News
Search All News
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Office Hours
Monday - Friday 9am - 5pmClosed Sat. and Sun.
Jeannette Graulau Exposes Cold War Influence on a Landmark Study
July 28, 2026
In a new Dialectical Anthropology article, “The infamous letters of Julian Steward and Raymond Scheele: unearthing the Cold War history behind The People of Puerto Rico,” Professor of Political Science Jeanette Graulau challenges the conventional history of the highly-influential 1958 study The People of Puerto Rico, arguing that its celebrated fieldwork was deeply shaped by Cold War politics. Drawing on previously unpublished correspondence between project director Steward and his assistant Scheele, she reveals the political priorities that influenced field research, analysis, and publication of a study that promoted, as she writes, “an ideological image of a nationless Puerto Rico, and one palatable to U.S. interests.” The project, she contends, exemplified how the field of anthropology became entangled with imperial power and Cold War agendas on a broader scale.