# Anthropology Fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807 "2006-01-20T11:50:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/1 "2006-01-20T11:50:43Z")
I am hoping that some people can help with books with an anthropological theme. I am looking for mostly fiction, with some being for people with lower reading skills. So far I have come up with: Clan of the Cave Bear Eight Mendell’s Dwarf Possibly Elizabeth Peters first Amelia Peabody book ( I forget the name at the moment. I plead caffine defficency.) I thought about ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/2 "2006-01-20T12:44:12Z")
Ursula K. LeGuin has been writing anthropological science fiction for ages. Read **The Left Hand of Darkness** (imagine researching a planet of unisexual beings) or **Always Coming Home** (which was packaged with a casette of the society’s songs). The “K” stands for Kroeber – she’s related to the professor who worked with (and wrote the book about) Ishi. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/3 "2006-01-20T12:51:31Z")
I remember enjoying **Go and Come Back** , by Jean Abelove. It’s about a South American tribe and two anthropologists who come to live with them, told from the perspective of a teenage girl. It’s not very difficult to read. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/4 "2006-01-20T12:52:33Z")
Uh, and when I say Jean, I mean Joan. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/5 "2006-01-20T13:04:42Z")
[Alfred L. Kroeber](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_L._Kroeber) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/6 "2006-01-20T13:25:54Z")
Michael Bishop’s **No Enemy but Time** has an anthropological theme. There’s also Roger MacBride Allen’s **Orphan of Creation** , a hard-SF novel about anthropologists, including some very accurate descriptions of a dig. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/7 "2006-01-20T14:57:13Z")
[The Falling Woman](http://www.brazenhussies.net/murphy/fallingwoman.html) by Pat Murphy. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/8 "2006-01-20T15:14:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The “K” stands for Kroeber – she’s related to the professor who worked with (and wrote the book about) Ishi. Al Kroeber is considered the Father of American Anthropology. She’s his daughter, if I remember correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Serronaulta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Serronaulta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serronaulta)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/9 "2006-01-20T15:15:03Z")
[**A Woman of the Iron People**](http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040329/metals.shtml), by Eleanor Arnason ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/10 "2006-01-20T15:24:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Al Kroeber is considered the Father of American Anthropology. She’s his daughter, if I remember correctly. I thouight so, too, but wasn’t sure and didn’t want to say so until I confirmed it. The link in **crowmanyclouds** ’s post does. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/11 "2006-01-20T16:07:07Z")
From the Wiki He received his doctorate under [Franz Boas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas) at Columbia University in 1901. Kroeber was father of the academic Karl Kroeber and the fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin by his second wife, Theodora. His second wife, Theodora Kroeber, wrote a well-known biography of Ishi, Ishi in Two Worlds. Not from the Wiki When Ishi became ill, Dr. Saxton Pope was called to provide his medical care. Ishi and Dr. Pope became close friends. Ishi taught Dr. Pope to shoot the bow and hunt in the Indian way. Pope and his friend Art Young are considered the fathers of modern bowhunting. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/12 "2006-01-20T16:36:40Z")
Picture of Ishi with Alfred Kroeber, who “sponsored” him at UCSF. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi) The bottom of the page also has about Dr. Pope ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/13 "2006-01-20T18:13:22Z")
[Island of the Blue Dolphins](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440439884/qid=1137780507/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0836911-3976709?n=507846&s=books&v=glance) by Scott O’Dell, winner of the 1961 Newberry Award. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/14 "2006-01-20T18:42:55Z")
Go to [amazon.com](http://amazon.com). Type in “clan of the cave bear” and look for the part where they tell you what other books you might be interested in. I’ve found a few good books using that technique. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/15 "2006-01-20T19:42:09Z")
_A Cannibal in Manhattan_ by Tama Janowitz. You didn’t say it had to be _good_ anthropological fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/16 "2006-01-20T23:54:44Z")
Look up material by Chad Oliver (e.g., NESFA recently issued a couple volumes of reprints). He was a professor of anthropology who wrote science fiction on the side. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/17 "2006-01-21T04:19:47Z")
Maybe not _exactly_ what you’re looking for, but **Evolution Man: Or How I Ate My Father** is a hilarious fictionalized account of the “Ascent of Man”. [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679750096/sr=1-1/qid=1137817132/ref=pd\_bbs\_1/002-0125395-0482449?\_encoding=UTF8](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679750096/sr=1-1/qid=1137817132/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-0125395-0482449?%5Fencoding=UTF8) ---
**Author:** ![Joools](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6de8d8/32.png) [@Joools](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joools)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/18 "2006-01-21T05:39:08Z")
> [@PoorYorick](#): > > Al Kroeber is considered the Father of American Anthropology. While Alfred Kroeber was certainly hugely influential in the genesis of American Anthropology, that distinction really belongs to his mentor, Franz Boas. To the OP, I’d recommend [Return to Laughter](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385053126/) by Elenor Smith Bowen: a (barely) fictionalized account of doing ethnographic fieldwork in Africa. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anthropology-fiction/340807/19 "2006-01-21T15:16:41Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > You didn’t say it had to be _good_ anthropological fiction. well, in that case, although not a book, there’s [Krippendorf’s Tribe](Krippendorf’s Tribe) , which, while it does have Jenna Elfman, is, safe to say, not Richard Dreyfuss’ best work…