This collection consists of 265 photographic slides and 1 audio cassette recording made by former Peace Corps volunteer G. Gage Skinner while living and traveling in Chile and Colombia in the 1960s-1970s. Images include portraits, landscapes, ceremonies, and daily village life. Audio recording includes songs, chants, and musical instruments.
Scope and Contents:
The G. Gage Skinner collection consists of 265 photographic slides and 1 audio cassette recording made by former Peace Corps volunteer G. Gage Skinner while living and traveling in Chile and Colombia in the 1960s-1970s. Series 1: Chile, 1964-1966, includes images of individual portraits, landscapes, ceremonies, and daily village life of the Mapuche peoples of what is now the Araucanía Region of Chile. Also part of Series 1 is an audio recording of songs, chants, and musical instruments from a 1965 Nguillatún fertility ceremony near Lumaco, Chile. Series 2: Colombia, 1972, includes images of landscapes and daily village life of the Ika (Ica/Arhuaco) and Kogi (Kagaba) peoples of the area near Donachui in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range of Colombia. Images include a particular focus on Ika (Ica/Arhuaco) dwellings and architecture, weaving, trade goods, and agriculture.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in two series. Series 1: Chile, 1964-1966 and Series 2: Colombia, 1972.
Biographical / Historical:
G. Gage Skinner is a former Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Chile, 1964-1966, and later in Colombia, 1969-1972. A student of cultural anthropology and a graduate of San Diego State University, Skinner has taught at the college level, and has published on a wide range of topics, including beekeeping, the fur trade, and the history of the American West.
Related Materials:
The Peace Corps Community Archives at American University in Washington, DC maintains a collection of manuscript materials donated by G. Gage Skinner documenting his Peace Corps service in Chile and Colombia. These materials include diaries, biographical information, training materials, and publications. In addition to material culture objects in the NMAI Object Collections donated by Skinner, there are also a large number of objects documenting Mapuche culture which he donated to the San Diego Museum of Man's ethnographic collections.
Separated Materials:
G. Gage Skinner also donated a number of material culture objects to the NMAI Object Collections, documenting the Mapuche, Ika (Ica/Arhuaco), and Kamsá (Sebondoy) peoples of Chile and Colombia. The object numbers are 27/0087 - 27/0089 and 27/0102 - 27/0108.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by G. Gage Skinner in 2017 and 2018.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); G. Gage Skinner collection, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
