1940s in anthropology

Timeline of anthropology, 1940–1949

Events
1940 1949
 * The oldest known North American mummy, Spirit Cave Man, is excavated
 * Prehistoric paintings in the Lascaux caves are discovered
 * The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) is founded at Yale University

Publications
1940 1944 1949
 * Race, Language and Culture, by Franz Boas
 * African Political Systems, ed. by Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard
 * The People of Alor by Cora Du Bois
 * Configurations of Culture Growth by Alfred Kroeber
 * The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi
 * The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell
 * Les structures élémentaires de la parenté (The Elementary Structures of Kinship), by Claude Lévi-Strauss

Births
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1948 1949
 * Michael Taussig
 * Bruce Kapferer
 * H. James Birx
 * Richard Dawkins
 * Yoram Bilu
 * Ulf Hannerz
 * Meave Leakey
 * Eduardo Archetti
 * Richard Leakey
 * Nancy Scheper-Hughes
 * Kirsten Hastrup
 * Ian Hodder
 * Tim Ingold
 * David Kertzer
 * Stephen Feld
 * Ian Hodder

Deaths
1940 1941 1942 1943 1948
 * James Frazer
 * Alexander Goldenweiser
 * Alfred Cort Haddon
 * Charles Seligman
 * Carl Vilhelm Hartman
 * Elsie Clews Parsons
 * Benjamin Whorf
 * Franz Boas
 * Bronislaw Malinowski
 * Mark Cohen
 * Katsuyoshi Fukui
 * Aleš Hrdlička
 * Donald Johanson
 * Ruth Benedict