Rolling in Ditches with Shamans: Jaime de Angulo and the Professionalization of American Anthropology Contributor(s): Leeds-Hurwitz, Wendy (Author) |
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ISBN: 0803229542 ISBN-13: 9780803229549 Publisher: University of Nebraska Press OUR PRICE: $57.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 2005 Annotation: "Rolling in Ditches with Shamans" charts American anthropology in the 1920s through the life and work of one of the amateur scholars of the time, Jaime de Angulo (1887-1950). Although he earned a medical degree, de Angulo chose to live on an isolated ranch in Big Sur, California, where he participated fully in the lives of the people who were his ethnographic informants. The period of his most extensive research coincides almost perfectly with the professionalization of anthropology, and de Angulo provides a link between those who are generally recognized as the most important figures of the day: Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, and Edward Sapir. The fields of salvage ethnography and linguistics, which Boas emphasized, were aimed at recording the culture, language, and myths of the Native groups before they became completely acculturated. In keeping with these dictates, de Angulo recorded data from thirty groups, mostly in California, which otherwise might have been lost. In an unusual move for that time, he also wrote fiction and poetry describing the modern lives of the people he studied, something of little interest to Boas but of great interest today. His most enduring work is "Indian Tales," a fictional synthesis of myths learned from various California Indians. De Angulo's range of interests, originality, and expertise exemplified the curiosity and brilliance of those who pioneered American anthropology at this time. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Social Scientists & Psychologists - Social Science | Anthropology - General - History | Native American |
Dewey: B |
LCCN: 2004004122 |
Series: Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology |
Physical Information: 1.25" H x 6.56" W x 9.28" (1.52 lbs) 359 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1920's - Ethnic Orientation - Native American - Geographic Orientation - California |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description:
Rolling in Ditches with Shamans charts American anthropology in the 1920s through the life and work of one of the amateur scholars of the time, Jaime de Angulo (1887-1950). Although he earned a medical degree, de Angulo chose to live on an isolated ranch in Big Sur, California, where he participated fully in the lives of the people who were his ethnographic informants. The period of his most extensive research coincides almost perfectly with the professionalization of anthropology, and de Angulo provides a link between those who are generally recognized as the most important figures of the day: Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, and Edward Sapir. The fields of salvage ethnography and linguistics, which Boas emphasized, were aimed at recording the culture, language, and myths of the Native groups before they became completely acculturated. In keeping with these dictates, de Angulo recorded data from thirty groups, mostly in California, which otherwise might have been lost. In an unusual move for that time, he also wrote fiction and poetry describing the modern lives of the people he studied, something of little interest to Boas but of great interest today. His most enduring work is Indian Tales, a fictional synthesis of myths learned from various California Indians. De Angulo's range of interests, originality, and expertise exemplified the curiosity and brilliance of those who pioneered American anthropology at this time. Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz is a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She is the author of several books, including Wedding as Text: Communicating Cultural Identities through Ritual, and the editor of Social Approaches to Communication. |