brewbooks, 2007

Tell My Horse was written from an anthropological perspective. Zora Neale Hurston's long relationship with this discipline influenced her creative work. Hurston studied with Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict under the influential Franz Boas while at Barnard (Columbia University).

Franz Boas

• Race, Language and Culture
• The Mind of Primitive Man
• Primitive Art

Margaret Mead

• Coming of Age in Samoa
• Growing Up in New Guinea

Ruth Benedict

• Patterns of Culture
• The Chrysanthemum and the Sword