AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE HISTORY OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY U.S. ANTHROPOLOGY James McCune Smith, Radical Abolitionist and Anthropologist.

Historians of pre-professional anthropology in nineteenth-century U.S. society have generally emphasized the roles of individuals and institutions in the development of the field. Their reliance on particular kinds of archives and sources has led some of them to neglect the work of intellectuals of color, many of whom had important anthropological insights. Thus, the hegemonic genealogies of U.S. anthropology make it difficult to discern alternative understandings of the emerging field before the Civil War by virtually eliminating dissenting voices. This paper calls attention to the anthropological thought of James McCune Smith- intellectual, former slave, and radical abolitionist-and situates his perspective in the sociohistorical context of antebellum America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]