This collection contains the professional papers of Conrad M. Arensberg, anthropologist, university professor, and anthropological consultant. Included are correspondence; published and unpublished writings; research materials, including notes, correspondence, diaries, charts, drafts, interviews, research plans, reports, project proposals, and bibliographic cards; speeches; pamphlets; articles from newspapers and periodicals; course materials, including bibliographies, lecture notes, reading lists, assignments, exams, project proposals, and syllabi; curriculum vitae; date books; scholarly papers and publications of other scholars; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the professional papers of Conrad M. Arensberg, anthropologist, university professor, and anthropological consultant. Included are correspondence; published and unpublished writings; research materials, including notes, correspondence, diaries, charts, drafts, interviews, research plans, reports, project proposals, and bibliographic cards; speeches; pamphlets; articles from newspapers and periodicals; course materials, including bibliographies, lecture notes, reading lists, assignments, exams, project proposals, and syllabi; curriculum vitae; date books; scholarly papers and publications of other scholars; and photographs.
The materials in this collection document Arensberg's career as a university professor, his relationships with colleagues across a spectrum of disciplines, and his contributions to the field of anthropology. As a respected member of the anthropological community, Arensberg received a voluminous amount of correspondence from his peers, who often included copies of their most recent papers. He kept many of these works, which, along with his annotations, can be found throughout the collection. It appears he used these papers in a variety of ways, including as resources for his classes or as reference materials. Arensberg's own work is reflected in his writings and research files. Arensberg's Ireland research, despite its importance to his career and to the field of anthropology as a whole, has a minimal presence in the collection. Located in Series 3. Research Files, the subseries containing Arensberg's Ireland material primarily consists of photocopies of his correspondence, field notes, and diaries during this time. His role as a professor, rather than as a researcher or writer, is the most well-represented in the collection. Arensberg formed lasting relationships with many of his students, as evidenced by his continued correspondence with many of them long after their years at Columbia.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into 8 series:
Series 1) Correspondence, 1933-1994
Series 2) Writings, 1936-1983
Series 3) Research files, 1931-1984
Series 4) Professional activities, 1933-1990
Series 5) Teaching files, 1938-1983
Series 6) Biographical files, 1946-1997
Series 7) Subject files, 1934-1979
Series 8) Photographs, undated
Biographical Note:
Conrad M. Arensberg was born on September 12, 1910 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Academically inclined from a young age, he graduated first in his class at Shadyside Academy in Pittsburgh. His early success earned him admittance to Harvard College. Arensberg studied anthropology and graduated summa cum laude in 1931.
As a graduate student at Harvard University, Arensberg was asked to join a project being conducted in Ireland by Harvard's Anthropology Department. Alongside W. Lloyd Warner and Solon T. Kimball, Arensberg spent three years studying rural Irish life in County Clare. This research resulted in his doctoral dissertation, "A Study in Rural Life in Ireland as Determined by the Functions and Morphology of the Family," which was later published as The Irish Countryman in 1937. His work was groundbreaking in the field of anthropology, and his study of County Clare "became a model for other community studies... requiring that researchers study a target culture from the inside, making meticulous notes on everything they saw, heard or experienced." Arensberg reshaped the way that anthropologists approached fieldwork and opened doors for the study of modern industrial societies.
Arensberg had a long teaching career. He first became a university professor in 1938 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and remained a professor for the rest of his life, teaching at MIT, Brooklyn College, Barnard College, Columbia University, the University of Florida, and the University of Virginia. At Columbia, Arensberg worked alongside such notable anthropologists as Margaret Mead, Charles Wagley, and Marvin Harris.
Arensberg officially retired in 1979, but he continued to collaborate with his colleagues, counsel past students, and participate in professional associations until his death. He passed away on February 10, 1997 in Hazlet, New Jersey.
Curriculum Vitae—Amended Posthumously. Series 6. Biographical Files. Conrad M. Arensberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Thomas, Robert McG. Jr. 1997. "Conrad Arensberg, 86, Dies; Hands-On Anthropologist." New York Times, February 16: 51.
Chronology
1910 September 12 -- Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1931 -- B.A. from Harvard College
1932-1934 -- Traveled to Ireland to study rural life in County Clare as part of the Harvard Irish Mission
1933-1936 -- Junior Fellow, The Society of Fellows, Harvard University
1933-1994 -- Member and Fellow, American Anthropological Association
1934 -- Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University
1937 -- Published The Irish Countryman, the result of his work in Ireland
1938-1940 -- Occasional consultant, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of American Ethnology
1938-1941 -- Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences and Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1940 -- Founded (with others) the Society for Applied Anthropology
1941-1946 -- Associate Professor and Chairman, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Brooklyn College
1943-1946 -- Captain, Major, AUS, Military Intelligence Service
1946-1952 -- Associate Professor of Sociology, Chairman (until 1949) Department of Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University
1951-1952 -- Research Director, UNESCO, Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany
1951-1952 -- Editor, Point Four Manual, American Anthropological Association
1952-1953 -- Associate Professor of Anthropology, The Graduate Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University
1953-1970 -- Professor of Anthropology, Chairman (1956-1959), Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
1962-1978 -- Co-Director (with Alan Lomax) of Columbia University's Cross-Cultural Surveys of Social Structure and Expressive Behavior
1970-1979 -- Buttenwieser Professor of Human Relations, Columbia University
1979-1997 -- Buttenwieser Professor Emeritus of Human Relations, Columbia University
1980 -- President, American Anthropological Association
1991 -- First recipient, "Conrad M. Arensberg Award" of the Society for the Anthropology of Work
1997 February 10 -- Died in Hazlet, New Jersey
Related Materials:
Arensberg is listed as a correspondent in the following collections at the Smithsonian Institution's National Anthropological Archives: John Lawrence Angel papers; Papers of Carleton Stevens Coon; Ethel Cutler Freeman papers; Frederica de Laguna papers; Ruth Landes papers; William Duncan Strong papers.
For oral history interviews with Arensberg, see the following collections:
-The Smithsonian Institution's Human Studies Film Archives "Video Dialogues in Anthropology: Conrad Arensberg and Lambros Comitas, 1989." In this video oral history conducted by anthropologist Lambros Comitas, Arensberg comments on his training in anthropology, the individuals who were influential in his career, and the geographical areas where he conducted his fieldwork.
-The National Anthropological Archives Manuscript (MS) 2009-15. May Mayko Ebihara conducted this oral history interview with Arensberg on March 7, 1984 as part of a larger oral history project with anthropologists.
For more concerning Arensberg's work with interaction theory, see the Frederick L.W. Richardson papers at the National Anthropological Archives. Richardson worked closely with Eliot Chapple and Conrad Arensberg on theories concerning human interaction.
For correspondence and other information related to Arensberg's Ireland research, see:
Solon Toothaker Kimball Papers, Special Collections, Teachers College, Columbia University; and Solon Toothaker Kimball Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Additional materials concerning Arensberg's research and personal life can be found among the papers of his wife, anthropologist Vivian "Kelly" Garrison. See the Vivian E. Garrison papers at the National Anthropological Archives.
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Vivian E. Garrison Arensberg in 2011.
Restrictions:
The Conrad M. Arensberg papers are open for research.
Files containing Arensberg's students' grades have been restricted, as have his students' and colleagues' grant and fellowships applications. For preservation reasons, the computer disk containing digital correspondence files from Joel Halpern is restricted.
Access to the Conrad M. Arensberg papers requires an appointment.
Conrad M. Arensberg papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
The papers of Conrad M. Arensberg were processed with the assistance of a Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program grant awarded to Vivian E. Garrison Arensberg.
The records concern Julian Steward's semiautonomous project attached to the Bureau of American Ethnology to produce a multivolume reference work (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143). The material consists mainly of administrative and reference documents, correspondence, reports, proposals, and manuscripts of writings. Some manuscripts are in a form other than that which was published. The overwhelming bulk of illustrations used in the Handbook has not been located.
Correspondents and authors include Ackerknecht, Erwin H. ; Anelim, John E. ; d'Aloja, Ada ; Altieri, Radames A. ; Aparicio, Francisco de ; Baldus, Herbert ; Barbero, Andres ; Barnett, Homer Garner 1908- ; Beals, Ralph Leon 1901-1985 ; Beers, Howard W. ; Belaieff, Ivan ; Benedict, Ruth, 1887-1948 ; Bennett, Wendell Clark ; Bertoni, Guillermo Tell ; Bird, Junius Bouton ; Buoncristiani, John J. ; Byers, Douglas Swain ; Canals Frau, Salvador ; Casanova, Eduardo ; Chapman, Oscar L. ; Collier, Charles W. ; Cooper, John Montgomery Fr 1881-1949 ; Eggan, Fred Russell ; FarfÃ"an, JosÃ"e M. B. ; Fejos, Paul ; Foster, George McClelland Jr ; Frenguelli, Joaquin ; Gamio, Manuel ; Garcia Valdes, Pedro ; Garro, J. Eugenio ; Gaudia, Enrique de ; Gifford, Edward Winslow ; Gilmore, Raymond M. ; Gillin, John Philip ; Goldman, Irving, 1911-2002 ; Griffin, James Bennett ; Hallowell, Alfred Irving ; Heizer, Robert Fleming 1915-1979 ; Henckel, Karl Otto ; Hernandez de Alba, Gregorio ; Herskovits, Melville J. 1895-1963 (Melville Jean), ; Herzog, George ; Hilger, Marie Inez, Sister 1891-1977 ; Hoijer, Harry ; Horton, Donald ; Hostos, Adolfo de ; Howard, George D. ; Imbelloni, Jose ; Johnson, Frederick, 1904-1994 ; Kirchhoff, Paul ; Kroeber, A. L. 1876-1960 (Alfred Louis), ; Kubler, George ; La Barre, Weston, 1911-1996 ; Larco Hoyle, Rafael ; Lauriault, Edwin H. ; Leap, M. L. ; Lehmann, Henri ; Leighly, John ; Levi-Strauss, Claude ; Lipkind, William 1904-1974 ; Lothrop, S. K. 1892-1965 (Samuel Kirkland), ; Lowie, Robert Harry ; Maes, Ernest E. ; Marques Miranda, Fernando ; Mason, John Alden, 1885-1967 ; McCown, Theodore Doney ; Means, Philip Ainsworth ; Meggers, Betty Jane ; Metraux, Alfred ; Mishkin, Bernard ; Moe, Henry Allen, 1894-1975 ; Murdock, George Peter, 1897-1985 ; Murra, John V. 1916- (John Victor), ; Nimuendaju, Curt ; OºNeale, Lila Morris ; Ortiz, Sergio Elias ; Osgood, Cornelius ; Park, Willard Z. ; Provinse, John H. ; Redfield, Robert ; Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo de ; Richardson, Frederick L.W. ; Rivet, Paul ; Rockefeller, Nelson A. ; Rouse, Irving ; Rowe, John Howland ; Sauer, Carl O. ; Scott, Donald ; Spier, Leslie ; Steedman, Elsie V. ; Steggerda, Morris ; Stewart, T. D. 1901-1997 (Thomas Dale), ; Stirling, Matthew Williams, 1896-1975 ; Stone, Doris ; Stout, David Bond ; Strong, William Duncan, 1899-1962 ; Tello, Julio C. ; Tschopik, Harry S. Jr. ; Vaillant, George Clapp ; Valcercel, Luis E. ; Wagley, Charles, 1913- ; Wheeler-Voegelin, Erminie, 1903-1988 ; White, Leslie Alvin ; Weitzner, Bella ; Collier, Donald ; Collier, John ; Herzog, Ernesto.
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 collection is arranged into 3 series: (1) Administrative and reference file, 1934-1947; (2) correspondence, 1939-1947; (3) manuscripts of writings, early 1940s.
Historical Note:
The Handbook of South American Indians is the product of efforts of the National Research Council Division of Anthropology and Psychology. In 1934, the Smithsonian Institution was urged to sponsor the project which was formally edited by Baron Erland Nordenskiöld until his death. Unsuccessful funding hindered the Smithsonian from going forward with the project until 1940 when the funds from the Department of State's Interdepartmental Committee were finally approved. However, during 1938-1939 the Smithsonian went through with a program.
Julian H. Steward, the director of the Institute for Social Anthropology, was designated the Handbook's editor in 1939. During 1940 through 1941, Robert H. Lowie and Alfred Métraux came to help with the Handbook, along with Gordon R. Willey. The project also attracted the attention and participation of many experts from the United States, Latin America, and Europe.
In 1946, most of the Handbook was completed with the exception of a few parts of the six-volume project.
Restrictions:
The Handbook of South American Indians records are open for research.
Access to the Handbook of South American Indians records requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Manuscripts
Citation:
Handbook of South American Indians records, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
