> *Murra was born Issac Lipschitz in Odessa Russia but eventually wound up in > the US as a young man in the 1930s. He was very much a product of the U of > Chicago in its leftist social science days of the '30s but he quickly left > the U.S. to fight for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War (Murra was > his nom de guerre) . As a result he was blacklisted, fought a long battle > against deportation and for his citizenship, couldn't travel even for > fieldwork, could not even apply for grants, and most of his career was > spent on short term assignments (hence teaching freshmen...even if Jim was > in the class). Despite his prestige he was only given a tenure track post > in 1968 (at Cornell where he was isolated in the Anthro Dept but where > people in Cornell Area Studies, Agric School and Labor Schools spoke well > of him).
I don't know what his status was at Yale (beyond his status as a visitor) but I bet he was doing more teaching that just frosh anthro in 1970-71. I do know that one of the profs during the Spring semester (who was subbing for Murra, I believe) threw off a remark like "you know he's a Marxist, don't you?" I guess he was hoping that we'd reject Murra's perspective. In reality, he presented a bunch of different perspectives, including ones he likely disagreed with strongly. Alas, he didn't talk much about the Incas. -- Jim Devine / "The truth is at once less sinister and more dangerous." -- Naomi Klein.
