Victor Barnouw was born on May 25, 1915 in The Hague, Netherlands. He was the son of Adriaan Jacob and Anne E. (Midgely) Barnouw. Victor Barnouw moved with his family to New York City in 1919 when his father received an appointment as Queen Wilhelmina Professor of Dutch Language and Literature at Columbia University. Victor became a naturalized citizen in 1924. From 1927-1933, he attended Horace Mann School for Boys. From 1933-1935, he was enrolled at Princeton University. From 1935 and 1937, he studied at the National Academy of Design. He received his A. B., with honors, at Columbia College in 1940 and in 1948, his Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Barnouw's anthropological course was set due to the Linton-Kardiner seminars on culture and personality at Columbia. Psychoanalyst Kardiner wrote an important paper in commemoration of Freud. Barnouw believed there was great value in Freud's work and quoted Freud often in Culture and Personality. It was in that book that Barnouw refuted the idea that Malinowski "disproved" the universality of the Oedipus complex. Barnouw concluded that Malinowski did not satisfactorily settle the Oedipus complex issue.
Barnouw's doctoral advisor at Columbia was Ruth Benedict. She had a strong influence on Barnouw. His 1950 dissertation on Chippewa acculturation drew a vast amount of criticism. Following Benedict's distinction between atomistic and corporate societies, Barnouw argued that despite acculturation, the personality patterns of the Chippewa had remained stable. He believed that the Chippewa's atomistic social structure was more resistant to the disruption of reservation life than were the more corporate Plains societies. A very strong complaint came from Harold Hickerson. Not only did Hickerson charge that works like Barnouw's helped justify the Whites exploitation of native peoples, but he insinuated there were also racist motives. Barnouw answered his critics with cross-cultural comparison that justified his generalizations. It had been at Benedict's insistence that his incorporate the comparative material, which eventually drew the criticism. His earlier draft had been more idiographic.
Victor Barnouw started his career as an instructor in anthropology, at Brooklyn College in New York from 1945-1948. He taught at the University of Buffalo, ( now State University of New York at Buffalo) from 1948-1951. From 1951-1953, he did postdoctoral study at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of South Asia Regional Studies were he did research in South Asia and India. Between 1953 and 1954, he taught at a private school at Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona. He was a research associate at the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign from 1955-1956 and was a visiting assistant professor of anthropology from 1956-1957. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was an assistant professor from 1958-1961, professor of anthropology from 1960 to the time of his death, head of the department from 1976-1979, and professor emeritus from 1982 to the time of his death.
Victor Barnouw was also a fellow member of the American Anthropological Association. He was awarded the very first Sterling Award from the American Anthropological Association in 1968 for his “Cross-Cultural-Research With the House-Tree-Person test,” a study related to culture-and-personality. Victor Barnouw was an author of many books, from fiction to non-fiction, all of which were described as “anthropological” in nature. His writings include Dream of the Blue Heron a fictional novel for young adults, Culture and Personality, Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life, and Anthropology: A General Introduction, among many others.
The fictional novel for young adults, Dream of the Blue Heron published in 1966, is considered to be his major effort in fiction. Victor Barnouw personally quotes, “Although my main profession has been teaching anthropology, I have also written fiction. My novel, Dream of the Blue Heron, was my major effort in this field. My fiction is ‘anthropological,’ usually being related to my fieldwork. The novel, for instance, is about a Chippewa Indian boy.”
He married Sachiko Miyagawa, on January 7, 1964. He was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the time of his death. Victor Barnouw was a professor of anthropology who was famous for his writing on culture-and-personality.
One of Victor Barnouw’s most famous works was Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life, published in 1977. This book was the first collection of Chippewa folklore that was able to provide a comparative and sociological context for the tales and myths of the Wisconsin Chippewa life. The myths that fill this book were recorded between 1941 and 1944 by four young field workers who later became anthropologists, including Victor Barnouw.
Barnouw married Sachiko Miyagawa, on January 7, 1964. He was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the time of his death. He is remembered as a person of warmth, humor, modesty, and talent. Victor Barnouw died of pancreatic cancer on May 8, 1989, a few weeks shy of his 74th birthday.
Bernard, Russell, Victor Barnouw, Obituary, American Anthropologist, Vol. 92, American Anthropologist Association, Washington, D.C., 1990
Commire, Anne. Something About the Author, Vol 28/43, Gale Research Company, Detroit Michigan, 1982 & 1990
Locher, Frances Carlos Contemporary Authors, Vol. 85-88, Gale Research Company, Detroit Michigan, 1980
Written By: Kimberly Hoffstatter
Edited By: Lillian Dolentz, 2008