Raoul Naroll

Who was Raoul Naroll?

Raoul Naroll was an anthropologist who did much to promote the methodology of cross-cultural studies. He was born in Toronto, Ontario but was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA at the age of 16, dropping out in his junior year to join the military.

In 1939, he joined the army serving in Infantry, as an Officer in the Army Finance Department and in the Military Intelligence Service, screening officials and prisoners of war in Germany.

After the war, Naroll returned to UCLA, receiving an A.B. in 1950, a Master's in 1952, and his Ph.D. in history in 1953. He did fieldwork in Austria and in Greece, Switzerland and Belgium.

From 1954–1955, Naroll was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. After, he moved to the Washington, D.C. branch of the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. working as a research associate where he wrote country background studies.

Naroll was a member of the faculty of the San Fernando Valley State College, Northwestern University, the University at Buffalo, and was a past president of the Human Relations Area Files.