Correspondence with filmmaker Asen Balikci and the Commission on Visual Anthropology (Montreal, Canada).
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and the digital books.
Access to the Jorge Prelorán collection requires an appointment.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
The Jorge Prelorán films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for film preservation and finding aid provided by the Latino Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Edited video constructed from a video oral history with visual anthropologist Paul Byers.
Interview was conducted by Allison Jablonko, Yanick Geffroy and Martino Nicolet over four days in July 2000.
Edited video focuses on photography, visual research and origins of anthropology. Interview was filmed with two cameras in Paul Byers apartment.
Discussion includes the human impulse to label including the label of visual anthropology; photographers as voyeurs or flaneurs who have the ability to be in and outside as needed; growth of photography's aesthetics and its impact on the use of photography for research; analysis of photography for the study of non-verbal communication; Margaret Mead's innate ability to connect people; Gregory Bateson's question to God; Raymond Birdwhistell's work in kinesics; and attending conferences.
Video also uses some of Byers' photographs to demonstrate points being discussed.
Local Numbers:
HSFA 2008.6.2
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Allison and Marek Jablonko collection, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Paper presented in AAA meeting 1976 Visual Anthropology II: collecting and Presenting Visual Evidence
Collection Creator:
Gibson, Gordon D. (Gordon Davis), 1915-2007 Search this
Container:
Box 117
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1976
Collection Restrictions:
The Gordon Davis Gibson papers are open for research. Access to the computer disks in the collection are restricted due to preservation concerns. The personnel files of Smithsonian staff have also been restricted.
Access to the Gordon Davis Gibson papers requires an appointment.
Collection Citation:
Gordon Davis Gibson papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
File consists of annotated conference program, correspondence with Sol Tax regarding World Anthropology publication project, resolution on visual anthropology, conference papers by Margaret Mead, Roger Sandall, Timothy Asch, E. Richard Sorenson and Allison Jablonko, Gerald Temaner and Gordon Quinn, Paul Hockings, Jean-Dominique Lajoux, J. Mavalawa, Asen Balicki, correspondence from N. Moise Lecourt regarding Mozes' Film Project, flier for Tamu-Tamu by Gian Carlo Menotti.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
File consists of handwritten notes, preliminary program, conference program and abstracts, diagrams of film and video equipment, charts, proposal for the founding of a society for visual anthropology, program of the American Anthropological Association in ethnographic film.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
File consists of correspondence, meeting memoranda, reports, proposals, handwritten notes, draft program and budget FY 1986-1987, holiday card from Herschelle Challenor. Materials relate to: medium-term plan, commission on visual anthropology, U.S. National Commission activities. Correspondents include: John E. Fobes, Elliot Abrams, James McCargar, Allan Jabbour, Ralph Rinzler, James D. Phillips, Asen Balicki, Lacy A. Wright, Jr.
Collection Restrictions:
Large portions of this collection are digitized, and while these materials are being prepared for public access through this finding aid, researchers can request digital copies by contacting the Rinzler Archives at rinzlerarchives@si.edu or (202) 633-7322.
Collection Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
Collection Citation:
Ralph Rinzler papers and audio recordings, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
History of Smithsonian Folklife Oral History Interviews
Extent:
0.5 cu. ft. (2 half document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Audiotapes
Transcripts
Date:
2005-2009
Introduction:
The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives'
record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Program
staff conduct interviews with current and retired Smithsonian staff and others who have made significant contributions to the Institution. There are also reminiscences and
interviews recorded by researchers or students on topics related to the history of the Smithsonian or the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
Smithsonian Institution predoctoral fellow, William S. Walker, of Brandeis University, conducted a series of oral history interviews on the history of folklife presentation
at the
Smithsonian, as part of his dissertation research.
Descriptive Entry:
The History of Folklife at the Smithsonian Oral History Interviews consist of 13.2 hours of analog and digital audio interviews and 369 pages of transcript.
Historical Note:
Folklife studies are carried on in several organizational units of the Smithsonian Institution: the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History
(NMNH), the Festival of American Folklife (FAF), and the National Museum of American History (NMAH), and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Dr. Walker began
his project on the study and exhibition of folklife at the Smithsonian, focusing on the Folklife Festival and then expanded his interview scope to include other Smithsonian
cultural scholars and solicit their views on the FAF and cultural studies, exhibition and public programming at the Smithsonian.
JoAllyn Archambault (1942- ), Director of the American Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History, is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
She earned her doctorate at the University of California in Berkeley in 1984. She was a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukie,
Wisconsin (1983-86), and the Director of Ethnic Studies, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California (1978-83). As curator of Anthropology at the NMNH since
1986, she organized various exhibitions, including Plains Indian Arts: Change and Continuity, 100 Years of Plains Indian Painting, Indian Baskets and Their
Makers, and Seminole Interpretations.
Spencer Crew (1949- ) received the A.B. in history from Brown University in 1972 and holds a master's degree (1973) and a doctorate from Rutgers University (1979). He was
assistant professor of African-American and American History at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, 1978-1981; historian, 1981-1987, curator 1987-1989, Department
of Social and Cultural History, chair, 1989-1991, deputy director, 1991-1992, acting director, 1992-1994, director, 1994-2001 of NMAH. He then served as historical consultant
to the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis, Tennessee, from 1987-1991; consultant to the Civil Rights Institute, in Birmingham, Alabama, 1991-1994; and executive director
and chief executive officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center from 2001-2008; and was appointed Clarence Robinson Professor at George Mason University in
2008. At the Smithsonian, Crew curated several exhibitions, most notably Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940
William W. Fitzhugh (1943- ), an anthropologist, specialized in circumpolar archaeology, ethnology and environmental studies. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College
in 1964. After two years in the U.S. Navy, he attended Harvard University where he received his PhD in anthropology in 1970. He joined the Anthropology Department at NMNH
in 1970. As director of the Arctic Studies Center and Curator in the Department of Anthropology, NMNH, he has spent more than thirty years studying and publishing on arctic
peoples and cultures in northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia. His archaeological and environmental research has focused upon the prehistory and paleoecology of
northeastern North America, and broader aspects of his research feature the evolution of northern maritime adaptations, circumpolar culture contacts, cross-cultural studies
and acculturation processes in the North, especially concerning Native-European contacts. He curated four international exhibitions, Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea
Eskimos; Crossroads of Continents: Native Cultures of Siberia and Alaska; Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People; and Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.
Rayna D. Green (1942- ) curator and Director of the American Indian Program at the NMAH, received the B.A. in 1963 and M.A. in 1966 from Southern Methodist University,
served in the Peace Corps as a history instructor and library director for the Teacher Training School in Harar, Ethiopia, and the Ph. D. in Folklore and American Studies
from Indiana University in 1973. A member of the Cherokee tribe, she administered National Native American Science Resource Center, Dartmouth College, before joining the staff
of the Smithsonian in 1984. She has written extensively of Native American culture and foodways. Her research and exhibit projects include a documentary narrative with Julia
Child, In the Kitchen with Julia, following on her co-curation of the long-running popular exhibition Bon Appétit: Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian.
Thomas W. Kavanagh (1949- ), an anthropologist, received the B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1971, the M.A. from The George Washington University in 1980, and
the Ph.D. from University of New Mexico in 1986. He began his career at Indiana University and then joined the staff of the Smithsonian Institution. A scholar of Comanche
Indians of Oklahoma, he has published extensively on the Comanches and was appointed Consulting Anthropologist for the Comanche Nation. In the 2000s, he served as director
of the Seton Hall University Museum. His publications include Comanche Ethnography (2008), Comanche Political History (1996), North American Indian Portraits:
Photographs from the Wanamaker Expeditions (1996), and "Comanche" in the Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 13 (Plains), Smithsonian Institution (2001).
Roger G. Kennedy (1926-2011) graduated from Yale University in 1949 and the University of Minnesota Law School in 1952, and pursued a diverse career in banking, television
production, historical writing, foundation management, and museum administration. He was appointed Director of the National Museum of History and Technology (NMHT) in 1979,
renamed it the National Museum of American History, and left in 1992 to become Director of the National Park Service. He focused on social and cultural history, and oversaw
controversial exhibits including A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the American Constitution and Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940.
Keith E. Melder (1932- ) studied American history at Williams College (B.A. 1954) and Yale University (M.A. 1957; PhD, 1964). He was an intern at the NMHT in 1958 and returned
in 1961 as Curator of Political History until his retirement in 1996. His research focused on America political movements, especially the Women's Movement and the Civil Rights
era. Melder was also interviewed for two other Smithsonian Institution Archives projects, Record Unit 9603, African American Exhibits at the Smithsonian, and Record Unit 9620,
the American
Association of Museums Centennial Honorees Oral History Project, as well as for the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project of the Capitol Hill Historical Society.
Clydia Dotson Nahwooksy (1933-2009), a Cherokee, and her husband Reaves, a Comanche Nation member, worked most of their lives to preserve American Indian tribal culture.
Originally from Oklahoma, they spent 20 years in Washington, D.C., as cultural activists. In the 1970s, Clydia was director of the Indian Awareness Program for the Smithsonian
Institution's Festival of American Folklife. In 1986 both Nahwooskys entered the seminary, and the Rev. Clydia Nahwooksy was an active pastor and a member of the Board of
National Ministries and the American Baptist Churches USA General Board.
Ethel Raim (1936- ), Artistic Director of New York's Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD), researched ethnic music and worked closely with community-based traditional
for almost five decades. Raim also had a distinguished career as a performer, recording artist, music editor, and singing teacher. In 1963 she co-founded and was musical director
of the Pennywhistlers, who were among the first to bring traditional Balkan and Russian Jewish singing traditions to the folk music world. Raim served as music editor
of Sing Out! magazine from 1965 to 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she developed ethnic programs for the Newport Folklife Festival and the Smithsonian's Festival
of American Folklife. In 1975 Raim joined Martin Koenig as Co-Director of the Balkan Folk Arts Center, which developed into the CTMD in New York City.
Joanna Cohan Scherer (1942- ) received the B.A. from Syracuse University in 1963 and the M.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York in 1968. A specialist in
visual anthropology especially of Native Americans, historical photography, women and photography, North American Indian photography, and cultural anthropology. She joined
the staff of the Anthropology Archives of the National Museum of Natural History in 1966 and in 1975 advanced to served as anthropologist and illustrations editor for the
Smithsonian's multivolume series Handbook of North American Indians.
Robert D. Sullivan (1949- ) was educated at St. John Fisher College with a B.S. in anthropology in 1970, the M.A. in education management from the University of Rochester
in 1979, and pursued the Ph.D. in human studies (ABD) at The George Washington University until 2006. He served as Chief of Museum Education at Rochester Museum and Science
Center from 1970 to 1980, Director at the New York State Museum from 1980 to 1990, and Associate Director for exhibitions at National Museum of Natural History from 1990 to
2007.
Peter Corbett Welsh (1926-2010) was a curator and historian at the Museum of History and Technology, now known as the National Museum of American History. He was born on
August 28, 1926, in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, in 1950 and completed a post-graduate year of study at the University
of Virginia. He received his M.A. from the University of Delaware where he was the first recipient of the Hagley Fellowship in 1956. Welsh served in the United States Army,
1951-1954. Prior to coming to the Smithsonian Institution, he was Research Assistant and Fellowship Coordinator at the Eleutherian-Mills Hagley Foundation, 1956-1959. Welsh
was Associate Curator in the Smithsonian's Department of Civil History, 1959-1969, and served as editor of the Smithsonian's Journal of History in 1968. As Curator he played
a major role in the development of the Growth of the United States hall for the opening of the Museum of History and Technology which depicted American civilization
from the time of discovery through the mid-twentieth century. Welsh was Assistant Director General of Museums, 1969-1970, and assisted with the implementation of the National
Museum Act through seminars on improving exhibit effectiveness. He also served as Director of the Office of Museum Programs, 1970-1971. After Welsh's tenure at the Smithsonian,
he became the Director of both the New York State Historical Association and the Cooperstown Graduate Program, 1971-1974. He then served as Director of Special Projects at
the New York State Museum in Albany, 1975-1976; Director of the Bureau of Museums for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; President of The Welsh Group, 1984-1986;
and Curator (1986-1988) and Senior Historian (1988-1989) of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. In 1989, he became a full-time, independent museum consultant
and lecturer, and was a visiting professor of the State University of New York (SUNY) in 1992. Welsh was a contributor to numerous scholarly journals. He authored Tanning
in the United States to 1850 (1964), American Folk Art: The Art of the People (1967), Track and Road: The American Trotting Horse, 1820-1900 (1968), The
Art of the Enterprise: A Pennsylvania Tradition (1983), and Jacks, Jobbers and Kings: Logging the Adirondacks (1994).
Rights:
Restricted. Contact SIHistory@si.edu to request permission.
Marshall, John, 1932-2005 (ethnographic filmmaker) Search this
Extent:
2 Boxes (map drawers)
3 Video recordings (published videos or video series)
99 Linear feet (714,405 feet (332 hours) 16mm film, 435 hours video tape, 309 hours audio tape, 21 published film and video titles, 29 unpublished film and video titles, 14 linear feet paper records)
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection contains full film and video projects (outtake material), film production elements and edited films and videos, audio tapes, still photographs, negatives, transparencies, slides, published and unpublished writing by John Marshall and others, study guides for edited films, Nyae Nyae Development Foundation and Advocacy files, maps, and production files that include letters, shot logs, translations, transcriptions, editing logs, treatments, and proposals spanning from 1950-2000. This material comprises Marshall's long-term documentary record of the Ju/'hoansi of the Nyae Nyae region of the Kalahari Desert in northeastern Namibia. A great deal of the film and video footage focuses on one particular extended family, that of Toma Tsamko, whose ancestral home is at /Gautcha, an area with a large salt pan and a permanent waterhole. The life stories of some family members are captured in the footage; appearing as children in the 1950's, middle-aged parents in the 1980's, and pensioners in the final years of visual documentation. The Marshall Collection also documents other Ju/'hoansi living in Nyae Nyae and elsewhere, their relationships with neighboring ethnic groups, and national politics that affected Ju/'hoansi. Marshall also documented the local political body (the Nyae Nyae Farmers' Cooperative, or NNFC), the foundation he started (the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia, or NNDFN), and the ways in which both groups worked with and were affected by international development organizations and foreign aid during the 1990's.
Scope and Contents:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection contains full film and
video projects (outtake material), film production elements and edited films and videos,
audio tapes, still photographs, negatives, transparencies, slides, published and
unpublished writing by John Marshall and others, study guides for edited films, Nyae
Nyae Development Foundation and Advocacy files, maps, and production files that
include letters, shot logs, translations, transcriptions, editing logs, treatments, and
proposals spanning from 1950-2000.
This material comprises Marshall's long-term documentary record of the Ju/'hoansi of
the Nyae Nyae region of the Kalahari Desert in northeastern Namibia. A great deal of the
film and video footage focuses on one particular extended family, that of Toma Tsamko,
whose ancestral home is at /Gautcha, an area with a large salt pan and a permanent
waterhole. The life stories of some family members are captured in the footage;
appearing as children in the 1950's, middle-aged parents in the 1980's, and pensioners in
the final years of visual documentation. Beginning in 1978, Marshall often conducted
lengthy and in depth interviews with many family members, in which they reflect on past,
present, and future, and often comment on specific film footage from earlier years which
was shown to them during the interviews. The collection is not limited to the /Gautcha
family, however; it also documents other Ju/'hoansi living in Nyae Nyae and elsewhere,
their relationships with neighboring ethnic groups, and national politics that affected
Ju/'hoansi. Marshall also documented the local political body (the Nyae Nyae Farmers'
Cooperative, or NNFC), the foundation he started (the Nyae Nyae Development
Foundation of Namibia, or NNDFN), and the ways in which both groups worked with
and were affected by international development organizations and foreign aid during the
1990's. The collection also documents changes to the landscape and wildlife of the Nyae
Nyae region.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 13 series: (1) Unedited Film and Video Projects, 1950-1978, 1981-2003; (2) Published Films and Videos, 1952-2002; (3) Unpublished Films and Videos, 1959-1962, circa 1965; (4) Audio, 1950s, 1978-1990; (5) Field Notes, Shot Logs, Translations, 1951-2000; (6) Production Files, 1952-2004; (7) Correspondence, 1968-2003 [bulk 1993-2000]; (8) Nyae Nyae Development Foundation & Advocacy Files, 1975-2003 [bulk 1984-2003]; (9) Published and Unpublished Writing, 1957-1958, 1980-1999, 2007; (10) Study Guides, 1974, 1982; (11) Writings by Others & Press, 1952-1953, 1965-2005; (12) Photographs, 1930s, 1946-2003; (13) Maps, 1872, 1879, 1914, 1933-1989.
Biographical / Historical:
John Marshall, filmmaker and activist, was born on November 12, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and on his family's farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Marshall first picked up a camera in 1950, at the age of 18, during the first of several expeditions to the Kalahari organized by his father, Laurence Marshall, the founding president of the Raytheon Corporation. The whole Marshall family - including John's mother, Lorna, and sister, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas - became engaged in a multi-disciplinary study of the Ju/'hoansi. Marshall's father assigned him the task of making a documentary film record of Ju/'hoan life and culture. Between 1950 and 1958, he shot over 300,000 feet of 16mm film (157 hours).
Marshall formed a close bond with many of his Ju/'hoan subjects, particularly with Toma "Stumpy" Tsamko, leader of the /Gautcha band. Amongst Ju/'hoansi, Marshall was known as Toma Xhosi, Toma "Longface". Probably because of this close relationship, he was forced to leave South West Africa in 1958 after his visa expired, and was not allowed back for twenty years.
During the 1960's and 1970's, Marshall became well-established as a cinema vérité filmmaker. After leaving the Film Study Center at Harvard, which he had co-directed with Robert Gardner, he worked briefly with Robert Drew and D.A. Pennebaker, and later collaborated with Fredrick Wiseman on Titicut Follies (1967). He forged friendships with leading documentary and ethnographic filmmakers, including Timothy Asch, Ricky Leacock, and Jean Rouch.
Throughout these years, Marshall continued to work with his extensive footage of Ju/'hoansi. He completed 15 short films, as well as the award-winning Bitter Melons. In 1968, Marshall partnered with Tim Asch to found Documentary Educational Resources (DER), to distribute and support the creation of ethnographic and educational film.
In 1978 Marshall was allowed to return to Nyae Nyae to shoot N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman. Finding his Ju/'hoan friends beset by illness, poverty, and growing social ills, John turned his attentions to development and advocacy work. Virtually abandoning his filmmaking career, Marshall started a foundation to assist Ju/'hoansi and spent most of the 1980's helping them establish water access, subsistence farming, and a local government. He began using film as an advocacy tool, and released several urgent, issuefocused videos to raise awareness of the Ju/'hoan struggle for self-determination.
Marshall continued his documentary record of Ju/'hoansi, directing his final shoot in 2000. A Kalahari Family (2002), his epic six-hour series, tells the story of the Ju/'hoansi from 1950-2000 and charts Marshall 's evolution from filmmaker to activist. He made his final visit to Nyae Nyae in 2004, and continued his advocacy work right up to his final days. John Marshall died due to complications from lung cancer on April 22, 2005.
John Marshall Chronology
1932 -- Born in Boston, Massachusetts
1950-1958 -- Marshall Family expeditions to study the Ju/'hoansi of Nyae Nyae
1957 -- Awarded B.A. in Anthropology from Harvard University The Hunters released
1958-1960 -- Associate Director (with Robert Gardner) of the Film Study Center, Peabody Museum, Harvard University
1960 -- Awarded G.S.A.S. in Anthropology from Yale University
1960-1963 -- Director, Bushmen Film Unit, Harvard University
1962 -- Sha//ge Curing Ceremony (early version of A Curing Ceremony), A Group of Women and Joking Relationship screened at Flaherty Seminar
1964-1965 -- Cameraman for NBC covering civil war in Cyprus
1966 -- Awarded M.A. in Anthropology from Harvard University
1967 -- Cameraman and Co-Director of Fredrick Wiseman's Titicut Follies
1968 -- Founded Documentary Educational Resources (DER) with Timothy Asch (first known as CDA, Center for Documentary Anthropology)
1968-1969 -- Cameraman and Director of film shoots for the Pittsburgh Police series, produced through the Center for Violence Studies at Brandeis University
1970-1974 -- Edited and released numerous short films, from both Ju/'hoan (!Kung) and Pittsburgh Police series
1972 -- Collaborated with Nicholas England (musicologist) on a film project documenting a family of drummers in Ghana (this film was never completed)
1972-1973 -- Travel to Botswana to film National Geographic's Bushmen of the Kalahari, produced by Wolper Productions
1974 -- If It Fits, documentary on failing shoe industry in Haverhill, MA, released
1976 -- Director and cameraman of film shoots for Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife
1978 -- Film shoot in Nyae Nyae for N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman
1980 -- N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman released and broadcast on PBS as partof the Odyssey series
1980-1982 -- Conducted genealogical survey in Nyae Nyae with Claire Ritchie
1982 -- Founded the Ju/wa Cattle Fund (later known as the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia)
1985 -- Pull Ourselves Up or Die Out, Marshall's first "field report" edited on video, released
1989 -- Returns to Boston after Namibian independence
1991 -- To Hold Our Ground, another "field report" is aired on Namibian television shortly before a national Land Rights Conference
1993 -- The Cinema of John Marshall published
1995 -- Awarded Honorary M.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design
2000 -- Final video shoot in Nyae Nyae
2002 -- A Kalahari Family premieres at the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York City; released for general distribution in 2003
2004 -- Makes final visit to Nyae Nyae; presents proposal for water point protections
2005 -- Dies in Boston, Massachusetts
Orthography Note:
Ju/'hoansi are the speakers of the Ju/'hoan language. Various cultural descriptors used
over the years include !Kung which is a language group containing three dialect groups,
one of which is the Ju/'hoansi; San, which is now regarded by the Ju/'hoansi to have
negative connotations; and Bushman, which ironically (given the derogatory history of
this term) is now preferred by the Ju/'hoansi as a term of dignity. (Orthography
information provided by Dr. Polly Wiessner, University of Utah anthropologist and longtime
field worker among and researcher of the Ju/'hoansi.)
The orthography of the Ju/'hoan language has changed many times, though an official
orthography was agreed upon and accepted by the Namibian government in 1991. The
finding aid, cataloging records, and shot logs for the Marshall collection at Human Studies Film Archives
continue to use the orthography used by the Marshall family beginning in 1950. These
spellings are usually anglicized versions of the official orthography. For example, the
name ≠Oma was usually rendered by the Marshalls as Toma; the place name /Aotcha as
/Gautcha or Gautscha.
The majority of the footage was shot in a region of Namibia (formerly South West
Africa) known as Nyae Nyae. In the 1960's, a portion of the Nyae Nyae area was
officially established as a homeland for Ju/'hoansi by the South West African
administration. This area, once called Eastern Bushmanland, is now known as Eastern
Otjozondjupa, however it is still referred to as Nyae Nyae by Ju/'hoansi and others. The
Nyae Nyae Conservancy, which encompasses a large portion of Eastern Otjozondjupa,
was established in 1996.
Filmography:
JU/'HOAN BUSHMAN FILM SERIES
1952 -- First Film [also known as !Kung Bushmen of the Kalahari] (by Lorna Marshall)
1957 -- The Hunters
1959 -- A Curing Ceremony
1961 -- A Group Of Women
1962 -- A Joking Relationship
1966 -- !Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment (directed by Lorna Marshall)
1969 -- N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen
1969 -- An Argument About A Marriage
1970 -- The Lion Game
1970 -- The Melon Tossing Game
1971 -- Bitter Melons
1972 -- Debe's Tantrum
1972 -- Men Bathing
1972 -- Playing With Scorpions
1972 -- A Rite of Passage
1972 -- The Wasp Nest
1974 -- Baobab Play
1974 -- Children Throw Toy Assegais
1974 -- The Meat Fight
1974 -- Tug-Of-War
1980 -- N!ai, the Story of a !Kung Woman
1985 -- Pull Ourselves Up Or Die Out
1990 -- To Hold Our Ground: A Field Report
1991 -- Peabody Museum !Kung San Exhibit Video
2002 -- A Kalahari Family
In addition to Marshall's many published films on the Ju/'hoansi, he was also involved in a variety of other film projects. He shot and co-directed Titicut Follies, a film by Fredrick Wiseman. Working in association with the Lemburg Center for Violence Studies at Brandeis University, he shot and directed a series of short films about a police squad in Pittsburgh, PA, known as the Pittsburgh Police series. He also shot and directed If It Fits, a film about the failing shoe industry in Haverhill, MA. Marshall was also the subject of two television programs: Bushmen of the Kalahari, a National Geographic special which aired in the United States, and a Japanese program called Forty Years in the Kalahari, part of the television series, Our Wonderful World. All of these, as well as Marshall's Ju/'hoan films, are included in this filmography.
PITTSBURGH POLICE SERIES
1970 -- Inside/Outside Station 9
1971 -- Three Domestics
1971 -- Vagrant Woman
1972 -- 901/904
1972 -- Investigation of a Hit and Run
1973 -- After the Game
1973 -- The 4th, 5th, & Exclusionary Rule
1973 -- A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding
1973 -- Henry Is Drunk
1973 -- The Informant
1973 -- A Legal Discussion of a Hit and Run
1973 -- Manifold Controversy
1973 -- Nothing Hurt But My Pride
1973 -- Two Brothers
1973 -- $21 or 21 Days
1973 -- Wrong Kid
1973 -- You Wasn't Loitering
OTHER FILMS
1967 -- Titicut Follies (Co-Director, Cinematographer; film by Fredrick Wiseman)
1972 -- Ghana Drumming (uncompleted; collaboration with Nicholas England)
1974 -- Bushmen of the Kalahari (by Wolper Productions for National Geographic)
1975 -- Vermont Kids (series of short films; released in 2007)
1976 -- Festival of American Folklife (uncompleted; shot for Smithsonian Institution)
1978 -- If It Fits
1988 -- Our Wonderful World: Forty Years in the Kalahari (by Nippon A-V Productions)
Related Materials:
The Human Studies Film Archives holds several related collections, including:
• The Nicholas England Collection, which consists of audio recordings from 1951-1961. This collection contains both originals and duplicates of audio tapes recorded during the Marshall Expeditions. (2005.9)
• The Journal of Robert Gesteland, kept during the Marshall !Kung Expedition VI, 1957-58. (2007.17)
• Master copies of the full film record of Bushmen of the Kalahari (1974), a television
program featuring John Marshall's 1973 visit to the /Gwi San of Botswana, produced by Wolper Productions for National Geographic. (2008.12)
• Reference copies of the full video record of Our Wonderful World: Forty Years in the
Desert, Nippon A-V's 1988 Japanese television program about John Marshall and the Ju/Wa Bushman Development Foundation. (2009.2.1)
• Master copies of the videotape "library" kept by John Marshall for reference and stock footage purposes. Compiled from various sources, the videos include news programs, documentaries, and raw footage of Ju/'hoansi and other San peoples from the 1920's --1990's, as well as interviews with John Marshall and his mother, Lorna
Marshall. (2009.2)
• Additional audio recordings, including interviews with Ju/'hoansi made by John Marshall and others. (2009.3)
• Full film record of [Ghana Drumming, 1972], an uncompleted project undertaken by John Marshall and Nicholas England, which documents a family of musicians. (2008.11)
The Papers of Timothy Asch, held at the National Anthropological Archives, contain
information on Asch's work with John Marshall at Harvard University from 1959-1963,
their collaboration in founding DER, and details on the use of Marshall's Ju/'hoan
footage in the development of MACOS (Man, A Course of Study).
There are also several closely related collections held at the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. These collections relate to the 1950's
Marshall Expeditions and include: Expeditionary Notebooks and Journals of Lorna and
Laurence Marshall; Journal of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas; the Marshall Family
Photograph Collection; and the Records of the South West Africa Expeditions, 1950-
1959. The Harvard Film Archive, Harvard University, holds film prints of several of
Marshall's published films on the Ju/'hoansi, including The Hunters.
Provenance:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection was received over several years of accessioning from different parties.
Restrictions:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection is open for research. Please contact the Archives for availabilty of access copies of audio visual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Materials relating to Series 6 Production Files are restricted and not available for research until 2048, 2063, 2072. Kinship diagrams in Series 13 are restricted due to privacy concerns. Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and maps.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use. Information on reproduction and fees available from repository.
Marshall, John, 1932-2005 (ethnographic filmmaker) Search this
Container:
Box 1
Type:
Archival materials
Text
Date:
1992
Collection Restrictions:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection is open for research. Please contact the Archives for availabilty of access copies of audio visual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Materials relating to Series 6 Production Files are restricted and not available for research until 2048, 2063, 2072. Kinship diagrams in Series 13 are restricted due to privacy concerns. Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and maps.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use. Information on reproduction and fees available from repository.
Collection Citation:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950-2000, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Finding aid has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
James Faris (1936 – present) is an American cultural anthropologist and epistemologist who received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1966. He conducted fieldwork in the fishing settlement of Cat Harbour, Newfoundland, among the Nuba of Southeastern Kordofan in the Sudan, and among the Navajo in the American Southwest. His research specializations include cognitive anthropology, art and aesthetics, ritual, social organization and reproduction, anthropological linguistics, and visual anthropology and critical theory and representation.
The James Faris Papers, 1960-2014, primarily document his fieldwork with the Nuba peoples of Southeastern Sudan. His papers also include materials related to representation of the Nuba peoples and various controversies in visual anthropology and documentary film that related to Leni Riefenstahl and her filmmaking among the Nuba. During the 1960s Faris was drawn into activism against the Vietnam War while at the University of Connecticut and his papers contain ephemeral materials on radical anthropology and racism from that period. The collection consists of field notes, correspondence, photographs, sound recordings, films (including scripts and transcriptions), videos, book and papers drafts, and news and magazine clippings.
Scope and Contents:
The James Faris papers, 1960-2014, undated, primarily document his field research with the Nuba people in South Sudan. It also includes materials related to Leni Riefenstahl and her work with the Nuba, material regarding racism and activism at the University of Connecticut, and writings and notes. The collection consists of field notes, sound recordings, films, videos, film transcriptions and scripts, correspondence, photographs, book and paper drafts, and clippings.
Faris worked with the Nuba people in Sudan from 1966-1969 and again in the 1970s. His materials document their body art and cultural practices before the Nuba were converted to Islam in the 1980s. Over 800 photographic slides record their agriculture, rituals, dance, and personal art in addition to Faris' extensive field notes.
Arrangement:
The James Faris papers are arranged in 4 series: Series 1. Sudan, 1966-2008, undated; Series 2. Materials pertaining to Leni Riefenstahl, 1971-2008; Series 3. University of Connecticut, 1969-1992, undated; Series 4. Writings, conference files, and other materials, 1960-2014, undated.
Biographical note:
Chronology
1936 November 1 -- Born in Durango, Colorado
1958 -- B.S. in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico
1959-1960 -- Archaeological field research, New Mexico (6 months)
1962-1964, 1972 -- Ethnological field research, Newfoundland (17 months)
1965 -- Lecturer, University of Maryland (overseas)
1966 -- Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge
1966 -- Assistant Professor, McGill University
1966-1969 -- Lecturer, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
1969-1978 -- Associate Professor, University of Connecticut
1978-1979 -- Visiting Professor, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
1978-1995 -- Professor, University of Connecticut
1983-1988 -- Ethnological field research, New Mexico/Arizona (18 months)
1990-1993 -- Ethnological field research, Greater Southwest (8 months)
1995 July 1-Present -- Emeritus Professor, University of Connecticut
James Chester Faris is an ethnographic anthropologist whose research specializations include social anthropology, social organization and production, cognitive studies, aesthetics and art, population, materialist perspectives, anthropological critique, textuality, anthropological linguistics, and photographic analysis and critique. He completed field research in Newfoundland, Sudan, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Greater Southwest.
Faris was trained at Cambridge as an anthropologist and spent the majority of his academic career teaching at the University of Connecticut. He also spent time as a lecturer and visiting professor at the University of Khartoum in Sudan. In this time he conducted his field research on the Southeast Nuba of Southern Kordofan Province.
Faris became an Emeritus Professor at the University of Connecticut in 1995 and currently lives in New Mexico.
Separated Materials:
Film, video, and related sound materials have been transferred to the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA/NAFC), accession number 2017-004, but are described in this finding aid in Series 1.5 (Films and related materials).
Provenance:
These papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives by James Faris in 2016.
Restrictions:
The James Faris papers are open for research.
Access to the James Faris papers requires an appointment.
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic as well as Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art. The Papers of Edmund Carpenter, circa 1938-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Edmund Carpenter, 1940-2011, document the research interests and projects undertaken by Carpenter in the fields of cultural anthropology, ethnographic filmmaking, media theory, archaeology, and indigenous art. Specific research projects and interests documented are: his 1950s fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit in the Canadian Arctic as well as his studies into Inuit concepts of space, time, and geography; his partnership and collaboration with media theorist Marshall McLuhan and his ethnographic studies of Papua New Guinean tribal communities; his early-career archaeological digs at Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) burial mounds in Sugar Run, Pennsylvania, as well as later archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, Siberia, and the Norwegian artifact dubbed the "Norse Penny"; his reflections on the disciplines of anthropology and media studies; his editing and completion of the work of art historian Carl Schuster at the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Ethnology) in Basel, Switzerland; his editing of The Story of Comock the Eskimo, as told to Robert Flaherty; and his museum exhibitions compiled on the topics of surrealist and tribal art. The collection also documents Carpenter's correspondence with fellow scholars, ethnographers, filmmakers, and colleagues; his published writings; and elements of his personal life, such as obituaries and personal photographs.
Materials in this collection include artifact and burial records; correspondence; drawings and illustrations; essays; interviews and oral histories; inventories and catalogues; manuscripts and drafts, and fragments of drafts; maps; memoranda and meeting minutes; notes, notebooks, and data analysis; obituaries and memorials; photographic prints, slides, and negatives, including personal photographs and portraits; proposals and plans for museum exhibits; reports; resumes and bibliographies; reviews; and sound recordings on CD-Rs and audio cassettes. Additional materials include books and book chapters; journal copies and journal excerpts; magazine, newspaper, and article clippings and excerpts; museum and gallery catalogues, brochures, and guides; pamphlets; and reprints. A portion of the material collected here consist of consolidated research into specific topics, gathered from archival repositories, museums, correspondence, and published works. This material consists of research reprints and archival reference photocopies and photographic prints from various repositories.
Items worthy of special mention in this collection include: annotated draft chapters from Marshall McLuhan's seminal work on media theory, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (Series 2); a 1957 letter from e. e. cummings to Carpenter, written in verse (Series 3); an undated thank-you note addressed to "Sadie" from Helen Keller (Series 3); and a transcript of an interview of Carpenter by his former student, Harald Prins (Series 2).
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into the following 6 series:
Series 1. Fieldwork and drafts, 1940-2011 (bulk 1940-1959)
Series 2. Research and project files, 1940-2011
Series 3. Correspondence, circa 1938-2011
Series 4. Publications and lectures, circa 1942-circa 2006
Series 5. Personal, 1942-2011
Series 6. Writings by others, 1960-2009, undated
Biographical Note:
Edmund Snow Carpenter (1922-2011) was an archaeologist and visual anthropologist who worked extensively with the indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic and Papua New Guinea. With his colleague and close collaborator Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), he laid the groundwork for modern media theory. Carpenter is also known for his work as an ethnographic filmmaker and as a collector of Paleo-Eskimo art.
Born in 1922 in Rochester, New York, Edmund (nicknamed "Ted") Carpenter served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950 under Frank Speck for work on Iroquoian prehistoric archaeology. Carpenter began teaching at the University of Toronto in 1948 while simultaneously working as a programmer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In the 1950s, he undertook fieldwork in the Canadian Arctic among the Aivilik (an Inuit Igloolik subgroup). This fieldwork resulted in several publications in the field of cultural anthropology, including Time/Space Concepts of the Aivilik (1955), Anerca (1959), and Eskimo (1959, republished as Eskimo Realities in 1973).
Also in the 1950s, Carpenter began a working relationship with media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Together, they received a Ford Foundation grant (1953-1955) for an interdisciplinary media research project into the impact of mass communications and mass media on culture change. Carpenter and McLuhan's partnership resulted in the Seminar on Culture and Communication (1953-1959) and the journal series Explorations. In 1957, Carpenter was the founding chair in the interdisciplinary program "Anthropology and Art" at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge). There, he collaborated with Bess Lomax Hawes and other colleagues in the production of several ethnographic films, including Georgia Sea Island Singers about Gullah (or Geechee) songs and dances. During this period, Carpenter worked with McLuhan on the latter's seminal book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). The article published as "Fashion is Language" in Harper's Bazaar under McLuhan's name (1968) was actually written by Carpenter. It was later published in book form under Carpenter's name, with the title They Became What They Beheld (1970).
In 1969, Carpenter took a research professorship at the University of Papua and New Guinea sponsored by the government of Australia. Alongside photographer Adelaide De Menil (whom he would later marry), he applied many of the ideas about media literacy and culture change to indigenous communities of Papua New Guinea. These activities led to developments in the field of media ecology, as well as the publication of Carpenter's best-known work, Oh, What a Blow the Phantom Gave Me! (1976).
Carpenter taught intermittently at various universities throughout his career, including Fordham University, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Adelphi University, Harvard University's Center for Visual Anthropology, the New School for Social Research, and New York University. He spent eight years associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland (1973-1981), editing art historian Carl Schuster's research.
In addition to his teaching and research, Carpenter, with his wife Adelaide De Menil, collected tribal art, eventually amassing the largest private collection of Paleo-Eskimo art in the United States. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Carpenter curated various exhibitions on art and visual culture, including the Menil Collection's Witness to a Surrealist Vision and the Musée du Quai Branly's Upside Down (later reconstructed at the Menil Collection). In later years, Carpenter resumed his archaeological interest in Arctic peoples, researching and collaborating on the Zhokhov Island Mesolithic site in the Russian Arctic with Russian scientists from the Institute for the History of Material Culture and archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
Carpenter died on July 1, 2011 at his home in New York.
Grimes, William. "Edmund Carpenter, Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Dies at 88." The New York Times. 2011 July 7. https://www.nytimes.com
Prins, Harald E. L. and John Bishop. "Edmund Carpenter: Explorations in Media and Anthropology." Visual Anthropology Review 17:2 (Fall-Winter 2001-2002): 110-140.
Chronology
1922 September 2 -- Born in Rochester, New York
circa 1940-1941 -- Archaeological field work, Sugar Run mounds, Pennsylvania
1942-1946 -- Served in the United States Marine Corps
1948-1957 -- Anthropology Department, University of Toronto
circa 1950 -- Began work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
1950 -- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania (Anthropology)
1950s -- Fieldwork among the Aivilik Inuit
1953-1959 -- Ran the Seminar on Culture and Communication with Marshall McLuhan
1957-1967 -- "Anthropology and Art" program at San Fernando Valley State College (California State University, Northridge)
1967-1968 -- Schwitzer Chair, Fordham University (with Marshall McLuhan)
1968-1969 -- Carnegie Chair in Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
1969-1970 -- Research Professor, University of Papua and New Guinea
1973-1981 -- Associated with the Museum of Ethnology in Basel, Switzerland for Carl Schuster papers project
circa 1989-2005 -- Collaboration regarding Zhokov Island archaeological site
2011 July 1 -- Died in East Hampton, New York
Separated Materials:
Film and video recordings are retained by the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) as the Edmund Carpenter-Adelaide de Menil Collection (HSFA 2004-04).
Provenance:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers were donated to the National Anthropological Archives in 2017 by Adelaide de Menil on behalf of the Rock Foundation.
Restrictions:
The Edmund Snow Carpenter papers are open for research.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Digital media in the collection is restricted for preservation reasons.
Access to the Edmund Snow Carpenter papers requires an appointment.
The collection is stored off-site. Advanced notice must be given to view the collection.
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1904-2005
bulk 1915-1996
Scope and Contents:
These records document the activities of the American Anthropological Association from 1904 through 2007 (although the majority of the files only date to 1996), with informational content regarding its constitution and by-laws, constitutional changes and ballot voting, dating back to its creation in 1902. The majority of the records consist of correspondence and memoranda, both originals and carbon copies, typed and handwritten. Also included are telegrams, postcards, notes, lists, reports, newspaper clippings, publications, newsletters, articles, receipts, meeting minutes and agendas, programs, expense accounts, budget material, planning schedules and other documents relating to the business of the Association, as well as tape recordings of various AAA program sessions, tape recordings and video tapes regarding interviews and other material pertaining to the Tasaday, tape recordings regarding ethics cases, tape recording for classroom material for the Anthropology Curriculum Study Project, and mainframe computer tapes, computer discs, and printouts regarding the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology. There are photographs, mostly documenting some of the sessions and attendees at the annual conference in Mexico, 1959, photographs and slides used for special AAA Newsletter themes (under Publication Department files in series 4), and a photograph of Roy Rappaport.
The most extensive documentation including all of the presidential papers, date from 1947, when the newly created Executive Board (established by constitutional changes in 1946) received funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York City to establish a secretariat headed by an executive secretary (later, executive director). With the creation of the latter office, files were more systematically transferred to and maintained by the organization. With the permanent move of the executive secretary to Washington, DC, in 1959, the records of the organization became more expansive.
Though this guide documents the records in great detail, not all items of information, whether by name, subject, or geographical location has been noted. In addition to locating information through the "find" feature, researchers should search throughout the list of file folders that come within the time frame of inquiry and review those folders that may hold additional information.
Researchers should be cognizant of the fact that there will be accretions to the records of the American Anthropological Association as tranfers are made to the National Anthropological Archives. Documentation about the accretions may reside in separate guides.
American Anthropological Association Organizational Name Index
AAA committees, task forces, and commissions that are well documented include: Administrative Advisory Committee; AIDS Task Force; Anthropology and Archaeological Research in Latin America (including laws and requirements for conducting research in Latin American countries written in Spanish and Portuguese); Anthropology as a Profession; Anthropology Curriculum Study Project; Anthropology Research Services; Archives Committee; Franz Boas Memorial Committee; Committee on Anthropological Research in Museums; Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare; Committee to Study Research and Ethics (1965-1967), including interviews of anthropologists conducting research in foreign countries and regional areas; Committee on Ethics; Committee on International Cooperation; Committee on Scientific Research; Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology and Committee to Study the Academic Employment of Women in Anthropology; Committee Point IV Manual; Committee for the Recovery of Archaeological Remains; Committee on Scientific Communications; Commission on Lesbian and Gay Issues in Anthropology; Committee on International Cooperation; Congressional Fellowship Program; Environment Task Force; Involuntary Resettlement Task Force; Lurie Commission; Program in Anthropology and Education and Special Teacher Improvement Programs; Program of Visiting Anthropologists; Publication Policy Committee; Task Force on Poverty and Homelessness; and Task Force on Teaching Anthropology.
American Anthropological Association Cases, Issues and Projects of Concern and/or Undertaken by the Association
Franz Boas issue; status of anthropology in the United States government; Alfred Metraux and Argentine indigenous population; Vietnam; reorganization; establishment of a secretariat, executive secretary and executive director; Aswan Dam and sites in "Ancient Nubia"; CIA and anthropological research; Derek Freeman and Margaret Mead controversy; El Paso Natural Gas Company archaeological salvage program; establishment of the Alfred Vincent Kidder award; anthropology and the Graduate Record Examination; anthropology and the military; Baltimore Neighborhood Project; Camelot Project; Bureau of American Ethnology; career pamphlets on anthropology; civil liberties; employment in anthropology; Exxon-Valdez litigation; guides to anthropology departments in the United States; Hollywood "ten"; human rights; Richard G. Morgan (Ohio State Museum) case; move of the secretariat to Washington, DC, and subsequent move of AAA headquarters in DC and Virginia; Navajo/Hopi land dispute; professional freedom; race and intelligence; Peruvian research; resolutions on professional and scientific freedom; River Basin surveys; register of anthropologists; River Valley Archaeology Program; scientific freedom; selected writings from American Anthropologist for special publication; Simon Fraser University (dismissal of faculty members); Morris Swadish (City College of New York) affair; Tasaday issue; Thailand research; University of California loyalty oath and dismissal of 21 faculty members; Viking Fund Medal award; David Webster case (assassination of Webster); and Yanomami (Yonomamo) Indians and human rights violations.
American Anthropological Association Sections, other Anthropology Associations, and Additional Organizations that are well Documented
American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Association of Physical Anthropologists; American Association of University Professors; American Council on Education; American Council of Learned Societies; American Ethnological Society; American Sociological Society; Anthropological Association of Hawaii; Anthropological Society of Washington; Asia Foundation; Carnegie Foundation of New York; Carroll Reece House Congressional Committee to investigate tax exempt foundations; Central States Anthropology Society; Council for Old World Archaeology; Department of Health, Education and Welfare; Division of Anthropology and Psychology, Educational Resources in Anthropology; Indian Land Claims Committee; Indian Service Program; International Congress of Americanists; International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences; International Council of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences; International Directory of Anthropologists; International Society for Psychedelic Anthropology; National Academy of Sciences; National Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel; National Institute of Mental Health; National Park Service (environmental research and applied anthropology); National Research Council; National Science Foundation; Program in Ethnographic Film; Smith, Kline and French Laboratories; Social Science Research Council; Society for American Archaeology; Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communications; Society for Applied Anthropology; Society for the History of Anthropology; Society for Medical Anthropology and Group for Medical Anthropology; Society for Psychological Anthropology; Southwestern Anthropological Society; Wenner-Gren Foundation; Western States Branch of AAA; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; Yukon Island Research Reservation.
American Anthropological Association Officers and other Individuals who are Documented or who have Important Correspondence
Aberle, David F.; Adams, Richard; Aginsky, Ethel G; Beals, Ralph Leon; Barnett, Homer Garner; Barr, William; Benedict, Ruth; Bennett, Wendell C.; Berreman, Gerald D. Boas, Franz; Boggs, Stephen T.; Bohannon, Laura; Bohannon, Paul J.; Brew, John Otis; Brumfiel, Elizabeth Margarethe; Byers, Douglas; Carstens, Peter; Casagrande, Joseph; Cault, Allen D.; Chagnon, Napoleon A.; Chapple, Eliot Dismore; Cole, Fay-Cooper; Collier, Donald; Collier, Malcolm; Collier, Malcolm Carr; Conklin, Harold C.; Cooper, John M.; Cornman, John M.; Dobzhansky, Theodosius; Douglass, Andrew Elliott (award for); Du Bois, Cora; Eddy, Elizabeth M.; Eggan, Frederick; Ehrich, Robert W.; Eiseley, Loren C.; Emery, Emil Ernest; Farabee, William Curtis; Fenton, William N.; Flannery, Regina; Forman, Sylvia Helen; Foster, George M.; Frantz, Charles; Freeman, Derek (Freeman-Mead controversy); Friedl, Ernestine; Gearing, Frederick O.; Gifford, Edward W.; Gillin, John P.; Goddard, Pliny E.; Godfrey, Jr., William S.; Godfrey, Richard; Goldschmidt, Walter; Goodenough, Ward H.; Hallowell, Alfred Irving; Haury, Emil Walter; Headland, Thomas N.; Helm, June; Henderson, Eric (use of field notes in Navajo/Hopi land dispute); Hendricks, Glenn L.; Herskovits, Melville, J.; Hill, Willard Williams; Hoebel, E. Adamson; Hoijer, Harry; Howells, William W.; Hsu, Francis K.; Hurwitch, Jan; Hymes, Dell H.; Jenness, Diamond; Jennings, Jesse D.; Jensen, Arthur P.; Johnson, Frederick; Judd, Neil M.; Keesing, Felix M.; Kidder, Alfred Vincent.; Kidder, Alfred V. II; Kluckhorn, Clyde; Knight, Jr., Vic (misuse of AAA name to collect artifacts); Kroeber, Alfred Louis; Laguna, Frederica de; Leakey, L. S. B. (1959 visit to United States); Lehman, Edward J.; Lessa, William A.; Lewis, Oscar (problem with Children of Sanchez); Linton, Ralph; Lowie, Robert H.; Lurie, Nancy Oestreich; MacCurdy, George Grant; Manners, Robert A.; Marshall, Donald S.; Maruyama, Magorah; Mason, J. Alden; Mead, Margaret; Meggers, Betty J.; Mendelbaum, David; Merwin, B. W.; Modiano, Nancy; Moorhead, Evelyn; Moorhead, Warren K.; Moran, Emilio F.; Moses, Yolanda T.; Murdock, George P.; Murra, John Victor; Nader, Laura; Noon, John A.; Nusbaum, Jesse L.; Olmsted, David; Opler, Morris Edward; Osgood, Cornelius B.; Parsons, Elsie Clews; Rappaport, Roy Abraham; Reining, Conrad C.; Roberts, Jr., Frank H. H.; Rouse, (Benjamin) Irving; Sapir, Edward; Schneider, David; Setzler, Frank Mary; Shapiro, Harry L.; Spicer, Edward H.; Spier, Leslie; Spindler, George; Spoehr, Alexander; Sterud, Eugene L.; Steward, Julian H.; Stocking, George; Stout, David B.; Strong, William Duncan; Swanton, John Reed; Tax, Sol; Textor, Robert B.; Tozzer, Alfred M.; Underhill, Ruth M.; Voegelin, Carl F.; Voegelin, Erminie Wheeler; Vogt, Evon Z.; Wallace, Anthony F. C.; Wagley, Charles; Wallach, Irving A.; Ward, Lauriston; Washburn, Sherwood Larned; Weidman, Hazel H.; Weitzer, Bella; Weltfish, Gene; White, Leslie A.; Wissler, Clark; Woodbury, Nathalie, F. S.; Woodbury, Richard B.
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.
Historical Note:
American Anthropological Association Development and Creation of a Secretariat
Most of early American anthropology focused on indigenous Native Americans and can be traced back to 1784 when Thomas Jefferson carried out stratigraphic excavations of the Indian mounds on his land in Virginia. Jefferson's interest continued and was strongly reflected when as President he instructed Meriwether Lewis (Corps of Discovery Expedition also known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806) to record the names of the nations he encountered along with their numbers, languages, traditions, laws and customs.
Local ethnological and anthropological associations were later established, such as the American Ethnological Society (AES), founded in New York, 1842, and the Anthropological Society of Washington (ASW), created in Washington, DC, 1879. Anthropology as a national science was recognized in 1882, when the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) created a Section (H) for Anthropology. By 1896, the community of anthropologists began informal discussions regarding the establishment of a national organization. These discussions were held among members of the AES and the ASW, while informal talks (sanctioned by the AAAS) were held by Section H members on establishing a national group. At the Section H meeting a decision was reached between those members who wanted a national organization and those who were concerned about diverting attention and support away from the AAAS. With formal approval by the AAAS, Section members of the Association began holding their own winter meetings, separate from the AAAS annual conference, which continued through 1901-1902.
With national leadership coming from the Anthropological Society of Washington and the American Ethnological Society, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) was formed and incorporated in Washington, DC, in 1902. Two major compromises were reached. The Anthropological Society of Washington discontinued publishing the American Anthropologist and surrendered the journal name. The new journal would be called the American Anthropologist, New Series, and would be edited by representatives of all anthropological sections in the United States and Canada. This journal began publication in January 1899. The second agreement concerned whether the national organization should be opened to anyone interested in anthropology (W. J. McGee) or should only constitute professional anthropologists (Franz Boas). The matter was settled when it was decided that membership would be opened to anyone, but that control of the organization would reside in the hands of a council composed of professional members, only.
The AAA was designed to promote the science of anthropology, stimulate and coordinate efforts of American anthropologists, support local and other societies devoted to anthropology, publish and encourage publications regarding anthropology, and conduct and support research. In a revised constitution approved by the Association in December 1902, research support was dropped. The AAA grew by assisting in the development of regional associations, authorizing the creation of a Central States Branch (1921) and the Pacific Division (1929), and increasing its affiliation with existing local organizations such as the Philadelphia Anthropological Society in 1935.
Around the close of World War II, a water-shed event occurred in the development of the Association's administration that stongly supported its ability to maintain historical and administrative records in a more permanent and cohesive fashion. Starting with the May 1945 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, and continuing through the year, several groups of concerned anthropologists began discussing the need to find a way to provide greater support for its professional members. These anthropologists also discussed what they felt was a failure on the part of the American Anthropological Association to maximize its usefulness for the members and carry out specific projects that were desired. They questioned whether the causes were due to a lack of effective operational means. Meetings were held during the summer at the National Research Council (NRC) and again, later in the year, in Washington, DC. Additional anthropologists met at other meetings and a proposal was drafted to create an organization that represented professional anthropologists. Correspondence between Ralph L. Beals, Julian H. Steward, Margaret Mead, Theodore D. McCowan, Homer C. Barnett, Luther S. Cressman, Frank M. Setzler, and William Duncan Strong voiced a need for a new anthropological association, one that represented all areas of anthropology, supported post-war anthropological projects, coordinated activities between anthropologists and the federal government, cooperated with the various councils where anthropologists had representation, developed teaching standards in anthropology, and created employment standards for anthropologists. They drafted a constitution for such an organization. Others within this circle of correspondents wanted to reorganize the AAA.
The leadership of the AAA responded to the call for reform. During the annual meeting held on December 28, 1945, attendees voted to appoint a Committee of Nine (later called the Reorganizing Committee) to ascertain the views of the professional members of the AAA, affiliated societies and local groups, regarding proposals to reorganize the AAA, establish a secretariat, and to find additional ways to further professional interests. The Committee's findings and recommendations were to be issued to the entire profession within two months before the 1946 annual meeting. Julian H. Steward was appointed chairman.
To meet the needs of those anthropologists who wanted a greater professional organization, the AAA adopted a new constitution at the winter meeting of 1946. Two classes of membership, members and fellows, were created. Anyone was eligible to become a member, but without voting privileges. To become a fellow (voting member), one had to meet certain requirements, which included a degree in anthropology, a publication(s) in the field of anthropology, or a doctorate in an allied field and being actively engaged in anthropology. An Executive Council was created. Only fellows could vote for Council members, elect officers, and vote on other business matters. The Association's Council was the final authority. From its membership were elected the president, vice-president (later, president-elect), and an Executive Board (replacing the Executive Committee). The Board voted on the selection of fellows. While the Council met once a year at the annual meeting, the Board was given the authority to meet whenever it deemed necessary. The Board received its own operating budget. It was given broad powers to act quickly and authoritatively, so that issues and actions required by the profession would be reviewed and voted upon in a timely fashion. The Board could create and disband task forces and appoint a secretary and treasurer. It could not amend the constitution and by-laws.
While the revised constitution made the organization more supportive of and controlled by professional anthropologists and created a more dynamic executive branch, the Council also approved 14 major topics recommended by the Committee on Reorganization. Within those broad topics, the Council asked the Executive Board to study 35 objectives and activities. As for a permanent secretariat, the Council felt that while it could serve the profession it was unrelated to the immediate needs of the organization; that financing it should not be a problem faced for the present time and "should not prejudice the proposals concerning organization."
President Clyde Kluckhorn and the Executive Board realized that they would not be able to evaluate all the proposals and or begin the activities approved by Council, regardless of its members' individual goodwill. The AAA urgently needed an executive secretary. At the request of the Board, Kluckhorn wrote Charles Dollard at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, asking for funds to hire an executive secretary full-time for the first year and half-time for two more years, and for a salaried full-time typist-clerk for twenty-nine months. Their work and responsibilities would include the re-integration of the sub-sciences of anthropology and increasing the strategic value of anthropology as a discipline where the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences met. If the grant was awarded the Executive Board's choice for the position would be Erminie Voegelin. Kluckhorn then enumerated some of the recommendations voted by Council. Not wanting to take any chances, Kluckhorn wrote a personal letter to his friend Dollard that same day. On June 12, 1947, Dollard notified Kluckhorn that the officers of the Corporation took a very "sympathetic" view of the Association and agreed to commit the requested funds. A formal follow-up letter from the secretary would confirm the action. The funds were to be used from August 1, 1947 until December 31, 1949. When the grant was concluded, funds were committed by the AAA for a part-time executive secretary, with limited staff, until 1959, when the position once again became full-time.
From 1947 until 1959, the executive secretariat received support from the local institution where the position resided: Indiana University (Bloomington), Phillips Academy, and Beloit College. In 1959, the executive secretariat moved to Washington, DC, which became the permanent home for the Association. There, the position was funded full-time. The offices were first located at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, without cost. When the AAA lost its quarters in 1967 to the expanding needs of its host, the Association moved its offices to a permanent structure on New Hampshire Avenue. In 1993, the AAA moved to Arlington, Virginia.
American Anthropological Association: History of its Archives and an Archives for the Papers of Anthropologists
Beginning with the creation of an executive secretariat, the AAA became interested in trying to retrieve as much of its early history as possible. Calls went out from the executive secretary and president for the transfer of task force material and papers of past presidents. In addition, from 1957 through 1972, the organization officially began looking at the need to provide support for unpublished anthropological records, repositories to house them, and the question of what do with its own accumulation of records.
On April 24, 1957, the Executive Board delegated the president to appoint a committee to collaborate on the preservation of primary records. This interest appears to have come from the AAA's membership in the Committee of Primary Records, which was established in the Division of Anthropology and Psychology located within the NRC of the National Academy of Sciences. Sol Tax was appointed chairman of the Special Committee on the Preservation of Primary Records. The Committee met in Chicago, February 17-18, 1958, drafted a tentative report, and sent it to a few selected fellows for comment and suggestions. The fellows approved the recommendations and the Committee issued the draft as a final report. One recommendation was that the AAA should publish an international directory of primary sources, to continue serially with the assumption that it would report on institutional holdings and perhaps major personal collections. The Executive Board approved the report on April 25, 1958 and had it forwarded to the NRC for its consideration with an informal note that a tentative editor for the publication had been selected. At the following Board meeting, the Committee was terminated.
Formal discussions regarding the topic of what to do with research material created by anthropologists was again taken up by the Board in 1962. At the Board's next meeting, May 13-14, 1963, the Publication Policy Committee reported on the first day that its mission was to publish research findings from the conclusion of the work until the dissemination of the information. The following day Board member Joseph Casagrande reported that the issues he was concerned with, the location and preservation of field notes, papers, and other documents, were "intimately" related to the recommendations made by the Publication Policy Committee. He wanted to pursue the problem with a small committee through conversations with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The Board agreed and suggested that Margaret Blaker, archivist at the Bureau of American Ethnology [the BAE later merged with the Department of Anthropology and the BAE archives became the National Anthropological Archives], be contacted as a good resource person. At the November 1963 Board meeting, Casagrande reported that he was planning to form an ad hoc group after an initial discussion with the SSRC, which would meet once or twice to formulate a proposal to the Council.
Within the body of the AAA's records there appears to be no continuity between the various initiatives undertaken regarding what to do with primary source material of anthropologists as well as the Association's own records. At the November 1966 Board meeting, editor Ward Goodenough proposed publishing Anthropological Documents to make available anthropological research data so it could be used by fellow scientists. During the meeting of the Board in May 1967, its members discussed the possibility of forming another committee on archives. Executive Secretary Charles Frantz stated that he had written to several members to see if they would be interested in forming a committee to inventory and perhaps centralize documents about the Association and individual anthropologists. Several responded enthusiastically and it was suggested that the American Philosophical Society might fund such a committee. The Board endorsed the recommendation and asked that Frantz continue his correspondence with interested persons.
Franz resigned from the AAA around August 1968 and Conrad C. Reining became secretary later that year (he was eventually given the title executive secretary). In October 1968, the Executive Board formed an Archives Committee. Its mission was to develop policy and procedures for the conservation and use of documents of value to the profession. Reining served as the acting chair. By November 1968, Reining reported to the Board that he had formed a committee. He found that the archives in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution adequate for the purposes proposed in a resolution that would be brought before the Council meeting. Later that month the Council adopted a resolution urging anthropologists to consider the NAA as the repository for their field notes, reports and professional papers if no other arrangements had been made for preservation of such materials.
The question before Council was whether the National Anthropological Archives should be considered the repository of choice for anthropologists, if no other arrangements were made with other archival programs. Before Council made its decision there was some concern about the selection of the NAA. At one point during the discussion, Reining considered the Library of Congress. Informal and formal discussions were held with Smithsonian staff and members of the Department of Anthropology. Saul Riesenberg, chairman of the Department of Anthropology, was sent a copy of the draft resolution and was asked if his office was prepared to undertake the task involved. The draft resolution, he wrote, had been discussed and agreed upon, and expansion of the Department's Archives was being contemplated.
The Committee on Archives, now chaired by Sturtevant, met in May 1969 at the Department of Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History. One major outcome of the meeting was the decision that all files of the Association, prior to 1959, would be transferred to the NAA as long as they would be accessible to the AAA and could be reclaimed with the proviso that the Archives be allowed to microfilm any files reclaimed. Reining would provide an inventory of the contents of the Association's files; and Sturtevant would draft a recommendation to the Board on management and preservation of official or copies of records of current and future officers, and draft a letter for Cora Du Bois requesting ex-presidents contribute their papers still in their possession.
During the following month Secretary Conrad C. Reining transferred 12 feet of records stored in file drawers, along with a content list, to the NAA archivist Margaret C. Blaker. Before she would accession them, Blaker requested a formal ruling by the Board transferring the records to the NAA. She provided suggested points to Reining for the Board to consider in a resolution at the New Orleans annual meeting later in the year. It was not approved. Instead, the Board wanted to know why it was considering Blaker's recommendations and not their own. They were more concerned about having their own personal remarks placed on record and having them quoted than approving the recommendations.
In February 1970, Stocking wrote Reining that files dating from 1917 to 1957 had been sent to the NAA. The Board was supposed to have developed a transfer form for a lawyer to review, which was then to be forwarded to Pilling to send on for comment by an archivist he knew at his university. Stocking wanted to know where the matter stood. There was no response. On July 19, 1971, Charles Wagley (AAA president) wrote Stocking that the Executive Board voted at its May 1971 meeting to discharge the Archives Committee. The new AAA executive secretary, Edward J. Lehman, wrote Stocking in August that the Committee, as well as several others, were dismissed due to a deficit in funds, and, because of that, the Finance Committee had recommended that committees which had not been active be dismissed.
The Board did not take up a resolution regarding its records at the San Diego meeting in 1970, nor the following year in New York City. Blaker updated her recommendations to be considered for a resolution in October 1971. Those recommendations were basically what the Board wrote in its resolution in May 1972, establishing the NAA as the permanent repository for its records. The deposit was permanent and was not to be withdrawn under any circumstances unless the AAA established its own archives. The action was concluded after Blaker retired.
With the 1972 resolution, the American Anthropological Association officially concluded its long historical discussion regarding its recognition of the importance of anthropologists maintaining their materials, the importance of its own records, and the availability and value of the National Anthropological Archives to the anthropology community.
Related Materials:
There are over twenty-five collections in the National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives that document various aspects of the American Anthropological Association. Researchers should work with the reference archivist in finding this material. NAA also houses the records of the following AAA sections:
American Ethnological Society
Association for Feminist Anthropology
Central States Anthropological Society
Council for Museum Anthropology
Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Society for Humanistic Anthropology
Society for Medical Anthropology
Society for Visual Anthropology
NAA is also the repository for the following anthropological societies whose activities are documented in the records of AAA:
Society for American Archaeology
Society for Applied Anthropology
Below is a selected list of collections, not housed at NAA, documenting individuals who played a prominent role in the activities of AAA:
Homer Garner Papers, 1937-1986, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon
Ruth Benedict Papers, 1905-1948, Archives and Special Collections, Vassar College
Alfred Irving Hallowell Papers, American Mss. Coll. 26, Philosophical Society
E. Adamson Hoebel Papers, 1925-1993, Mss. Coll. 43, American Philosophical Society
Dell H. Hymes Papers, 1947-1992, American Philosophical Society
Frederick Johnson Papers, 1948-1968, Special Collections, University of California at Los Angeles
Alfred Louis Kroeber papers, 1869-1972, Bancroft Library
John Alden Mason Papers, 1904-1967, MSS.B.M384, American Philosophical Society
Morris Edward Opler Papers, #14-25-3238, Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Libraries
Elsie Clews Parsons papers, 1880-1980, Mss. Ms.Coll. 29, American Philosophical Society
Provenance:
Records were transferred from the American Anthropological Association to the National Anthropological Archives. The three last subseries of presidential papers (series 1) were donated directly from the creator or their heirs to NAA.
Restrictions:
At the 71st meeting of the Executive Board, May 1972, the Board adopted the motion authorizing transfer of the American Anthropological Association archives to the National Anthropological Archives. By definition all records created by elected and appointed offices, or committee members of AAA, while acting in an official capacity were records of the Association. No records less than five years old were to be deposited, and no records less than ten years old were open for scholarly use, except by Association officers, or when otherwise stated. All records would be open to use after 50 years from date of creation. The American Anthropological Association gave literary property rights to the public. Researchers will need to review restrictions that may apply to presidential papers.
All Exxon-Valdez folders located in series 4, subseries 4, "Committee on Ethics," are closed until further notification from the State of Alaska, Department of Law.
Access to the American Anthropological Association records requires an appointment.
The collection is stored off-site. Advanced notice must be given to view the collection.
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1968-2013
Content Description:
These records document the history and activities of the Society for Visual Anthropology. The collection consists of the files of past presidents, most of whom served in various capacities on the organization's board. Consequently, the files of each individual may cover periods outside his or her presidency, and duplication of files may exist across series. Materials in the collection include correspondence, both within SVA and with AAA representatives; by-laws; board meeting agenda, minutes, and reports; election nominations and results; financial statements; programs and materials 5 documenting preparations for the annual Visual Research Conference, the film and media festival, and AAA program sessions; and SVA publications and related correspondence. The collection also contains materials pertaining to the predecessors of SVA: PIEF and SAVICOM. These include Jay Ruby's files documenting the activities of both organizations as well as their publications.
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:
Collection is organized into 9 series: 1) Peter Biella, 2003-2005; 2) Richard Chalfen, 1988, 1990-1991; 3) Malcolm Collier, 1993-1995, 1997-1999; 4) Fadwa El Guindi,1987, 1990-1996, undated; 5) Jay Ruby, 1968-1973; 6) Joanna Scherer, 1985-2013; 7) Anne Zeller, 1988, 1990, 1994-1998, 2000-2009, 2011; 8) Publications, 1970-1989; 9) Posters, 1991, 2000, 2005-2006
Historical Note:
The Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) was founded as a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) in 1984. It was formed to promote the study and use of visual media in anthropological research. The history of SVA can be traced back to the Program in Ethnographic Film (PIEF), a committee of AAA founded in 1966 by Richard Gardner and Asen Balikci at Harvard University. The mission of PIEF, which was formed through funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, was to encourage and support teaching, training, and production with respect to ethnographic films. PIEF moved to Temple University in 1969 when Jay Ruby assumed leadership of the program. A newsletter was established and film screenings became part of AAA's scholarly program at its annual meetings. In response to a growing interest in other forms of visual media, several members of PIEF at the 1971 AAA annual meeting discussed forming a new organization that would have a broader reach and encompass all who were interested in the cultural dimensions of visual communication and behavior (Ruby, 1974). The following year the formation of this new organization was discussed in further detail at the Summer Institute of Visual Anthropology (SIVA), sponsored by PIEF and funded by the National Science Foundation. As a result, PIEF was dissolved at the 1973 AAA meeting, and the Society for the Anthropology of Visual Communication (SAVICOM) was established in its place. The PIEF newsletter became an official publication of SAVICOM, which also began publishing a new journal called Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication. In 1984, SAVICOM was dissolved and replaced with SVA as an official section of AAA. SVA established a newsletter and Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication ceased publication in 1985. In 1990, SVA Newsletter was briefly renamed SVA Review before it became the peer-reviewed journal Visual Anthropology Review the following year. Since 1985, SVA has sponsored the Visual Research Conference, held annually a few days before the official AAA meeting. The society also holds a film and media festival during the AAA conference, at which the works of students, professional anthropologists, and professional filmmakers are screened. In addition to serving as a forum for members interested in visual anthropology, SVA has advocated the use of visual media for satisfying promotion and tenure requirements. In 2001, AAA formally approved guidelines created by SVA for the professional evaluation of ethnographic visual media.
Restrictions:
The Society for Visual Anthropology records is open for research.
Access to the Society for Visual Anthropology records requires an appointment.
The papers of Jay Ruby document his writings, research, and professional activities as well as the history of visual anthropology.
Biographical / Historical:
Jay Ruby was a professor of Anthropology at Temple University and is a prominent figure in the field of visual anthopology.
Local Note:
This collection is unprocessed.
Related Materials:
The Society for Visual Anthropology records contain Ruby's files documenting the history of the society. The papers of Timothy Asch contain Ruby's correspondence.
50 Film reels (50 completed films and 1 film series; 110,600 feet of original film outtakes (51 hours); 412 hours of audiotape; 31 digital books)
22 Linear feet (Papers and photographs)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Film reels
Place:
Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
Argentina
Date:
1954-circa 2008
Summary:
Documentary filmmaker Jorge Prelorán was best known for his intimate approach to ethnographic film, a style known as "ethnobiography." The majority of Prelorán's films were shot in rural areas of Argentina, particularly the Andean highlands and the Pampas (plains), often in communities of mixed Indian and Spanish heritage. Prelorán documented a wide range of subjects, including art, folk crafts, agriculture, ranching, markets, religious rituals and festivals, and social and cultural change. This collection contains edited films and videos, film outtakes, audio tapes, photographic prints and transparencies, digital books, correspondence, production files, scripts, project files, and press clippings spanning 1954-2008.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains edited films and videos, film outtakes, audio tapes, photographic prints and transparencies, digital books, correspondence, production files, scripts, project files, and press clippings spanning 1954-2008.
The majority of Prelorán's films were shot in rural areas of Argentina, particularly the Andean highlands and the Pampas (plains), often in communities of mixed Indian and Spanish heritage. Prelorán documented a wide range of subjects, including art, folk crafts, agriculture, ranching, markets, religious rituals and festivals, and social and cultural change. Several films focus on natural history and science. There are also a number of experimental and fiction films.
Prelorán formed close friendships with many of the subjects of his films and corresponded with them long after the films were completed. This is reflected in the paper records, as is Prelorán's wide circle of colleagues and collaborators, including anthropologists, musicians, animators, historians, painters, writers, photographers, current and former students at UCLA, and fellow filmmakers. The extensive collection of press clippings, screening notices, and festival catalogs documents Prelorán's influence in Argentina, Europe, and the United States.
In the series of digital books, Prelorán presents the personal stories of individuals involved in creative work. Some books feature subjects profiled in the films, updating or expanding on their stories.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged in 11 series: (1) Completed Films and Videos, 1954-circa 2008; (2) Film Outtakes, 1960s-1980s; (3) Audio, 1969-2008; (4) Correspondence, 1954-2005 (bulk 1967-1992); (5) Production Files, 1961-1998; (6) Project Files, 1967-1995; (7) UCLA, 1968-2005 (bulk 1980s); (8) Press Clippings, 1960-2005; (9) Photographs, 1961-2000; (10) Books, 1994-1998, undated; (11) Electronic Files, circa 2000-circa 2006
Biographical Note:
Documentary filmmaker Jorge Prelorán was best known for his intimate approach to ethnographic film, a style known as "ethnobiography." In films such as Hermógenes Cayo (Imaginero) (1970), Los Hijos de Zerda (Zerda's Children) (1974), and Zulay Frente al Siglo XXI (Zulay Facing the 21st Century) (1989), Prelorán's protagonists tell their personal stories, while also revealing the stories of their communities and cultures. Prelorán worked in Latin America and the United States, but primarily in his native country of Argentina. His career spanned from 1954 to 2008, including nearly twenty years as a film professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Prelorán was born May 28, 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, an engineer, was Argentine and had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he met his wife, an American. Prelorán grew up speaking both Spanish and English. Initially pursuing a career in architecture, he studied at the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. He made his first film, Venganza, with neighborhood friends in Buenos Aires in 1954. The film won the Beginner's Festival of Cine Club Argentina that same year. Prelorán was accepted as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and studied architecture there for one year. In 1956 he withdrew from UC Berkeley and was drafted into the US Army. Prelorán served in West Germany until 1958. Upon his return he changed educational plans and began formal study of filmmaking, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Motion Pictures from UCLA in 1960.
Shortly before the end of his service in the US Army, Prelorán married Elsa Dondi, a former classmate from Buenos Aires. They lived together in Los Angeles until Elsa returned to Argentina for the birth of their daughter, Adriana, in 1961. The couple separated shortly thereafter.
Prelorán's professional career as a filmmaker began in 1961 with a commission from the Tinker Foundation of New York for a series of films on the Argentine gaucho. In the course of shooting for these films, Prelorán traveled extensively throughout Argentina, visiting many locations in Patagonia and in the northwest where he would later return to make many of his films. From 1963-1969, Prelorán was under contract at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán to produce educational films; he also produced a series of short films on Argentine folklife with support from Fondo Nacional de las Artes and under the mentorship of folklorist Augusto Raúl Cortazar, Ph.D.
In the late 1960s, Prelorán became involved with UCLA's Ethnographic Film Program and in 1970 he returned to UCLA as a lecturer for two semesters. Later that year he was a fellow at Harvard University's Film Study Center, where he produced the English-language version of Imaginero (Hermógenes Cayo). Prelorán was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1971 and 1975, and used those opportunities to produce quite a number of films, including Damacio Caitruz (Araucanians of Ruca Choroy).
Prelorán remarried in 1972. His wife, Mabel Freddi, became a collaborator on his films. She wrote the screenplay for Mi Tia Nora (My Aunt Nora) (1983) and co-directed Zulay Frente al Siglo XXI (Zulay Facing the 21st Century) (1989), among other credited and un-credited roles. After the Argentine military coup of March 1976 and the disappearances of fellow filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer and Mabel's niece, Haydee, the Preloráns became fearful for their own safety. They fled to the United States, a move that would become permanent. Prelorán accepted a position as associate professor at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television. He later joined the faculty as a tenured professor.
During his time at UCLA, Prelorán was twice selected as a Fulbright Scholar, in 1987 and 1994. He continued to produce films, including the Academy Award-nominated documentary short Luther Metke at 94 (1980) and the 7-hour natural history television series Patagonia (1992). After retiring in 1994, Prelorán continued to mentor film students as Professor Emeritus; he also began work in a new medium, creating a series of digital books, "Nos = Otros" ("Sages Amongst Us") (unpublished), featuring individuals engaged in creative and educational pursuits.
Prelorán died at his home in Culver City, CA at the age of 75 on March 28, 2009.
Sources Consulted
UCLA, School of Theater, Film and Television. "Jorge Prelorán 1933 - 2009." Obituary. Last modified March 31, 2009. Accessed April 1, 2009. http://tft.ucla.edu/news/obituary
Jorge Prelorán Collection. Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Rivera, Fermín. Huellas Y Memoria de Jorge Prelorán. Documentary film. 2010.
Woo, Elaine."Jorge Prelorán dies at 75; Argentine filmmaker and former UCLA professor." Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2009. Web. 29 Apr 2009.
1933 -- Born May 28 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
1952-1954 -- Studies at the College of Architecture, Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina
1954 -- Completes first film, Venganza, a fictional short
1955 -- Studies at the College of Architecture, University of California at Berkeley
1956-1958 -- Drafted into United States Army, stationed in Schwetzingen, West Germany
1959-1960 -- Earns Bachelor of Arts in Motion Pictures from UCLA
1961-1963 -- Produces films on the Argentine gaucho for the Tinker Foundation, New York
1963-1969 -- Produces films at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina
1968 -- Attends the First International Colloquium on Ethnographic Film at UCLA
1969 -- Shoots film for The Warao People in Venezuela, under a grant from the Ford Foundation to the Ethnographic Film Program at UCLA
1970 -- Lecturer at UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television Fellow at the Film Study Center, Harvard University
1971 -- Receives first Guggenheim Fellowship; completes several film projects in Argentina
1975 -- Receives second Guggenheim Fellowship; continues filming in Argentina
1976 -- Moves to United States Associate professor at UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television
1978 -- Guest of Honor at the 2nd Margaret Mead Ethnographic Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, New York
1980 -- Academy Award nominee for Luther Metke at 94
1985 -- Guest at the White House for a State Dinner in honor of Argentine President Raul Alfonsin
1986 -- Naturalized as a United States citizen
1987 -- First selection as Fulbright Scholar; begins production of the series Patagonia, en Busca de su Remoto Pasado
1994 -- Second selection as Fulbright Scholar; completes pre-production for the narrative feature film "Vairoletto: The Last Gaucho Outlaw" Retires from UCLA as professor emeritus
2009 -- Dies on March 28 in Culver City, California
Related Materials:
The Human Studies Film Archives holds a copy of Fermín Rivera's edited biographical documentary film, Huellas y Memoria de Jorge Prelorán (HSFA 2015.1.27), as well as transcripts of interviews conducted with Jorge and Mabel Prelorán for the film (in Spanish).
The Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, holds the original film for four titles Prelorán produced for the Tinker Foundation (New York, NY). These are: The Llanero; The Gaucho of Corrientes; The Gaucho of the Pampas; and The Gaucho of Salta. The Ransom Center has both English and Spanish versions of these titles. These four films were preserved in 2010 and 2011 with funding from the Tinker Foundation. HSFA holds high quality video masters of all four titles. A fifth film produced for the Tinker Foundation, El Gaucho Argentino, Hoy (The Argentine Gaucho, Today), is held at the HSFA in its Spanish version only.
The Arthur Hall Collection at Temple University, Phildadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ile Ife Films in Belfast, Maine hold a copy of The Unvictorious One that differs from the two versions held at the HSFA.
Provenance:
This collection was donated to the Human Studies Film Archives in two accessions. The first accession, 2007-10, contains the edited films, outtakes, audio recordings, papers, and photographs and was donated by Jorge Prelorán. Materials had been stored at Prelorán's home office and home editing suite before they were packed by the processing archivist and sent to the HSFA. The second accession, 2011-07, contains the digital books and some additional photographs. This accession was donated by Mabel Prelorán. These materials had also been stored at Prelorán's home office and were sent to the HSFA by Mabel Prelorán.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and the digital books.
Access to the Jorge Prelorán collection requires an appointment.
