Dr. George W. Rich

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Dr. Rich is a Professor of Anthropology and former Chair of the department. He did his undergraduate work and M.A. Degree in Anthropology at Sacramento State College (1967, 1969), and his Ph.D. at UC Davis (1976). He has taught in the CSUS Department of Anthropology since 1970 and currently teaches courses on Language & Culture, Magic, Witchcraft & Religion, Folklore, and Ethnographic Field Techniques.

He is a member and Past President of the California Folklore Society and Southwestern Anthropological Association; a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Urban Anthropology, the American Folklore Society, and an associate of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP).

He has conducted ethnographic research in the United States, Iceland, and Pakistan, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (1973/74), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (1973/74), Fulbright-Hayes (Iceland, 1973/74), The American- Scandinavian Foundation (Thor Thors Memorial Fund Grant, 1973/74), Fulbright-Hayes (Pakistan, 1978/79), and several CSUS Foundation Faculty Research Grants. His writings from this research have appeared in encyclopedia articles, book chapters, and such scholarly journals as The Journal of American Folklore, Ethnology, The Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Western Folklore, Native American folklore, Icelandic domestic organization and kinship, aspects of Icelandic and Pakistani social structure, children's play, and contemporary American folk beliefs. For the past five years, he has been conducting comparative research on culture and children's pain behavior, and is currently supervising student research on medical home remedies among Ukrainian and Russian refugees in Sacramento.

As a one-time and recovering art major, former rock 'n roll musician, 'country-western' bar room drummer, and lifelong Brubeck connoisseur, he is a lover of all music (from Mozart to grunge, some rap, and ska), appreciates and seeks out good art (as long as it is either non-Western or non representational), and regularly watches Seinfeld re-runs and Letterman on T.V.