Kalervo Oberg

Kalervo Oberg (January 15, 1901 – July 11, 1973)^[1] was a Canadian anthropologist. Oberg was dedicated to fieldwork, serving as a civil servant and a teacher. He travelled the world and wrote about these experiences so others could enjoy them as well. Oberg is perhaps best known for applying the term culture shock to all people who travel abroad into new cultures and for his doctoral dissertation, The Social Economy of the Tlingit Indians of Alaska.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Oberg was born to

Oberg continued to spend much of his time in the United States, teaching in university systems in both Missouri and Montana, and became a U.S. citizen in 1944. Along with teaching in the United States, Oberg spent time both as a student and teacher in foreign countries. He attended the London School of Economics during two different periods in the 1930s.

While in São Paulo, he taught at the

Oberg gave a talk to the Women's Club of Rio de Janeiro on August 3, 1954, explaining feelings common to those facing their first cross-cultural experience. In so doing, he identified 4 stages of culture shock which continue to be commonly used, for example in Winkleman's stages of cultural adaptation. Bobbs-Merrill published Oberg's talk later in 1954 and it was then republished in Practical Anthropology (7:177-182) in 1960. The June 1974 American Anthropologist 76(2):356-360 published an obituary for Oberg.^[2]

References

External links

• Kalervo Oberg - biography
• 2001 Kalervo Oberg Memorial Award - Fragments, Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University
• Edward Dutton, Sointula and the Seeds of Kalervo Oberg’s Culture Shock Model