cover image An Anthropology of Everyday Life

An Anthropology of Everyday Life

Edward T. Hall. Doubleday Books, $24.5 (269pp) ISBN 978-0-385-23744-4

Anthropologist Hall ( The Dance of Life ) turns his analytic eye on the first 50 years of his life, beginning in 1914, and measures the impact of his particular cultural experiences on the person he became. Abandoned as a child by cold, self-absorbed parents, he coped by going on to forge a brilliant career studying other cultures through examination of the details of everyday behavior and the many forms of non-verbal communication. His experiences living with the Hopi and the Navaho, World War II service as a white officer in a black regiment and a career in the State Department brought him success but little self-knowledge. In the 1950s, prompted by feelings of extreme distress, Hall began psychoanalysis and was able to resolve his blocked childhood emotions. An instructive look into a notable life. Author tour. (Mar.)