You are here
5/24/1936 - 6/17/2015
Anthropological and political author Keith Otterbein was born in Warren in 1936.
Born in Warren, Pennsylvania in 1936, Keith Otterbein has led a successful career. He earned a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and has spent a lot of time in the Bahamas doing ethnographic research. He has also become a professor, researcher, and author of various anthropological books and articles.
Keith F. Otterbein was born May 24, 1936 in Warren, Pennsylvania to Ralph and Mary Otterbein. He married Charlotte Swanson and the couple had one child.
Otterbein studied Arts and Letters at the Pennsylvania State University and received his B.A. in 1958. As an undergraduate, he spent the summer of 1957 at the University of Arizona attending an archaeological field school. He also earned an A.M from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960 and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1963. Otterbein spent two summers as a graduate student in the Bahamas participating in ethnographic research. After Otterbein finished his education, he became an assistant professor at the American University in Washington, D.C.
Otterbein joined the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1966 as a professor and since that time has done field research in the Bahamas and the United States. He has spent much time focusing on feuding and warfare. He teaches both topics at Buffalo along with other anthropology courses. In 1966, Otterbein published his first book, The Andros Islanders: A Study of Family Organization in the Bahamas, which documents his extended study of the Bahamas.
Throughout his career, Otterbein has published six books and a vast number of articles in various magazines and journals. In addition to studying the human cultures of the Bahamas, Otterbein has also researched historic preservation in the United States and England. Otterbein currently resides in Williamsville, New York.
Books
- The Andros Islanders: A Study of Family Organization in the Bahamas. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1966.
- The Evolution of War: A Cross Cultural Study. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1970.
- Comparative Cultural Analysis: An Introduction to Anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1972.
- Changing House Types in Long Bay Cays: The Evolution of Folk Housing in an Out Island Bahamian Community. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1975.
- The Ultimate Coercive Sanction: A Cross Cultural Study of Capital Punishment. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1986.
- Feuding and Warfare: Selected Works of Keith F. Otterbein. Langhorne, PA: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1994.
- How War Began. College Station, TX: Texas A&M UP, 2004.
Articles
- The Doves Have Been Heard From, Where Are the Hawks. American Anthropologist. Volume 102: 841-844, 2000.
- Five Feuds: An Analysis of Homocides in Eastern Kentucky in the Late Nineteenth Century. American Anthropologist. Volume 102: 231-243, 2000.
- The Killing of Captured Enemies: A Cross Cultural Study. Current Anthropology. Volume 41: 439-443, 2000.
- The Andros Islanders: A Study of Family Organization in the Bahamas. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1966.
- Keith Frederick Otterbein. The Gale Literature Database: Contemporary Authors. The Gales Group. Thomson Corporation. 2001. 17 May 2002 <>www.gale.net.>
- Keith F. Otterbein. The State University of New York at Buffalo Department of Anthropology. 2002. 6 June 2002. <>http://wings.buffalo.edu/anthropology/Faculty/otterbein.htm.>
Photo Credit: Charlotte Otterbein. "Keith Otterbein, circa 2003." c. 2003. Photograph. Cropped to 4x3. Source: Online Resource.