Robert McCormick Adams has had a wide-ranging career spanning decades. He has worked in Mexico and Iraq, and has also studied ancient civilizations such as the Mesopotamian cultures. Until his retirement in 1994 he was the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. Adams started off at the University of Chicago where he earned a Ph.D. Afterwards he became a faculty member there for many years. While at the University of Chicago, Adams worked in the Oriental Institute and Department of Anthropology. Dr. Adams worked in areas ranging from Archaeology of early cultures, such as Mesopotamia, to the cultural roles of Technology in our society.
He has published many books about the work he has done throughout his career. His book “The Evolution of Urban Society” was based off his work on the social organizations and urbanization of Mesopotamia. Later he worked in Iraq and wrote a book called “The Land Behind Baghdad” where he looked at the factors that lead up to complex civilizations. These books were written in the 1960’s well before he started working at the Smithsonian. More recently in 1996, he wrote “Paths of Fire: An anthropologist's inquiry into Western technology”. This book dealt with how technology comes about and why or why not it has an impact on human kind.
During the later part of his career Adams became the Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1984 to 1994 where among other things he worked to encourage political correctness of the exhibits. For example, during the Bicentennial celebration of the US Constitution he had an exhibit featuring imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Prior to Adams work at the Smithsonian the museum had looked at technology without criticizing it however when Adams worked there he wanted to look at how the technology affected people. This work probably led to his interest and later publication of the book “Paths of Fire: An anthropologist’s inquiry into Western technology”. After his retirement Robert McCormick Adams began work at the University of California in San Diego.
References
Book Review, http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/future/dator/reviews/adams.html, (2006)
Biography, http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/anthfac/adams.html, (2006)
Written By: Patrick St. John