Simon Ottenberg’s New Book, "Anthropologists in America Take a First Look at Africa," Shares Insight Into His Endlessly Memorable and Notable Career

Seattle, WA, December 12, 2022 --(PR.com)-- Fulton Books author Simon Ottenberg, who is the author of numerous books on West African anthropology and a biography of a Seattle Salish Native American artist, has completed his most recent book, “Anthropologists in America Take a First Look at Africa”: an intriguing work that takes readers through the author’s years-long career of accumulating knowledge and gaining perspective.

The author, as an adolescent, wanted to be a polar explorer. He did not seem to care whether he went to the North or the South Pole. But at Northwestern University, he became interested in its African program, one of two major programs in anthropology there. The other was on African cultures in the Caribbean and South America. So as a graduate student, he did a study of African cultural survival in a community along the coast of Georgia. However, he was more interested in Africa at a time when Americans realized, after World War II, how little they knew about it.

Government and foundation funds became available, and Ottenberg took advantage of it for his first African research in 1952–1953 on a year’s grant for work in Nigeria. That began a long career there, where his interests varied over the years—from children and adult masking to family life to art and other subjects. He found African culture to be anything but simple; rather, it is very complex. Each aspect has links to others; it’s a web of behaviors to be traced in which language played key roles while Western cultural influences were changing African cultures.

Author Simon Ottenberg writes, “There are always matters that have been left out, considered trivial or unnecessary, or that simply did not find a place in one’s writings. Years later, they may appear to be significant, whether because of changes in the social and intellectual world, to alterations in the leading ideas of the moment, to the evolution of the writer’s own thoughts. Having lived to an old, old age, I am fortunate to be able to perceive the importance of certainty of my ideas and thoughts that were previously overlooked or underplayed. One cannot simply insert overlooked ideas and conceptions into old texts, but one can present them and comment on their level of usefulness.”

Author Simon Ottenberg is a retired professor from the Anthropology Department at the University of Washington, with which he was associated for thirty-six years. He made his career around a total of eight years, off and on, on field studies of the cultures and traditional arts of the Igbo peoples in southeastern Nigeria and the Limba of northern Sierra Leone. He also spent a year teaching at the University of Ghana and another year as a visiting scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge University. His particular interests are in traditional West African descent systems, traditional West African art, and the early stages of modern art development in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. He curated an exhibition of seven modern Nigerian artists at the Smithsonian Institution. His writings include works on descent, masquerades, growing up in an African culture, change and stability in West Africa, and other topics.

Published by Fulton Books, Simon Ottenberg’s book offers a fascinating look into the author’s experiences.

Readers who wish to experience this compelling work can purchase “Anthropologists in America Take a First Look at Africa” at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

Please direct all media inquiries to Author Support via email at support@fultonbooks.com or via telephone at 877-210-0816.