author
Fay-Cooper Cole
1881–1961
A pioneering American anthropologist, he helped shape the study of culture and archaeology in the United States after years of fieldwork in Southeast Asia. His work ranged from detailed studies of Indigenous communities to popular writing about human origins and cultural change.
4 Audiobooks
The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition
by Fay-Cooper Cole
The Tinguian: Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe
by Fay-Cooper Cole
A Study in Tinguian Folk-Lore
by Fay-Cooper Cole
Traditions of the Tinguian: a Study in Philippine Folk-Lore
by Fay-Cooper Cole
About the author
Born in Michigan in 1881 and educated at Northwestern and Columbia, Fay-Cooper Cole became one of the important early figures in American anthropology. He studied under Franz Boas and built his reputation through research on the peoples and cultures of the Malay Archipelago, especially in the Philippines and Indonesia.
After working at the Field Museum, he joined the University of Chicago, where he helped establish its anthropology program and later founded the department there. He was also known for encouraging modern archaeological field methods and for writing books that brought anthropology and human evolution to a broader public.
Cole died in Santa Barbara, California, in 1961. Remembered as both a field researcher and a builder of institutions, he helped widen American interest in anthropology at a time when the discipline was still taking shape.