Many people have lived interesting and fulfilled lives. Alfred Louis Kroeber is no stranger to this list of people. This man did not pick up where anyone left off; instead he followed his heart and dreams and did what he wanted to do, and not what other people told him to do. For the west coast United States Anthropology, Kroeber was at the top of the field. He had visions of what he thought Anthropology should be and went out to show them to the rest of the world. His Anthropology included Archaeology, Linguistics and Cultural Anthropology. These were the three areas that he decided to focus on in Anthropology and would make a long career out of it. His legacy still stands at Berkeley University and his importance is reflected in the hall that bears his name. From the time Kroeber was a child he was much smarter and better educated than other children.
Although in his adulthood he would not portray himself to be better than anyone. He would bestow this on his children and on anyone, such as Ishi the lost Native American, who came in contact with him. He would also write books that would set the standard in Anthropology. They were taught and read in every Anthropology class in the United States for several decades.
The young Alfred Kroeber lived a youth like many other children that had been raised in the United States. His father, Florence Martin Kroeber, was an importer of European clocks. Florence was born in 1840 in the city of Paderborn, Westphalia, Germany. His parents had come from Germany in hopes to prosper and get a new start on life in the new land in 1850. They had settled in New York City because it was big and very close to...