Author: Robert Oppenheim In the nineteenth century the predominant focus of American anthropology centered on the native peoples of North America, and most anthropologists would argue that Korea during this period was hardly a cultural area of great anthropological interest. However, this perspective underestimates Korea as a significant object of concern for American anthropology during the period from 1882 to 1945otherwise a turbulent, transitional period in Koreas history. An Asian Frontier focuses on the dialogue between the American anthropological tradition and Korea, from Koreas first treaty with the United States to the end of World War II, with the goal of rereading anthropologys history and theoretical development through its Pacific frontier. Drawing on notebooks and personal correspondence as well as the publications of anthropologists of the day, Robert Oppenheim shows how and why Korea became an important object of studywith, for instance, more published about Korea in the pages of American Anthropologist before 1900 than would be seenfor decades after. Oppenheim chronicles the actions of American collectors, Korean mediators, and metropolitan curators who first created Korean anthropological exhibitions for the public. He moves on to examine anthropologistssuch as Ales Hrdlicka, Walter Hough, Stewart Culin, Frederick Starr, and Frank Hamilton Cushingwho fit Korea into frameworks of evolution, culture, and race even as they engaged questions of imperialism that were raised by Japans colonization of the country. In tracing the development of American anthropologys understanding of Korea, Oppenheim discloses the legacy present in our ongoing understanding of Korea and of anthropologys past.

Author: Philip Burnham The great Native American warriors and their resistance to the U.S. government in the war against the Plains Indians is a well-known chapter in the story of the American West. In the aftermath of the great resistance, as the Indian nations recovered from war, many figures loomed heroic, yet their stories are mostly unknown. This long-overdue biography of Dewey Beard (ca. 18621955), a Lakota who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, chronicles a remarkable life that can be traced through major historical events from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century. Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota; he also traveled with William Buffalo Bill Codys Wild West show, worked as a Hollywood Indian, and witnessed the grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as old Dewey Beard, a living relic of the old West for the tourists.With a keen eye for detail and a true storytellers talent, Philip Burnham presents the man behind the legend of Dewey Beard and shows how the life of the last survivor of Little Bighorn provides a glimpse into the survival of Indigenous America.