These papers reflect the professional and personal life of Frederica de Laguna. The collection contains correspondence, field notes, writings, newspaper clippings, writings by others, subject files, sound recordings, photographs, and maps. A significant portion of the collection consists of de Laguna's correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, and students, as well as her informants from the field. Her correspondence covers a wide range of subjects such as family, health, preparations for field work, her publications and projects, the Northwest Coast, her opinions on the state of anthropology, and politics. The field notes in the collection mainly represent de Laguna and her assistants' work in the Northern Tlingit region of Alaska from 1949 to 1954. In addition, the collection contains materials related to her work in the St. Lawrence River Valley in Ontario in 1947 and Catherine McClellan's field journal for her research in Aishihik, Yukon Territory in 1968. Most of the audio reels in the collection are field recordings made by de Laguna, McClellan, and Marie-Françoise Guédon of vocabulary and songs and speeches at potlatches and other ceremonies from 1952 to 1969. Tlingit and several Athabaskan languages including Atna, Tutchone, Upper Tanana, and Tanacross are represented in the recordings. Also in the collection are copies of John R. Swanton's Tlingit recordings and Hiroko Hara Sue's recordings among the Hare Indians. Additional materials related to de Laguna's research on the Northwest Coast include her notes on clans and tribes in Series VI: Subject Files and her notes on Tlingit vocabulary and Yakutat names specimens in Series X: Card Files. Drafts and notes for Voyage to Greenland, Travels Among the Dena, and The Tlingit Indians can be found in the collection as well as her drawings for her dissertation and materials related to her work for the Handbook of North American Indians and other publications. There is little material related to Under Mount Saint Elias except for correspondence, photocopies and negatives of plates, and grant applications for the monograph. Of special interest among de Laguna's writings is a photocopy of her historical fiction novel, The Thousand March. Other materials of special interest are copies of her talks, including her AAA presidential address, and the dissertation of Regna Darnell, a former student of de Laguna's. In addition, materials on the history of anthropology are in the collection, most of which can found with her teaching materials. Although the bulk of the collection documents de Laguna's professional years, the collection also contains newspaper articles and letters regarding her exceptional performance as a student at Bryn Mawr College and her undergraduate and graduate report cards. Only a few photographs of de Laguna can be found in the collection along with photographs of her 1929 and 1979 trips to Greenland.
Scope and Contents:
These papers reflect the professional and personal life of Frederica de Laguna. The collection contains correspondence, field notes, writings, newspaper clippings, writings by others, subject files, sound recordings, photographs, and maps.
A significant portion of the collection consists of de Laguna's correspondence with family, friends, colleagues, and students, as well as her informants from the field. Her correspondence covers a wide range of subjects such as family, health, preparations for field work, her publications and projects, the Northwest Coast, her opinions on the state of anthropology, and politics. Among her notable correspondents are Kaj Birket-Smith, J. Desmond Clark, Henry Collins, George Foster, Viola Garfield, Marie-Françoise Guédon, Diamond Jenness, Michael Krauss, Therkel Mathiassen, Catharine McClellan, and Wallace Olson. She also corresponded with several eminent anthropologists including Franz Boas, William Fitzhugh, J. Louis Giddings, Emil Haury, June Helm, Melville Herskovitz, Alfred Kroeber, Helge Larsen, Alan Lomax, Margaret Mead, Froelich Rainey, Leslie Spier, Ruth Underhill, James VanStone, Annette Weiner, and Leslie White.
The field notes in the collection mainly represent de Laguna and her assistants' work in the Northern Tlingit region of Alaska from 1949 to 1954. In addition, the collection contains materials related to her work in the St. Lawrence River Valley in Ontario in 1947 and Catharine McClellan's field journal for her research in Aishihik, Yukon Territory in 1968. Most of the audio reels in the collection are field recordings made by de Laguna, McClellan, and Marie-Françoise Guédon of vocabulary and songs and speeches at potlatches and other ceremonies from 1952 to 1969. Tlingit and several Athapaskan languages including Atna, Tutochone, Upper Tanana, and Tanacross are represented in the recordings. Also in the collection are copies of John R. Swanton's Tlingit recordings and Hiroko Hara's recordings among the Hare Indians. Additional materials related to de Laguna's research on the Northwest Coast include her notes on clans and tribes in Series VI: Subject Files and her notes on Tlingit vocabulary and Yakutat names specimens in Series 10: Card Files.
Drafts and notes for Voyage to Greenland, Travels Among the Dena, and The Tlingit Indians can be found in the collection as well as her drawings for her dissertation and materials related to her work for the Handbook of North American Indians and other publications. There is little material related to Under Mount Saint Elias except for correspondence, photocopies and negatives of plates, and grant applications for the monograph. Of special interest among de Laguna's writings is a photocopy of her historical fiction novel, The Thousand March.
Other materials of special interest are copies of her talks, including her AAA presidential address, and the dissertation of Regna Darnell, a former student of de Laguna's. In addition, materials on the history of anthropology are in the collection, most of which can found with her teaching materials. The collection also contains copies of photographs from the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899. Although the bulk of the collection documents de Laguna's professional years, the collection also contains newspaper articles and letters regarding her exceptional performance as a student at Bryn Mawr College and her undergraduate and graduate report cards. Only a few photographs of de Laguna can be found in the collection along with photographs of her 1929 and 1979 trips to Greenland.
Frederica Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna was a pioneering archaeologist and ethnographer of northwestern North America. Known as Freddy by her friends, she was one of the last students of Franz Boas. She served as first vice-president of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) from 1949 to 1950 and as president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) from 1966-1967. She also founded the anthropology department at Bryn Mawr College where she taught from 1938 to 1972. In 1975, she and Margaret Mead, a former classmate, were the first women to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Born on October 3, 1906 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, de Laguna was the daughter of Theodore Lopez de Leo de Laguna and Grace Mead Andrus, both philosophy professors at Bryn Mawr College. Often sick as a child, de Laguna was home-schooled by her parents until she was 9. She excelled as a student at Bryn Mawr College, graduating summa cum laude with a degree in politics and economics in 1927. She was awarded the college's prestigious European fellowship, which upon the suggestion of her parents, she deferred for a year to study anthropology at Columbia University under Boas. Her parents had recently attended a lecture given by Boas and felt that anthropology would unite her interests in the social sciences and her love for the outdoors.
After a year studying at Columbia with Boas, Gladys Reichard, and Ruth Benedict, de Laguna was still uncertain whether anthropology was the field for her. Nevertheless, she followed Boas's advice to spend her year abroad studying the connection between Eskimo and Paleolithic art, which would later became the topic of her dissertation. In the summer of 1928, she gained fieldwork experience under George Grant MacCurdy visiting prehistoric sites in England, France, and Spain. In Paris, she attended lectures on prehistoric art by Abbe Breuil and received guidance from Paul Rivet and Marcelin Boule. Engaged to an Englishman she had met at Columbia University, de Laguna decided to also enroll at the London School of Economics in case she needed to earn her degree there. She took a seminar with Bronislaw Malinowski, an experience she found unpleasant and disappointing.
It was de Laguna's visit to the National Museum in Copenhagen to examine the archaeological collections from Central Eskimo that became the turning point in her life. During her visit, she met Therkel Mathiassen who invited her to be his assistant on what would be the first scientific archaeological excavation in Greenland. She sailed off with him in June 1929, intending to return early in August. Instead, she decided to stay until October to finish the excavation with Mathiassen, now convinced that her future lay in anthropology. When she returned from Greenland she broke off her engagement with her fiancé, deciding that she would not able to both fully pursue a career in anthropology and be the sort of wife she felt he deserved. Her experiences in Greenland became the subject of her 1977 memoir, Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology.
The following year, Kaj Birket-Smith, whom de Laguna had also met in Copenhagen, agreed to let her accompany him as his research assistant on his summer expedition to Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. When Birket-Smith fell ill and was unable to go, de Laguna was determined to continue on with the trip. She convinced the University of Pennsylvania Museum to fund her trip to Alaska to survey potential excavation sites and took as her assistant her 20 year old brother, Wallace, who became a geologist. A close family, de Laguna's brother and mother would later accompany her on other research trips.
In 1931, the University of Pennsylvania Museum hired de Laguna to catalogue Eskimo collections. They again financed her work in Cook Inlet that year as well as the following year. In 1933, she earned her PhD from Columbia and led an archaeological and ethnological expedition of the Prince William Sound with Birket-Smith. They coauthored "The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska," published in 1938. In 1935, de Laguna led an archaeological and geological reconnaissance of middle and lower Yukon Valley, traveling down the Tanana River. Several decades later, the 1935 trip contributed to two of her books: Travels Among the Dena, published in 1994, and Tales From the Dena, published in 1997.
In 1935 and 1936, de Laguna worked briefly as an Associate Soil Conservationist, surveying economic and social conditions on the Pima Indian Reservation in Arizona. She later returned to Arizona during the summers to conduct research and in 1941, led a summer archaeological field school under the sponsorship of Bryn Mawr College and the Museum of Northern Arizona.
By this time, de Laguna had already published several academic articles and was also the author of three fiction books. Published in 1930, The Thousand March: Adventures of an American Boy with the Garibaldi was her historical fiction book for juveniles. She also wrote two detective novels: The Arrow Points to Murder (1937) and Fog on the Mountain (1938). The Arrow Points to Murder is set in a museum based on her experiences at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the American Museum of National History. Fog on the Mountain is set in Cook Inlet and draws upon de Laguna's experiences in Alaska. Both detective novels helped to finance her research.
De Laguna began her long career at Bryn Mawr College in 1938 when she was hired as a lecturer in the sociology department to teach the first ever anthropology course at the college. By 1950, she was chairman of the joint department of Sociology and Anthropology, and in 1967, the chairman of the newly independent Anthropology Department. She was also a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1947-1949; 1972-1976) and at the University of California, Berkeley (1959-1960; 1972-1973.)
During World War II, de Laguna took a leave of absence from Bryn Mawr College to serve in the naval reserve from 1942 to 1945. As a member of WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), she taught naval history and codes and ciphers to women midshipmen at Smith College. She took great pride in her naval service and in her later years joined the local chapter of WAVES National, an organization for former and current members of WAVES.
In 1950, de Laguna returned to Alaska to work in the Northern Tlingit region. Her ethnological and archaeological study of the Tlingit Indians brought her back several more times throughout the 1950s and led to the publication of Under Mount Saint Elias in 1972. Her comprehensive three-volume monograph is still considered the authoritative work on the Yakutat Tlingit. In 1954, de Laguna turned her focus to the Atna Indians of Copper River, returning to the area in 1958, 1960, and 1968.
De Laguna retired from Bryn Mawr College in 1972 under the college's mandatory retirement policy. Although she suffered from many ailments in her later years including macular degeneration, she remained professionally active. Five decades after her first visit to Greenland, de Laguna returned to Upernavik in 1979 to conduct ethnographic investigations. In 1985, she finished editing George Thornton Emmons' unpublished manuscript The Tlingit Indians. A project she had begun in 1955, the book was finally published in 1991. In 1986, she served as a volunteer consultant archaeologist and ethnologist for the U. S. Forest Service in Alaska. In 1994, she took part in "More than Words . . ." Laura Bliss Spann's documentary on the last Eyak speaker, Maggie Smith Jones. By 2001, de Laguna was legally blind. Nevertheless, she continued working on several projects and established the Frederica de Laguna Northern Books Press to reprint out-of-print literature and publish new scholarly works on Arctic cultures.
Over her lifetime, de Laguna received several honors including her election into the National Academy Sciences in 1976, the Distinguished Service Award from AAA in 1986, and the Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. De Laguna's work, however, was respected by not only her colleagues but also by the people she studied. In 1996, the people of Yakutat honored de Laguna with a potlatch. Her return to Yakutat was filmed by Laura Bliss Spann in her documentary Reunion at Mt St. Elias: The Return of Frederica de Laguna to Yakutat.
At the age of 98, Frederica de Laguna passed away on October 6, 2004.
Sources Consulted
Darnell, Regna. "Frederica de Laguna (1906-2004)." American Anthropologist 107.3 (2005): 554-556.
de Laguna, Frederica. Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology. New York: W.W. Norton Co, 1977.
McClellan, Catharine. "Frederica de Laguna and the Pleasures of Anthropology." American Ethnologist 16.4 (1989): 766-785.
Olson, Wallace M. "Obituary: Frederica de Laguna (1906-2004)." Arctic 58.1 (2005): 89-90.
Related Materials:
Although this collection contains a great deal of correspondence associated with her service as president of AAA, most of her presidential records can be found in American Anthropological Association Records 1917-1972. Also at the National Anthropological Archives are her transcripts of songs sung by Yakutat Tlingit recorded in 1952 and 1954 located in MS 7056 and her notes and drawings of Dorset culture materials in the National Museum of Canada located in MS 7265. The Human Studies Film Archive has a video oral history of de Laguna conducted by Norman Markel (SC-89.10.4).
Related collections can also be found in other repositories. The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania holds materials related to work that de Laguna carried out for the museum from the 1930s to the 1960s. Materials relating to her fieldwork in Angoon and Yakutat can be found in the Rasmuson Library of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in the papers of Francis A. Riddell, a field assistant to de Laguna in the early 1950s. Original photographs taken in the field in Alaska were deposited in the Alaska State Library, Juneau. Both the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress and the American Philosophical Library have copies of her field recordings and notes. The American Museum of Natural History has materials related to her work editing George T. Emmons' manuscript. De Laguna's papers can also be found at the Bryn Mawr College Archives.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Frederica de Laguna.
Restrictions:
Some of the original field notes are restricted due to Frederica de Laguna's request to protect the privacy of those accused of witchcraft. The originals are restricted until 2030. Photocopies may be made with the names of the accused redacted.
Rights:
Contact repository for terms of use.
Topic:
Language and languages -- Documentation Search this
Indian Personality, Education and Administration Research Project Search this
Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N.S.). Institute of Human Values Search this
United States. Office of Indian Affairs Search this
Extent:
73 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Fiji
Iceland
Guam
Germany
Date:
1834-1964
Summary:
The records of the American Ethnological Society (AES) document its activities from its founding in 1842 through the mid-1960s. The American Ethnological Society is the oldest anthropological association in America. It has been interested in publishing and promoting study of different cultures in the Americas from its founding in 1842 to the present. Materials include correspondence, reports, and financial records relating to the administrative functions of the organization.
Scope and Contents:
The records of the American Ethnological Society (AES) document its activities from its founding in 1842 through the mid-1960s.
The early years of the AES (1840s to 1880) are documented through correspondence, newspaper clippings, and proceedings. The bulk of the collection relates to the administrative functions of the AES from its reorganization in 1906 through 1965 including changes to the constitution and the elections of officers. The offices of Secretary-Treasurer and Editor are well documented through correspondence and reports. There is also a significant amount of correspondence to and from members, financial records, and information on the AES‟ interactions with other organizations such as the American Anthropological Association and the New York Academy of Sciences.
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:
The material is arranged in the following series: (1) Early records, 1834-1886; (2) AES Meetings, 1910-1964; (3) Reports of the officers, 1925-1964; (4) Election records: Officer lists, constitutions, and amendments, 1917-1959; (5) Office correspondence, 1924-1956; (6) Membership records, 1862-1960; (6) Publication records, 1934-1962; (7) Financial records, 1902-1962; (8) Miscellany, 1860-1957.
Historical Note:
The American Ethnological Society is the oldest anthropological association in America. It has been interested in publishing and promoting study of different cultures in the Americas from its founding in 1842 to the present.
The American Ethnological Society was founded in 1842 by Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and founder of New York University. Early members were doctors, lawyers, businessmen and included Henry Schoolcraft, William Prescott and Theodore Dwight. Meetings were usually held at the home of the President and accounts of missionaries and explorers, who were "corresponding" members, were read. Local papers frequently covered these meetings. The Society published three periodicals in its early years including Transactions which first appeared in 1845. Interest in the Society declined after the Civil War. In 1906 a group of professional anthropologists led by Franz Boas joined the Society and reorganized it, adding the Office of Editor. Since then, the Society has been very active and has had a strong publications program, beginning with a linguistic series begun by Franz Boas. The Society holds annual meetings, usually in the spring at which prominent anthropologists present their findings. In addition to Franz Boas, the Society has included among its members such famous anthropologists as Ruth Benedict, E. Adamson Hoebel, Margaret Mead and Ward Goodenough.
Provenance:
The treasurer's records dating from 1916 to 1924 were transferred to the archives by the American Museum of Natural History. All other records came to the archives from the American Ethnological Society.
Restrictions:
The American Ethnological Society records are open for research.
Access to the American Ethnological Society records requires an appointment. Advance notice must be given to view materials stored off-site.
Correspondence of the officers of the Society – files are more complete for some years than
others. The bulk of the material relates to the office of Secretary-Treasurer and concerns issues
such as publications and membership.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically.
Collection Restrictions:
The American Ethnological Society records are open for research.
Access to the American Ethnological Society records requires an appointment. Advance notice must be given to view materials stored off-site.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
American Ethnological Society records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Financial records and statements from various years. Majority of the records are from the years 1950 – 1960. Records include bank statements, checkbooks, cancelled checks, mortgage held on property in Ogden, Utah and records of AT&T stock held by the Society.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically.
Collection Restrictions:
The American Ethnological Society records are open for research.
Access to the American Ethnological Society records requires an appointment. Advance notice must be given to view materials stored off-site.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
American Ethnological Society records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Miscellaneous reports of the Society including correspondence with and publications of other
associations such as the American Anthropological Association and the New York Academy of
Sciences.
Collection Restrictions:
The American Ethnological Society records are open for research.
Access to the American Ethnological Society records requires an appointment. Advance notice must be given to view materials stored off-site.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
American Ethnological Society records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Correspondence and voting records pertaining to constitutions and amendments to the
constitution (1917, 1952, 1959). Election materials including ballots, lists and correspondence on
nominations.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically.
Collection Restrictions:
The American Ethnological Society records are open for research.
Access to the American Ethnological Society records requires an appointment. Advance notice must be given to view materials stored off-site.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
American Ethnological Society records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Mintz, Sidney W. (Sidney Wilfred), 1922-2015 Search this
Creator:
Murra, John V. (John Victor), 1916-2006 Search this
Extent:
42.5 Linear feet ((88 boxes and 1 map case folder) )
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Diaries
Correspondence
Notes
Date:
1927-1998
Summary:
The Papers of John Victor Murra document his personal and professional life through audiovisual materials, correspondence, diaries, graduate school notes, lectures, photocopies of archival materials, photographs, published materials collected by Murra, reading and research notes and his own writings. The materials span more than 70 years. The collection includes materials relating to Murra's immigration to the United States and later lawsuit for naturalization, his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Chicago, his experiences in the Spanish Civil War and in Ecuador during the Second World War as Don Collier's assistant, his teaching career at a number of colleges and universities in the United States and abroad including the University of Puerto Rico, Vassar College, Yale University, and Cornell University, and his research interests such as the fieldwork projects he directed at Hunuco and Lake Titicaca. The bulk of his correspondence may be found in Series I - Correspondence which mostly consists of his communications with former classmates from the University of Chicago, colleagues in the United States and abroad, and former students. Series IV - Biographical and Series VII - Graduate School and Teaching contain a significant amount of material pertaining to Murra's studies at the University of Chicago and his lawsuit for naturalization. Correspondence and newspaper editorials from F. C. Cole and Robert Redfield as well as oral history transcripts of Murra's personal reminiscences are among the items found in these series. For many years, Murra also kept personal diaries, originally intended as records of his dreams, which form Series III - Dream Archives. Although this collection is primarily textual in nature, there are also a photograph and an audio-visual series. The later includes recordings of Murra's Lewis Henry Morgan lectures. The occasional photograph also appears throughout other series.
Scope and Contents:
The Papers of John Victor Murra document his personal and professional life through audiovisual materials, correspondence, diaries, graduate school notes, lectures, photocopies of archival materials, photographs, published materials collected by Murra, reading and research notes and his own writings. The materials span more than 70 years.
The collection includes materials relating to Murra's immigration to the United States and later lawsuit for naturalization, his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Chicago, his experiences in the Spanish Civil War and in Ecuador during the Second World War as Don Collier's assistant, his teaching career at a number of colleges and universities in the United States and abroad including the University of Puerto Rico, Vassar College, Yale University, and Cornell University, and his research interests such as the fieldwork projects he directed at Huánuco and Lake Titicaca.
Murra is a polyglot and a prolific correspondent, two elements which are reflected throughout the collection. English, French, Spanish and Romanian are the predominant languages used in his correspondence, but there are also letters in German, Italian and Russian. The bulk of his correspondence may be found in Series I --Correspondence which mostly consists of his communications with former classmates from the University of Chicago, colleagues in the United States and abroad, and former students. Series IV --Biographical and Series VII --Graduate School and Teaching contain a significant amount of material pertaining to Murra's studies at the University of Chicago and his lawsuit for naturalization. Correspondence and newspaper editorials from F. C. Cole and Robert Redfield as well as oral history transcripts of Murra's personal reminiscences are among the items found in these series. For many years, Murra also kept personal diaries, originally intended as records of his dreams, which form Series III --Dream Archives. Although this collection is primarily textual in nature, there are also a photograph and an audio-visual series. The later includes recordings of Murra's Lewis Henry Morgan lectures. The occasional photograph also appears throughout other series.
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:
Arranged in 12 series and 1 accretion: (I) Correspondence (1927-1998, 2004) [Bulk 1950-1990], (II) Chronological Correspondence (1953-1991), (III) Dream Archives [Diaries] (1951-1996) [Bulk: 1951-1983], (IV) Biographical (1937-1995), (V) Subject and Publications (1922-1996), (VI) Archival Documents, (VII) Graduate School and Teaching (1936-1992) [Bulk: 1936-1982], (VIII) J. V. M. Publications (1959-1993), (IX) Photographs (1937-1988), (X) Audio Visual Materials (1964-1998), (XI) Maps, (XII) Artwork, Accretions.
Biographical Note:
John Victor Murra was born Isak Lipschitz on August 24, 1916 in Odessa, Ukraine. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Bucharest, Romania where he passed his baccalaureate examinations in 1933. Following high school, he worked as an apprentice in paper factories in Romania and Croatia.
In December 1934, Murra immigrated to Chicago, Illinois, where his uncle lived, to escape the worsening political turmoil in Romania. Shortly after his arrival in the United States, Murra enrolled at the University of Chicago where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in sociology in 1936. He then enlisted in the International Brigade and served as an infantry corporal in the 58th battalion, 15th brigade in the Spanish Republican Army. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, he spent almost six months (February-June 1939) in refugee internment camps, most notably the camp at Argèles-sur-Mer, France. In 1939, Murra returned to Chicago to continue his studies and it was about this time that he started to use the name Murra in official documents. He completed his Master of Arts degree in Anthropology at the University of Chicago in 1942.
The war injuries sustained by Murra during the Spanish Civil War exempted him from military service during the Second World War. Between 1941 and 1942, Murra traveled to Ecuador as the assistant to Donald Collier, Conservator at the Field Museum of Chicago, on an archaeological project sponsored by the Institute of Andean Research. His work with Collier ultimately led him to contribute to the Handbook of South American Indians. Between 1942 and 1943, he worked as an interviewer for John Dollard and Ruth Benedict in their work for the United States Department of War to survey Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans. In 1943, Murra was appointed Instructor in Anthropology at the University of Chicago to fill in for Fred Eggan, who entered military service. In addition to instructing at the University of Chicago during the mid-1940s, Murra also served as editor on the topic of anthropology for the Encyclopedia Britannica (1945-1946).
The decade or so following the Second World War was often extremely frustrating for Murra as he pursued his quest for American citizenship. In 1946, the U.S. government denied his applications for naturalization and travel papers on the grounds that he had served in the Spanish Republican Army. Consequently, Murra was unable to accept a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council that would have funded his travel to Ecuador to pursue his doctoral research. Although he finally won his lawsuit for citizenship in 1950, Murra did not receive a passport until 1956 and was ultimately forced to change thesis topics in order to continue his doctoral studies without field work. To support himself during this difficult period, Murra taught at several American institutions—most notably at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras (1947-1950) and Vassar College (1950-1961), and supervised a number of field work programs in the Caribbean for Columbia University, Vassar College, Yale University and the University of Montreal. He also served briefly as a regional specialist on African land tenure for the United Nations.
In 1955, Murra defended his Ph.D. dissertation, The Economic Organization of the Inca State and he was awarded a Ph.D. in Anthropology the following year from the University of Chicago. Shortly thereafter he took a sabbatical from Vassar College to teach in Peru (1958-1960) at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima and pursue research at the archives of Cuzco.
In the 1960s, Murra turned his attention towards pursuing research interests and cultivating the anthropological training of South American graduate students. He left Vassar College in 1961 and spent time teaching as a visiting professor, first for the Organization of American States at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología y Historia, Mexico (1961) and then at Yale University (1962). Murra received in 1963 a three-year National Science Foundation grant for his well known study of Huánuco, Peru. During his fieldwork for this project, he continued to teach at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru (1965-1966) and the Universidad de Chile (1965). He also worked to improve the educational opportunities for South American students by supporting efforts to establish a graduate school at the Universidad de La Plata. Upon returning to the United States, Murra was a National Academy of Sciences postdoctoral associate at the Smithsonian Institution (1966-1967).
From 1968 to 1982, Murra served as Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University. He continued to travel extensively to archives in Spain and South America during this period and held a number of academic posts at other institutions including Yale University (1970-1971), the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University (1974-1975), l'Université Paris X Nanterre (1975-1976), the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico (1977) and John Hopkins University (1981). He also served as the president of the American Society of Ethnohistory (1970-1971), the American Ethnological Society (1972-1973), and the Institute of Andean Research (1977-1983). Murra's efforts to cultivate educational opportunities for South American graduate students and promote international dialogue among students from different nationalities produced three well known programs: the comparative seminar on the Andes and Mesoamerica that he organized with Angel Palerm (1972), the Lake Titicaca field project he ran with Luis G. Lumbrebas (1973) and the Otoño Andino held at Cornell University (1977). In 1969, he received the honor of being the Lewis Henry Morgan Lecturer at the University of Rochester.
Following his retirement from Cornell University (1982), Murra served as a consultant to the Banco Nacional de Bolivia at the Museo Nacional de Etnografía, La Paz (1982-1983). He received a Guggenheim Fellowship (1983-1984), that enabled him to pursue research at the Archivo Nacional and the Academia de la Historia in Madrid and the Archivo General de Indias in Seville. During his time in Spain, he also taught at the Universities of Madrid and Seville and at the Institut Catalá d'Antropologi in Barcelonia (1985-1986). The following year, he was a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun, Peru. He then pursued research at the Instituto de Antropologia de Buenos Aires (1988-1989) and then returned to Spain, where he was a fellow at the Archivo de Indias (1990-1991). In 1993, the Universidad de Barcelona awarded him the honor of Doctor Honoris Causa.
Murra was married and divorced twice; neither marriage produced any children. He first married Virginia Miller in 1936; the date of their divorce is unknown. His second marriage to Elizabeth "Tommy" Sawyer lasted thirteen years (1945-1958).
Bibliography of Selected Publications
1943 -- Survey and Excavations in Southern Ecuador. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 528, Anthropological series volume 35, May 15, 1943. Co-authored with Donald Collier.
1948 -- "The Cayapa and Colorado" in the Handbook of South American Indians. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office
1951 -- Soviet Linguistic Controversy, translated from the Soviet Press. New York: King's Crown Press. Co-authored with Robert M. Hankin and Fred Holling.
1956 -- The Economic Organization of the Inca State. Chicago: University of Chicago.
1962 -- Cloth and its Functions in the Inca State.
1964 -- Visita hecha a la Provincia de Chucuito por Garci Diez de San Miguel en el año 1567. Lima: Casa de la Cultura del Perú. Co-authored with Waldemar Espinoza Soriano and Frey Pedro Gutiérrez Flores.
1966 -- New Data on Retainer and Servile Populations in Tawantinsuyu.
1967 -- Visita de la provincia de León de Huánuco en 1562. Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, visitador. Huánuco, Peru: Universidad Nacional Hermilio Valdizán, Facultad de Letras y Educación. Contains articles by several authors.
1970 -- Current Research and Prospects in Andean Ethnohistory. Ithaca: Cornell University.
1975 -- Formaciones económicas y políticas del mundo andino. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
1976 -- American Anthropology, the Early Years. St. Paul: West Publishing Co. Edited for the American Ethnological Society
1978 -- La organización económica del Estado inca. México: Siglo Veintiuno. Murra's Ph.D. thesis translated from English to Spanish by Daniel R. Wagner.
1980 -- Formazioni economiche e politiche nel mondo andino: saggi di etnostoria. Torino: Giulio Einaudi. Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno Guamán Poma de Ayala (Waman Puma). Co-authored with Rolena Adorno and Jorge L. Urioste. Republished in 1987. The Economic Organization of the Inca State. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
1981 -- The "Vertical Control" of a Maximum of Ecologic Tiers in the Economies of Andean Societies. The Mit'a Obligations of Ethnic groups to the Inka State. Las etnocategorías de un Khipu estatal.
1983 -- Los Olleros del Inka: Hacia una Historia y Arqueología del Qollasuyu. La Paz: Centrol de Investigaciones Históricas.
1986 -- Anthropological History of Andean Polities. New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited with Nathan Wachtel and Jacques Revel. Originally published in French in 1978 as Anthropologie historique des sociétés andines by Editions de la Maison des science de l'homme in Paris.
1987 -- La teoría de la complementariedad vertical eco-simbiótica. La Paz: Hisbol. Co-authored with Ramiro Condarco Morales. Civilizatie inca: organizarea economica a statului incas. Bucharest: Editura Stiintifica si Enciclopedica. Murra's Ph.D. thesis translated from English to Romanian by Murra's sister, Ata Iosifescu.
1991 -- Visita de los valles de Sonqo en los yunka de coca de La Paz (1568-1570). Madrid: Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana: Quinto Centenario: Instituo de Estudios Fiscales.
1996 -- Las cartas de Arguedas. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial. Co-authored with Mercedes López-Baralt.
1999 -- Historia general de América Latina / 1. Las sociedades originales. Madrid: Editorial Trotta. Co-authored with Teresa Rojas Rabiela.
2002 -- El mundo andino: población, medio ambiente y economía. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peuanos: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
2000 -- Nispa ninchis/decimos diciendo : conversaciones con John Murra. Lima: IEP –Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and IAR – Institute of Andean Research. Edited by Victoria Castro, Carlos Aldunate and Jorge Hidalgo Los esfuerzos de Sísifo, coversaciones sobre las ciencias sociales en América Latina. Heredia, Costa Rica: EUNA. A collection of interviews of John Victor Murra and others conducted by Fernando Calderón.
Related Materials:
National Anthropological Archives holds additional materials related to Murra in the American Ethnological Society records, the American Society for Ethnohistory records, and the Handbook of South American Indians records.
The New York University Libraries, Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives holds materials related to Murra in Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive (ALBA), John Dollard Research Files for Fear and Courage under Battle Conditions, and James Lardner Papers.
The Truman Presidential Museum and Library holds Records on the President's Committee on Civil Rights Record Group 220.
\:
In 2008, the VHS videos in the collection were transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives. Additional videotapes were sent to the NAA and transferred to HSFA.
Provenance:
The John Victor Murra papers came to the National Anthropological Archives in several installments over three decades. David Block of Cornell University assisted Murra in selecting and identifying materials for the installment of the collection which arrived at the Smithsonian Institution in September 2003.
Restrictions:
The John Victor Murra papers are open for research. Some materials are restricted for privacy reasons.
Access to the John Victor Murra papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Diaries
Correspondence -- 1927-1998
Notes
Citation:
John Victor Murra papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
