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WEST OF THE THIRTIES
An anthropologist shares his impressions of the frugal, pueblo-dwelling Hopi and the proud Navajos, revealing the deeply human logic of both tribes
187 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Edward T. Hall
32 books175 followersBorn in Webster Groves, Missouri, Hall taught at the University of Denver, Colorado, Bennington College in Vermont, Harvard Business School, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University in Illinois and others. The foundation for his lifelong research on cultural perceptions of space was laid during World War II when he served in the U.S. Army in Europe and the Philippines.
From 1933 through 1937, Hall lived and worked with the Navajo and the Hopi on native American reservations in northwestern Arizona, the subject of his autobiographical West of the Thirties. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1942 and continued with field work and direct experience throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. During the 1950s he worked for the United States State Department, at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), teaching inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service personnel, developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context culture", and wrote several popular practical books on dealing with cross-cultural issues. He is considered a founding father of intercultural communication as an academic area of study.
Hall first created the concepts of proxemics, polychronic and monochronic time, high and low context culture. In his book, The Hidden Dimension, he describes the culturally specific temporal and spatial dimensions that surround each of us, such as the physical distances people keep each other in different contexts.
In The Silent Language (1959), Hall coined the term polychronic to describe the ability to attend to multiple events simultaneously, as opposed to "monochronic" individuals and cultures who tend to handle events sequentially.
In 1976, he released his third book, Beyond Culture, which is notable for having developed the idea of extension transference; that is, that humanity's rate of evolution has and does increase as a consequence of its creations, that we evolve as much through our "extensions" as through our biology. However, with extensions such as the wheel, cultural values, and warfare being technology based, they are capable of much faster adaptation than genetics.
Robert Shuter, a well-known intercultural and cross-cultural communication researcher, commented: "Edward Hall's research reflects the regimen and passion of an anthropologist: a deep regard for culture explored principally by descriptive, qualitative methods.... The challenge for intercultural communication... is to develop a research direction and teaching agenda that returns culture to preeminence and reflects the roots of the field as represented in Edward Hall's early research."
He died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 20, 2009.
From 1933 through 1937, Hall lived and worked with the Navajo and the Hopi on native American reservations in northwestern Arizona, the subject of his autobiographical West of the Thirties. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1942 and continued with field work and direct experience throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. During the 1950s he worked for the United States State Department, at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), teaching inter-cultural communications skills to foreign service personnel, developed the concept of "High context culture" and "low context culture", and wrote several popular practical books on dealing with cross-cultural issues. He is considered a founding father of intercultural communication as an academic area of study.
Hall first created the concepts of proxemics, polychronic and monochronic time, high and low context culture. In his book, The Hidden Dimension, he describes the culturally specific temporal and spatial dimensions that surround each of us, such as the physical distances people keep each other in different contexts.
In The Silent Language (1959), Hall coined the term polychronic to describe the ability to attend to multiple events simultaneously, as opposed to "monochronic" individuals and cultures who tend to handle events sequentially.
In 1976, he released his third book, Beyond Culture, which is notable for having developed the idea of extension transference; that is, that humanity's rate of evolution has and does increase as a consequence of its creations, that we evolve as much through our "extensions" as through our biology. However, with extensions such as the wheel, cultural values, and warfare being technology based, they are capable of much faster adaptation than genetics.
Robert Shuter, a well-known intercultural and cross-cultural communication researcher, commented: "Edward Hall's research reflects the regimen and passion of an anthropologist: a deep regard for culture explored principally by descriptive, qualitative methods.... The challenge for intercultural communication... is to develop a research direction and teaching agenda that returns culture to preeminence and reflects the roots of the field as represented in Edward Hall's early research."
He died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 20, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 6, 2021
As modern arguments rage here in the US over the teaching of "Critical Race Theory" in classrooms, I feel that these few sentences from Hall's" "West of the Thirties" should be quoted: "....in 1949 I was asked to write a chapter on "world" history for writers and professors of history. My opening comments were to the effect that what we were calling world history was actually a history of European civilization, including its roots in the Middle East. The rest of the world had been left out....What was being taught in our schools, colleges, and universities was loaded with unstated, unconscious biases....I should mention that we are not alone in this regard; all cultures suffer from this type of corruption of the perceptual process. One cannot change the past, we can only put the past in a wider frame." This book could well be assigned to a high school classroom here in Arizona or in New Mexico as part of a study of the Navajo Nation and the Hopi.
In this memoir--and he deliberately calls it a memoir, not a history--Hall reflects about his time among the Hope and the Navajo in the 1930s. He tries to be as honest and non-judgmental as possible although in recounting some of the terrible things that the US government did to the Navajo, such as The Long Walk, it's impossible not to point out it was a travesty. What I liked about this memoir is how he illustrates, through examples and stories, the Hopi and Navajo way of life, a little bit of perspective on why there was such a huge cultural gap between them and the whites, without sounding like he was an expert. He remains an actor and an observer. The memoir was written in 1994 and he makes no effort to update it to even that time, because his experiences were in the 1930s. It is left to the reader to research further, to see if what Hall's experiences back then would still hold today. Which of course they wouldn't.
Still, in writing this memoir, Hall has given a template for how we might record our own experiences and reflections with other cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, especially during this month that focuses on Native American History.
In this memoir--and he deliberately calls it a memoir, not a history--Hall reflects about his time among the Hope and the Navajo in the 1930s. He tries to be as honest and non-judgmental as possible although in recounting some of the terrible things that the US government did to the Navajo, such as The Long Walk, it's impossible not to point out it was a travesty. What I liked about this memoir is how he illustrates, through examples and stories, the Hopi and Navajo way of life, a little bit of perspective on why there was such a huge cultural gap between them and the whites, without sounding like he was an expert. He remains an actor and an observer. The memoir was written in 1994 and he makes no effort to update it to even that time, because his experiences were in the 1930s. It is left to the reader to research further, to see if what Hall's experiences back then would still hold today. Which of course they wouldn't.
Still, in writing this memoir, Hall has given a template for how we might record our own experiences and reflections with other cultures. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, especially during this month that focuses on Native American History.
February 15, 2018
An insightful and heartfelt account of the authors time spent among the Hopis and Navajo. I can do no better than quote Tony Hillerman's verdict, "No one who loves the Southwest should miss this book."
September 5, 2024
Interesting little gem of a book. Published in the 90s, it’s a kind of memoir/anthropological survey of the time the author spent on the Hopi and Navajo reservations as part of FDRs public works programs of the 1930s
September 3, 2024
Some interesting info and some interesting perspectives.
November 7, 2012
I've read this one before but I want to re-read it when I get the time. Having just read "Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond", I want to look again at this one, written about a time in the thirties when old traditions were still alive though threatened. Hall is a great anthropologist, and what an opportunity to experience cultural differences he had early on in his life. Short but wonderful!
October 28, 2007
While not too exciting, it does give a good first-hand account of life on a reservation from an anglo perspective. Someone who has integrated somewhat into the culture.
February 16, 2010
A great nonfiction favorite about Hall, the author of Hidden Dimension, as a young man in Navajo country, learning about culture while supposedly working on Depression era government projects.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews