David Kaplan

David Kaplan, 83, professor emeritus of anthropology at Brandeis University, passed away December 12, 2012 in Wayland, Massachusetts, after a five-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was born in Union City, New Jersey, on May 8, 1929.

He received his BA, MA and PhD (1960) degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan. His doctoral fieldwork was conducted in Mexico. He taught at the University of Oklahoma for two years (1959–61) and then was at Brandeis University for the rest of his career. He was promoted to associate professor in 1966, and to professor in 1972. He was awarded emeritus status in 1996.

Kaplan served as department chair twice, once in 1971–74, and again in 1979–80. He served as Dean of the Graduate School from 1983 to 1990. He published articles on Mesoamerica and his major publications concerned theory in anthropology. With his Brandeis colleague Robert A Manners, he published Theory in Anthropology: A Sourcebook in 1968. This was followed by Kaplan and Manners’ Culture Theory in 1972, a critical evaluation of major theories in anthropology. Culture Theory remained in print for decades and was widely used in anthropology courses in the United States and in other countries.

Kaplan’s areas of specialty included method and theory, economic and political anthropology, and peasant culture of Mesoamerica. At Brandeis, Kaplan taught courses on the nature of human nature and the evolution of political economy, as well as graduate seminars in method and theory. He helped advise many doctoral dissertations.

He is survived by Carol, his wife of 55 years; two sons; two daughters-in-law; and five grandchildren. (Robert C Hunt)

via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/02/09/david-kaplan/