ABSTRACT
A. Irving Hallowell is viewed today as an important progenitor of psychological anthropology. He is generally credited with helping push this important subdiscipline in productive psychodynamic and cognitive directions. Hallowell was an innovator in the cross-cultural use of the Rorschach Test, a field technique that is generally considered passe in anthropology. Far from being a psychological reductionist or a psychological determinist, Hallowell consistently emphasized the ontological necessity for separating cultural and psychological levels of explanation, while still appreciating the dynamic interaction of psychological and cultural factors. Cultural dynamics, for Hallowell, was an encompassing rubric that included not only different forms of cultural change, but also considered the crucial role of culture in mediating and monitoring human mental processes and behavior. In behavioral evolution, a capacity for self-objectification and its sequelae represented a critical stage in the continuous development of culture.
