This pathbreaking collection
        of intellectual biographies is the first to probe the careers of thirteen
        early African-American anthropologists, detailing both their achievements
        and their struggle with the latent and sometimes blatant racism of the
        times. Invaluable to historians of anthropology, this collection will
        also be useful to readers interested in African-American studies and biography.
 
      The lives and work of: Caroline
        Bond Day, Zora Neale Hurston, Louis Eugene King, Laurence Foster, W. Montague
        Cobb, Katherine Dunham, Ellen Irene Diggs, Allison Davis, St. Clair Drake,
        Arthur Huff Fauset, William S. Willis Jr., Hubert Barnes Ross, Elliot
        Skinner
 

Outsider Within presents an approach to critically reconstructing the anthropology discipline to better encompass issues of gender and race. Among the nine key changes to the field that Faye V. Harrison advocates are researching in an ethically and politically responsible manner, promoting greater diversity in the discipline, rethinking theory, and committing to a genuine multicultural dialogue. In drawing from materials developed during her distinguished twenty-five year career in Caribbean and African American studies, Harrison analyzes anthropology’s limits and possibilities from an African American woman’s perspective, while also recognizing similarities between peoples, despite social, cultural, and political differences. In seeking to productively engage anthropologists of diverse geographical, cultural, and national origins, Harrison challenges them to work together to transcend stark gender, racial, and national hierarchies.