When Carroll joined the U-M in 1972, “he had an international reputation, both as a leading comparativist of the languages, societies, cultures, and populations of the South Pacific, and as an innovator in anthropological fieldwork methodologies,” the Regents noted.
“Within the Department of Anthropology, Prof. Carroll helped to extend the range of the department’s upper-division undergraduate course offerings into emerging areas of anthropological endeavor, especially the anthropology of the mind, and methods of cultural analysis. In 1967, he founded, and thereafter served in each of the officer positions of, the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania.”