Search results for: Brazilians, page 1 | Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution

12,949 documents - page 1 of 500Result pages are truncated to 500.

Ruth Landes papers

Correspondent:: Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978 Search this; Boas, Franz, 1858-1942 Search this; Wallis, Ruth Sawtell, 1895-1978 Search this; Wagley, Charles, 1913-1991 Search this; Lopez, Salvador Search this; Little, Kenneth Search this; Wilson, Maggie Search this; Whitecloud, Thomas St. Germain Search this; Henry, Jules, 1904-1969 Search this; Hellman, Ellen Search this; Haugen, Einar Search this; Gough, Kathleen Search this; Lewis, Oscar Search this; Kaberry, Phyllis Mary, 1910- Search this; Imes, Elmer Samuel, 1883-1941 Search this; Strong, William Duncan, 1899-1962 Search this; Steyn, Anna F. Search this; Spier, Leslie, 1893-1961 Search this; Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962 Search this; Solecki, Ralph S. Search this; Sparta, Francisco Search this; Rubin, Joan Search this; Rubin, Vera Search this; Rodnick, David Search this; Rogers, Edward S. Search this; Ritzenthaler, Robert E. (Robert Eugene), 1911-1980 Search this; Roberts, Robert W. Search this; Ramo, Arthur Search this; Richards, Audrey Search this; Preston, Richard J. Search this; Verger, Pierre Search this; Vennum, Thomas Search this; Topash, Mary Search this; Topash, Joe Search this; Teskey, Lynn Search this; Taylor, Beryl Search this; Tanner, Helen Hornbeck Search this; Densmore, Frances, 1867-1957 Search this; Quain, Buell H. (Buell Halvor), 1912-1939 Search this; Dunning, William Search this; Douglas, William A. Search this; Eggan, Fred, 1906-1991 Search this; Edmondson, Munro S. Search this; Black, Mary B. Search this; Benedict, Ruth, 1887-1948 Search this; Domengeaux, James Search this; Feldman, Albert G. Search this; Feder, Norman Search this; Gacs, Ute Search this; Franklin, John Hope Search this; Ewers, John C. (John Canfield), 1909-1997 Search this; Erickson, Vincent O. Search this; Falk, Minna R. Search this; Faitlovitch, V. Search this; Alberto Torres, Heloisa Search this; Buck, Pearl Search this; Bruce, Harold E. Search this; Borri, Rina Search this; Boggs, Stephen Taylor Search this; Arensberg, Conrad M. (Conrad Maynadier), 1910-1997 Search this; Baldus, Herbert Search this; Barnouw, Victor Search this; Bateson, Mary Catherine Search this; Lurie, Nancy Oestreich Search this; Malherbe, E.G. Search this; Marks, Eli S. Search this; Masha, Louise Search this; Maslow, Will Search this; Masquat, Joseph M. Search this; Mayer, Kurt B. Search this; McWilliams, Carey Search this; Bunche, Ralph J. Search this; Carneiro, Edison Search this; Chilver, E. M. Search this; Chilver, Richard Search this; Clifton, James A. Search this; Colson, Elizabeth F. Search this; Daveron, Alexander Search this; Lowenfeld, Margaret, 1890-1973 Search this; Officer, James E. Search this; Odum, Howard W. Search this; Park, Alice Search this; Paredes, Anthony Search this; Paton, Alan, 1903-1988 Search this; Park, George Search this; Prado, Idabel do Search this; Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M. Search this; Merwe, Hendrik W. van der Search this; Murphy, Robert Francis Search this; Messing, Simon D. Search this; Neumann, Anita Search this; Nef, Evelyn Stefansson Search this; Nocktonick, Louise Search this; Neumann, Walter Search this

Creator:: Landes, Ruth, 1908-1991 Search this

Names:: Columbia University Research in Contemporary Cultures Search this; Committee on Fair Employment Practices Search this; Fisk University Search this; Johnson, Charles S. Search this; Landes, Ruth, 1908-1991 Search this; Park, Robert E. Search this

Extent:: 26.5 Linear feet ((63 document boxes and 1 oversized box))

Culture:: Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa) Search this; African American Search this; Dakota (Eastern Sioux) Search this; African Search this; Acadians Search this; Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this; Indians of North America -- Northeast Search this; Jews -- American Search this; Latinos -- California Search this; Brazilians Search this; Basques Search this; American Indians Search this; Afro-Brazilians Search this; Africans Search this

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials

Place:: Quebec -- Bilingualism; United Kingdom -- colored immigration; South Africa

Date:: 1928-1992

Summary:: Most of Ruth Landes's papers relate directly or indirectly to Landes's American Indian research, her work in Brazil, and her study of bilingualism. There is also a considerable amount of material that relates to her experiences (sometimes fictionalized) at Fisk University. There is only small amount of material related to her other interests. Her collection also has material of and relating to the Brazilian folklorist and journalist Edison Carneiro. There is also noteworthy material concerning Herbert Baldus, Ruth Benedict, Elmer C. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, and Robert E. Park. There is a large amount of printed and processed materials in the collection, mainly in the form of newspaper clippings and a collection of scholarly papers.

Scope and Contents:: This collection is mainly comprised of the professional papers of Ruth Schlossberg Landes. Included are correspondence, journals, published and unpublished manuscripts of writings, research materials including field notes and reading notes, photographs, drawings, scholarly papers and publications by other scholars, and clippings from newspapers and periodicals.

Landes's field research on Candomblé in Brazil is well-represented in this collection, consisting of her field journals, writings, and photographs. Also present are Maggie Wilson's stories that were the basis for Landes's The Ojibwa Woman. Unfortunately, Landes was unable to locate her journals for her early research with the Ojibwa/Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Dakota. There are, however, field photographs of the Ojibwa/Chippewa and Potawatomi in the collection. There is also a great deal of her research on groups, especially minorities, in multilingual states with particular focus on the French of Quebec, Basques of Spain and the United States, Boers and Blacks of South Africa, the several socio-linguistic groups of Switzerland, and Acadians (Cajuns) of Louisiana. In the collection are several drafts of her unpublished manuscript on bilingualism, "Tongues that Defy the State." There is also a small amount of material about Black Jews of New York and considerable material about Landes's experience among African Americans when she taught briefly at Fisk University, including her unpublished manuscript "Now, at Athens," containing fictional and autobiographical accounts of her time at Fisk.

Reflections of other facets of Landes's professional activities are also included. Some materials concern her teaching activities, and there is also documentation of her work with the Fair Employment Practices Commission (a federal government agency during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt) and a similar private organization which immediately succeeded the FEPA; Gunnar Myrdal's research into the plight of African Americans ("The Negro in America"); the Research in Contemporary Cultures project at Columbia University; and the American Jewish Congress.

Among Landes's correspondents are Ruth Benedict, Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, Ralph Bunche, Herbert Baldus, Edison Carneiro, Sally Chilver, Frances Densmore, Sol Tax, Elmer S. Imes, Charles S. Johnson, Robert E. Park, and Hendrik W. van der Merwe.

Arrangement:: The collection is organized into 6 series: (1) Correspondence, 1931-1991; (2) Research Materials, circa 1930s-1990; (3) Writings, circa 1930s-1990; (4) Teaching Materials, 1935-1975, undated; (5) Biographical and Personal Files, 1928-1988; (6) Graphic Materials, 1933-1978, undated

Biographical Note:: Ruth Schlossberg Landes was born on October 8, 1908 in New York City. Her father was Joseph Schlossberg, an activist in the Yiddish labor socialist community and one of the founders of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. She studied sociology at New York University (B.A. 1928) and social work at the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University (M.S.W. 1929). While in graduate school, Landes studied Black Jews in Harlem for her master's thesis, a topic that developed her interests in anthropology.

After graduating in 1929, she worked as a social worker in Harlem and married Victor Landes, a medical student and son of family friends. Their marriage ended after two years when she enrolled in the doctoral program in anthropology at Columbia against her husband's wishes. She kept his surname due to the stigma of being a divorced woman.

At Columbia, Landes studied under Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict, her main advisor. Under the guidance of Benedict, Landes moved away from further study of African Americans to focus on Native American communities. Upon Benedict's suggestion, Landes studied the social organization of the Ojibwa in Manitou Rapids in Ontario from 1932 to 1936 for her Ph.D. fieldwork. Her dissertation, Ojibwa Sociology, was published in 1937. Landes also contributed "The Ojibwa of Canada" in Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples (1937), a volume edited by Margaret Mead. In 1938, Landes published Ojibwa Women (1938), a book written in collaboration with Maggie Wilson, an Ojibwa interpreter and informant.

In addition to studying the Ojibwa in Ontario, Landes also conducted fieldwork with the Chippewa of Red Lake, Minnesota in 1933, working closely with shaman or midé Will Rogers. Her book, Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin (1968) was based largely on her research with Rogers and Maggie Wilson. In 1935 and 1936, she undertook fieldwork with the Santee Dakota in Minnesota and the Potawatomi in Kansas. Like Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin, her books on the Santee Dakota and Potawatomi were not published until several years later—The Mystic Lake Sioux: Sociology of the Mdewakantonwan Sioux was published in 1968 while The Prairie Potawatomi was published in 1970. In between her field research in the 1930s and the publication of The Prairie Potawatomi, Landes returned to Kansas to study the Potawatomi in the 1950s and 1960s.

Landes's plan to continue her studies with the Potawatomi in 1937 changed when Benedict invited her to join a team of researchers from Columbia University in Brazil. Landes was to conduct research on Afro-Brazilians in Bahia, Brazil, while Walter Lipkind, Buell Quain, and Charles Wagley studied indigenous people in the Amazons. To prepare for her research, Landes was at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1937 and 1938 to consult with Robert Park and Donald Pierson and to use the university's library collections of African and African American materials. During that time, Landes also held a teaching position at Fisk and lived in the non-segregated women's residence on campus. Landes later wrote "Now, at Athens," an unpublished memoir containing fictional and true accounts of her experiences at Fisk.

From 1938 to 1939, Landes conducted fieldwork on the role of Afro-Brazilian women and homosexuals in the Candomblé religion in Bahia, Brazil. Unable to move freely by herself in Brazil as a single woman, Landes was accompanied by Edison Carneiro, a Bahian journalist and folklorist. With Carneiro as her companion, Landes was allowed access to rituals and people that would have been closed off to her otherwise. Due to her association with Carneiro, a member of the Brazilian Communist Party, Landes was suspected of being a communist and was forced to leave Bahia early. Publications from her research in Brazil include "A Cult Matriarchate and Male Homosexuality" (1940) and City of Women (1947). She returned to Brazil in 1966 to study the effects of urban development in Rio de Janeiro. In 1967, a Portuguese translation of City of Women was published, a project that Carneiro had commissioned as the first director of the Ministry of Education and Culture's Special National Agency for the Protection of Folklore.

Landes returned to New York in 1939, working briefly as a researcher for Gunnar Myrdal's study of African Americans. Unable to obtain a permanent position at a university, she worked in several other short term positions throughout most of her career. During World War II, Landes was a research director for the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs (1941) and consultant for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee on African American and Mexican American cases (1941-44). In 1945, Landes directed a program created by Pearl S. Buck and a group of interdenominational clergy to analyze pending New York anti-discrimination legislation. She moved to California the following year to work for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Welfare Council on a study of race and youth gangs. After her contract ended, she moved back to New York and was hired as a contract researcher for the American Jewish Congress (1948-50). She also participated in Columbia University's Research in Contemporary Cultures (1949-51), studying Jewish families. She coauthored with Mark Zborowski, "Hypothesis concerning the Eastern European Jewish Family." From 1951 to 1952, Landes spent a year in London, funded by a Fulbright fellowship to study colored colonial immigrants and race relations in Great Britain.

After her fellowship ended, Landes returned to the United States and held short term appointments at several universities. She taught at the William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution in New York (1953-54), the New School for Social Research in New York (1953-55), University of Kansas (1957, 1964), University of Southern California (1957-62), Columbia University (1963), Los Angeles State College (1963), and Tulane University (1964). At Claremont Graduate School, Landes helped to develop and direct the Claremont Anthropology and Education Program (1959-62).

It was not until 1965 that Landes obtained a permanent faculty position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario; she was recruited for the position by Richard Slobodin. Due to Ontario's age retirement law, Landes was forced to retire in 1973 at the age of 65. She continued to teach part-time until 1977, when she became professor emerita.

Landes passed away at the age of 82 on February 11, 1991.

Sources Consulted

Cole, Sally. 2003. Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.

Chronology

1908 October 8 -- Born Ruth Schlossberg in New York City

1928 -- B.A. in sociology, New York University

1929 -- M.S.W., New York School of Social Work, Columbia University

1929-1931 -- Social worker in Harlem Married to Victor Landes

1929-1934 -- Studied Black Jews in Harlem

1931 -- Began graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University

1932-1936 -- Studied the Ojibwa in Ontario and Minnesota (in field periodically)

1933-1940 -- Research Fellow, Columbia University

1935 Summer-Fall -- Studied the Santee Sioux (Dakota) in Minnesota

1935-1936 -- Studied the Potawatomi in Kansas

1935 -- Ph.D., Columbia University

1937 -- Instructor, Brooklyn College

1937-1938 -- Instructor, Fisk University

1938-1939 -- Studied Afro-Brazilians and Candomblé in Brazil, especially at Bahia

1939 -- Researcher on Gunnar Myrdal's study, "The Negro in America"

1941 -- Research Director, Office of Inter American Affairs, Washington, D.C.

1941-1945 -- Representative for Negro and Mexican American Affairs, Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), President Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration

1944 -- Interim Director, Committee Against Racial Discrimination, New York

1946-1947 -- Researcher, study of Mexican American youth, gangs, and families, Los Angeles Metropolitan Council

1948-1951 -- Researcher, American Jewish Congress, New York

1949-1951 -- Research consultant, study on Jewish families in New York for Research in Contemporary Cultures Project, Columbia University

1951-1952 -- Fulbright Scholar, to study colored colonial immigration into Great Britain

1953-1954 -- Lecturer, William Alanson White Psychiatric Institution, New York

1953-1955 -- Lecturer, New School for Social Research, New York

1956-1957 -- Married to Ignacio Lutero Lopez

1957 Summer -- Visiting Professor, University of Kansas

1957-1958 -- Visiting Professor, University of Southern California

1957-1965 -- Consultant, California agencies (Department of Social Work, Bureau of Mental Hygiene, Department of Education, Public Health Department) and San Francisco Police Department

1958-1959 -- Director, Geriatrics Program, Los Angeles City Health Department

1959-1962 -- Visiting Professor and Director of Anthropology and Education Program, Claremont Graduate School

1962 -- Extension Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Berkeley

1963 -- Extension Lecturer, Columbia University Extension Lecturer, Los Angeles State College

1963-1965 -- Consultant, International Business Machines (IBM)

1964 January-June -- Visiting Professor, Tulane University

1964 Summer -- Field work with Potawatomi in Kansas Professor, University of Kansas

1965-1975 -- Professor at McMaster University

1966 -- Studied urban development in Rio de Janeiro

1968-1975 -- Studied bilingualism and biculturalism in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, United States, and Canada (in Spain and the United States concentrated on Basques)

1975 -- Became part-time faculty member at McMaster University

1977 -- Professor Emerita, McMaster University

1978 -- Award of Merit from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

1991 February 11 -- Died in Hamilton, Ontario

1991 -- Establishment of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund at Research Institute for the Study of Man (RISM)

Related Materials:: Correspondence from Ruth Landes can be found in the William Duncan Strong Papers, the Leonard Bloomfield Papers, and MS 7369. The Ruth Bunzel Papers contains a copy of a grant application by Landes.

Provenance:: These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Ruth Landes in 1991.

Restrictions:: The Ruth Landes papers are open for research. The nitrate negatives in this collection have been separated from the collection and stored offsite. Access to nitrate negatives is restricted due to preservation concerns.

Access to the Ruth Landes papers requires an appointment.

Rights:: Contact the repository for terms of use.

Topic:: Language and languages -- Documentation Search this; Midéwiwin Search this; Bilingualism Search this; Aging Search this; Candomblé (Religion) Search this

Citation:: Ruth Landes papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Sponsor:: The revision of this finding aid and digitization of portions of the collection were made possible through the financial support of the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Fund.

Identifier:: NAA.1991-04

See more items in:: Ruth Landes papers

Archival Repository:: National Anthropological Archives

EDAN-URL:: ead_collection:sova-naa-1991-04

Online Media:

Berta Gleizer Ribeiro photographs of watercolor paintings by Feliciano Lana

Topic:: Mythology

Collector:: Ribeiro, Berta G. (Berta Gleizer) Search this

Artist:: Lana, Feliciano Pimentel, 1937- Search this

Extent:: 168 Color slides

Culture:: Desâna Search this

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Color slides; Photographs; Watercolors

Date:: circa 1985

Scope and Contents note:: Photographs of watercolor paintings by Feliciano Lana, a member of the Desana tribe in Brazil, made at the request of Dr. Berta Ribeiro in 1985 while she was studying the tribe. The paintings illustrate three stories, narrated or translated by Ribeiro: "The Story of Gain Panan and of the Peach Palm that He Brought from the Invisible Fish World," "Desana Genesis: The Beginning before the Beginning," and "The Creation of the World."

Biographical/Historical note:: Berta Gleizer Ribeiro (1924-1997) was born in Romania and moved to Rio de Janeiro with her family in 1933. She acquired a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Sao Paulo and took a position teaching at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) National Museum and School of Fine Arts. With her husband, Darcy Ribeiro, she coauthored several books on Brazilian tribes, including Suma Etnologica Brasileria, Arte plumária dos índios kaapor, and Dicionário do artesanato indígena.

Local Call Number(s):: NAA Photo Lot 91-37

Location of Other Archival Materials:: "Antes o mundo nao existia: a mitologia heroica dos indios Desana / Umusin Panlon Kumu, Tolaman Kenhiri," with an introduction by Berta G. Ribeiro was also donated with this collection and has been relocated to the National Anthropological Archives Reference Files.

Restrictions:: The collection is open for research.

Access to the collection requires an appointment.

Rights:: Contact the repository for terms of use.

Genre/Form:: Photographs; Watercolors

Citation:: Photo Lot 91-37, Berta Gleizer Ribeiro photographs of watercolor paintings by Feliciano Lana, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Identifier:: NAA.PhotoLot.91-37

Archival Repository:: National Anthropological Archives

EDAN-URL:: ead_collection:sova-naa-photolot-91-37

James A. Jensen photographs of Vladimir Kozak art and artifacts and Chief Joseph lithograph

Creator:: Jensen, James A., 1918- (collector and photographer) Search this

Names:: Joseph, (Nez Percé Chief), 1840-1904 Search this

Artist:: Kozák, Vladimir, 1897-1979 Search this

Extent:: 1 Lithograph; 1 Watercolor; 95 Color slides

Culture:: Indians of North America -- Plateau Search this; Yawalapiti Search this; Wauja (Waurá) Search this; Suya Indians Search this; Mehináku (Mehinacu) Search this; Indians of South America -- Brazil Search this; Xavánte (Shavante) Search this; Timbira Indians Search this; Niimíipuu (Nez Perce) Search this; Mebêngôkre (Kayapó/Cayapo) Search this; Kuikúro (Kuikuro) Search this; Apalakiri (Apalakire) Search this; Kamayurá (Camayura) Search this; Ka'apor Search this; Héta Indians Search this; Borôro (Bororo) Search this; Karajá (Caraja) Search this

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Lithographs; Watercolor; Color slides; Watercolors; Photographs

Date:: circa 1965-1974

Scope and Contents note:: The bulk of the collection is comprised of images of paintings by Vladimir Kozak and his artifacts relating to Brazilian tribes, photographed by James A. Jensen at Kozak's home in Curitaba, Brazil, in September 1965. It also includes a watercolor image of body decoration at a ceremony held by the upper Xingu River tibes of Central Brazil. Additionally, there is one lithograph poster of a J. A. Jensen painting of Chief Joseph, dated 1974.

Biographical/Historical note:: James A. Jensen (1918-1998) was a paleontologist and Director of the Earth Sciences Museum at Brigham Young University (BYU). While at BYU, he conducted fieldwork in both North and South America, at which point he may have met Vladimir Kozak. He created pastel and acrylic artwork, particularly of flowers, landscapes, and Native Americans.

Artist Vladimir Kozak was trained in Czechoslovakia in mechanical engineering, sculpture, and painting. In 1923, he immigrated to Brazil. As Kozak's interest in the Indigenous tribes of Brazil grew, he increasingly focused on painting and sculpting, particularly during the 1940s and 1950s. He also became a still photographer, film maker, and collector of Indigenous artifacts.

Local Call Number(s):: NAA Photo Lot 79-1

Restrictions:: The collection is open for research.

Access to the collection requires an appointment.

Rights:: Contact the repository for terms of use.

Topic:: Body painting Search this

Genre/Form:: Lithographs; Watercolors; Photographs

Citation:: Photo lot 79-1, James A. Jensen photographs of Vladimir Kozak art and artifacts and Chief Joseph lithograph, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:: NAA.PhotoLot.79-1

Archival Repository:: National Anthropological Archives

EDAN-URL:: ead_collection:sova-naa-photolot-79-1

Anthony Leeds Papers

Creator:: Leeds, Anthony, 1925- Search this

Extent:: 18.37 Linear feet (32 document boxes, 2 card file boxes, one photo album, one oversize box, 2 map folders, and one document box of restricted materials.)

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials

Place:: Bahia (Brazil : State)

Date:: 1946-1989

Summary:: This collection is comprised of the professional papers of Anthony Leeds, anthropologist and university professor. Leeds' reasearch was primarily concerned with urban development, though the fieldwork included in this collection is from rural areas. Included are correspondence, field notes, published and unpublished papers, photographs, newspaper and periodical clippings, conference papers, lecture notes, syllabi, critiques of colleague and student work, and several personal documents.

Scope and Contents:: This collection is comprised of the professional papers of Anthony Leeds, anthropologist and university professor. Included are correspondence, field notes, published and unpublished papers, photographs, newspaper and periodical clippings, conference papers, lecture notes, syllabi, critiques of colleague and student work, and personal documents such as calendars, biographical materials, and personal poems.

The materials in this collection reflect Leeds' field work in South America and Portugal, his role as a university professor, and his extensive involvement in various professional organizations. The majority of his anthropological endeavors focused on urban culture, the growth of technology and agriculture in society, and the philosophy behind anthropology and the social sciences. The fieldwork included in this collection is from early in his career, focusing on the study of Cacao agriculture in Brazil and the Yaruro people in Venezuela. The items in this collection document Leeds' various interests and activities.

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Arrangement:: This collection is arranged in 7 series: (1) Correspondence, 1950-1989; (2) Research, 1949-1989; (3) Field Work, 1950-1973; (4) University, 1947-1989; (5) Professional Activities, 1951-1988; (6) Personal, 1946-1989; (7) Photo Album, circa 1952

Biographical Note:: Anthony Leeds was born January 26, 1925 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Because of his parents' strong ties to Europe (both were of Jewish descent, with kin in Germany and England), Leeds spent a fair amount of his childhood in Vienna and Switzerland, where he became fluent in French and German. His father, a businessman and lawyer, died when Leeds was only three years old. Though his family returned to the United States in 1933 due to political unrest in Europe, Leeds continued to be exposed to world cultures and politics through his family. For instance, Leeds' mother was an actor, translator, and psychoanalyst who once studied at Freud's Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna. His stepfather was not only a sculptor and musician, but also a political activist. This rich familial environment fostered an interest in the social sciences and the arts from a young age.

Leeds also got a taste for rural life when his mother moved to a working farm in Clinton Corners, New York in 1935. For the next nine years Leeds intermittently helped his mother with the farm work and attended a small high school in the area. Of his time spent at Clinton Corners, Leeds felt a strong sense of community which would make a profound influence in his understanding of rural settings as an anthropologist.

Leeds eventually attended Columbia University in New York City and received a B. A. in Anthropology in 1949. He then went directly into the graduate program at Columbia, where his fellow anthropology colleagues included Marvin Harris and Andrew P. Vayda. Some of his favorite professors and later influences were Alfred L. Kroeber, William Duncan Strong, and Karl Polyani. His dissertation was a study of the politics behind cocoa production in the Bahia region of Brazil. Conducted in 1951-1952, Leeds' investigation was one of four in Bahia supervised by Charles Wagley and Brazilian anthropologist Thales de Azevedo. This study led to his dissertation, "Economic Cycles in Brazil: The Persistence of a Total-Cultural Pattern: Cacao and Other Cases," in which Leeds analyzed the topic from a Marxist viewpoint.

After receiving his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1957, Leeds embarked on his primary career as a university professor. For the next 32 years, Leeds taught at a variety of institutions--first at Hofstra University and City College in New York City, then the University of Texas, and later at Boston University. In between, Leeds found the time to spend two years (1961-63) as the chief of the Program of Urban Development at the Pan-American Union (PAU) in Washington, D.C. He also spent a year (1972-73) at the Latin American centers in England associated with Oxford University and the University of London.

It was during his university years that Leeds focused on urban studies and urban analysis. Though he did conduct a brief study of the Yaruro peoples of Venezuela in 1958, the majority of his field work thereafter concerned urban development and its effects on society as a whole. Leeds made several field trips to Brazil and other areas of South America while working at the University of Texas; he specifically traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Lima, and Santiago de Chile to study the cultural and political cultures of squatter settlements. From 1965 to 1966, Leeds received funding from the Social Science Research Council and the Ford Foundation to conduct a study of twelve specific favelas (squatter settlements) in Rio de Janeiro. For this fieldwork, Leeds organized Peace Corps volunteers, local community workers, academics (both foreign and Brazilian), and favela residents to help collect and analyze the data. It was during this trip that Leeds met Elizabeth Plotkin, a Peace Corps community action worker, who would later become Leeds' second wife and one of his most important collaborators. Together they wrote a book in Portuguese titled A Sociologia do Brasil Urbano (1978), based on their favela research.

In the 1970's Leeds and Plotkin made seven different trips to Portugal to follow different lines of research regarding the area. Leeds specifically researched the labor migration movements from the rural areas to the cities. He later wrote a book on his studies titled Minha Terra, Portugal: Lamentations and Celebrations (The Growth of an Ethnography and a Commitment), though it would go unpublished.

In his later years, Leeds not only took a more active role in various anthropological organizations (specifically those concerning the study of urban development), but he also became an active mentor to many students at Boston University. Leeds supported a variety of graduate student research in anthropology at Boston, as well as student research from other neighboring New England universities. In addition, Leeds began a "Thursday Night Group" that regularly met at his home in Dedham, Massachusetts to discuss a variety of anthropological subjects.

On February 20th, 1989, Leeds died of a heart attack in his Randolph, Vermont farmhouse.

Sources Consulted

Sieber, Timothy R. "The Life of Anthony Leeds: Unity in Diversity." In Cities, Classes, and Social Order, by Anthony Leeds, edited Roger Sanjek, 3-26. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Chronology

1925 -- Born January 26 in New York, New York

1949 -- Earns B.A. in Anthropology from Columbia University

1951-52 -- Conducts disseration field work in the Cacao region of Bahia, Brazil, where he studies the political economy of cocoa production

1956-61 -- Teaches at Hofstra University and later City College, both in New York City

1957 -- Completes dissertation, titled "Economic Cycles in Brazil: The Persistence of a Total-Cultural Pattern: Cacao and Other Cases"

1958 -- Conducts brief field work studying the Yaruro people in Venezuela

1961-63 -- Head of the Program of Urban Development at the Pan-American Union (PAU) in Washington, D.C.

1963-72 -- Professor at the University of Texas-Austin

1965-66 -- Organizes Peace Corps volunteers, Brazilian and foreign academics, and local residents to conduct an intense study of twelve favelas (Brazilian squatter settlements) in Rio de Janeiro

1972-73 -- Spends a transitional year teaching at the Latin American centers at Oxford University and the University of London

1973-89 -- Professor at Boston University

1976-80 -- Takes several field trips to Portugal with his second wife, Elizabeth Plotkin Leeds; there he studies Portuguese labor migrations

1978 -- Sociologia do Brasil Urbano, co-written with Elizabeth Plotkin Leeds, is published

1989 -- Leeds dies of a heart attack on February 20 in Randolph, Vermont at the age of 64

Selected Bibliography

1964 -- Leeds, Anthony. "Brazilian Careers and Social Structure: An Evolutionary Model and Case History." American Anthropologist 66 (1964): 1321-47.

1965 -- Leeds, Anthony and Andrew P. Vayda. Man, Culture, and Animals: The Role of Animals in Human Ecological Adjustment. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1965.

1968 -- Leeds, Anthony. "The Anthropology of Cities: Some Methodological Issues." In Urban Anthropology, Research Perspectives and Strategies, edited by M. Fried, M. Harris, and R. Murphy, 31-47. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1968.

1971 -- Leeds, Anthony. "The Culture of Poverty Concept- Conceptual, Logical, and Empirical Problems, with Perspectives from Brazil and Peru." In The Culture of Poverty, A Critique, edited by E. Leacock, 226-284. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971.

1976 -- Leeds, Anthony and Elizabeth Leeds. "Accounting for Behavioral Differences: Three Political Systems and the Responses of Squatters to them in Brazil, Peru, and Chile." In The City in Comparative Perspective: Cross-National Research and New Directions in Theory, edited by J. Walton and L. H. Masotti, 193-248. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1976.

1978 -- Leeds, Anthony and Elizabeth Leeds. A Sociologia do Brasil Urbano. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editora, 1978.

1979 -- Leeds, Anthony. "Forms of Urban Integration: "Social Urbanization" in Comparative Perspective." Urban Anthropology 8, no. 3/4 (1979): 227-27.

1981 -- Leeds, Anthony. "Low Income Urban Settlement Types, Processes, Structures, Policies." In The Residential Circumstances of the Urban Poor in Developing Countries, edited by United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, 21-61. New York: Praeger, 1981.

1984 -- Leeds, Anthony. "Cities and Countryside in Anthropology." In Cities of the Mind, edited by Lloyd Rodwin and Robert M. Hollister, 291-311. New York: Plenum, 1984.

Related Materials:: Anthony Leeds' correspondence and writings can also be found in the Marvin Harris papers at the National Anthropological Archives.

Provenance:: These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Columbia University's Department of Anthropology.

Restrictions:: Graded materials of Anthony Leeds' students and grant applications that he reviewed are restricted. His photo album is also restricted due to preservation concerns.

Rights:: Contact the respository for terms of use.

Topic:: Urban anthropology Search this; Cacao Search this; Yaruro Indians Search this; Anthropology Search this

Citation:: Anthony Leeds papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Identifier:: NAA.1994-35

See more items in:: Anthony Leeds Papers

Archival Repository:: National Anthropological Archives

EDAN-URL:: ead_collection:sova-naa-1994-35

MS 7235 Vocabularies and notes based on material collected by Horatio Hale from enslaved African-Brazilians

Creator:: Hale, Horatio, 1817-1896 Search this

Names:: United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842) Search this

Extent:: 98 Pages

Type:: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Pages; Articles; Vocabulary

Place:: Africa -- Linguistics

Date:: undated

Scope and Contents:: This manuscript probably represents what Horatio Hale originally intended to publish on southern Africa in his Philology and Ethnology that is one of the volumes of the report of the United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes Expedition). It includes several vocabularies, comparative vocabularies, and notes on the location and appearance (especially the cicatrization and other body decoration) of African tribes.

Local Numbers:: NAA ACC 76-120 (part)

SI LIB MS 68 (part)

NAA MS 7235

Local Note:: The manuscript appears to be in Hale's hand. In it, Hale describes how and why he collected material from African slaves in Rio de Janeiro.; Autograph manuscript

Topic:: Body decoration -- Africa Search this; Makonde language Search this; Ndau language Search this; Kongo language Search this; Makhuwa language Search this; Language and languages -- Documentation Search this