywords: Cultural anthropology | Culturalism | Salvage ethnography | Teacher | 20th century | Germany | Austria | United States of America | Great Plains | Amerindian studies | Americanism | Crow | Religion | Cultural history | Concept of culture | Cultural diffusion | Cultural relativism | Franz Boas | American Museum of Natural History | American Anthropological Association

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