While carrying out anthropological field research in the 1940s in a small community in the southwestern United States, Wolff initially discovered, and began to articulate and to advocate, a new qualitative methodological approach for the study of human society.
Like many Central European polymaths he was fluent in a number of languages including English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.
In Italy, Wolff learned Italian well enough in one year to be able to study at the University of Florence from 1934-35 to obtain his Laureate (doctorate in philosophy) with a thesis titled "La Sociologia del Sapere."
[5] Until 1939 Wolff remained in Italy and with the support of his wife and his friend Pace got a job as a teacher, first in Florence and later in Camogli.
His field work was conducted under the guidance of leading American anthropologists Robert Redfield and Sol Tax.
The following year, 1944–45, he taught at Earlham College in Indiana, and in 1945 was appointed an assistant professor at Ohio State University.