White, Leslie Alvin

Related Category: Anthropology: Biographies

1900–1975, American anthropologist, b. Salida, Colo., grad. Columbia, 1923, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1927. He taught at the Univ. of Buffalo and was curator of anthropology at the Buffalo Museum of Science from 1927 to 1930. In 1930 he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Michigan, where he became professor of anthropology in 1943. While retaining his post at Michigan, White served as visiting professor at many other universities. His earlier years were devoted largely to research among the Pueblos which resulted in a number of monographs, such as The Acoma Indians (1932), The Pueblo of San Felipe (1932), and The Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico (1942). In later years he wrote on the subject of cultural evolution, emphasizing that this progressed as a result of technological advances which gave humans control over ever-increasing quantities of energy. His major works are The Science of Culture (1949) and The Evolution of Culture: The Development of Civilization to the Fall of Rome (1959).