Final answer:
Zora Neale Hurston was an influential anthropologist and author, central to the Harlem Renaissance and known for her work 'Mules and Men' and 'Their Eyes Were Watching God'. She conducted extensive research on African-American folklore and Caribbean spiritual practices. Despite her contributions, she faced obscurity and poverty later in life.
Step-by-step explanation:
Accomplishments of Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston's accomplishments are notable in the disciplines of anthropology and literature. A significant achievement is her ethnographic work captured in Mules and Men (1935), a pivotal contribution to African-American folklore based on her research in north Florida. Hurston was also a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a period where she worked alongside Langston Hughes and launched a literary magazine championing young African-American writers.
Her most acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), is recognized as an early African-American feminist work. Further in her career, Hurston continued her anthropological fieldwork, travelling to Haiti and Jamaica to study spiritual practices such as hoodoo and voodoo. These significant accomplishments made her an iconic figure in both literature and anthropology, despite experiencing obscurity and poverty towards the end of her life.
In addition to her literary achievements, Hurston's research into Black American and Caribbean folklore, and her work with the Federal Writer's Project as a folklorist and writer, had a lasting impact on the field of anthropology and cultural studies. Her work provided a deep understanding of the power dynamics within African-American communities and celebrated racial pride and cultural identity without filtering through a political lens.