MARY FUKUMOTO, 47, a Peruvian anthropologist, died in January 1998,
after a brief illness. Born in 1950, Fukumoto took her undergraduate and
masters degrees at San Marcos and Catholic universities in Lima, and received
her PhD at the U of Texas in Austin. She taught in the Department of Anthropology
at Catholic U in Lima for several years and served as its head for a portion
of that time. During the last 10 years she worked at the Nutrition Institute
in Lima, although she still continued to teach at Catholic U. Of Japanese
origin, Fukumoto studied the Japanese Peruvian community and published
a widely acclaimed book on Japanese Peruvians, Los hijos del nuevo sol.
Admired for her decency and fair dealings, Fukumoto will be sorely missed
by her friends and colleagues. (Teofilo Altamirano and William P Mitchell)
MARCUS S GOLDSTEIN, 91, one of the forefathers of dental anthropology
and a public health analyst, died December 1, 1997, in Jerusalem, Israel.
Born on August 22, 1906, in Philadelphia, PA, Goldstein received his BA
and MA in anthropology from George Washington U and his PhD from Columbia.
Goldstein's professional career in anthropology began in 1927, when he
obtained a position as aide to Ales Hrdlicka in the US National Museum
Division of Physical Anthropology. It was only halted by his death 70 years
later. An active researcher in anthropology, Goldstein typified the "compleat
anthropologist" with a broad knowledge of and interest in most areas of
anthropological interest. His publications include a number of key works
on dental variation and pathology, growth, development and aging, and skeletal
pathology in past populations of Israel. His professional activities can
be divided into two main periods. During World War II, Goldstein worked
in the US Office of Strategic Services, and in 1946 he joined the US Public
Health Service as an analyst. His government career included posts at the
Division of Public Health Methods, National Institutes of Mental Health
Administration on Aging and the Office of Research and Statistics in the
Social Security Administration, from which he retired in 1971. As an anthropologist
in the Public Health Service in the US, Goldstein focused his research
on factors adversely affecting growth and development.
Following his retirement, Goldstein and his wife Lea immigrated to
Israel, where he joined Tel Aviv U and played an important role in developing
research in the newly formed Department of Anatomy and Anthropology. Goldstein
was also responsible for founding the Israel Association of Anthropology,
which now has well over 150 members, and he brought together scientists
from archaeology, biological and social anthropology--no easy task in a
country where the three disciplines are taught in separate faculties. In
1987 he was honored with that Association's Distinguished Service Award.
Goldstein's major publications include "The Cusps in the Mandibular
Molar Teeth of the Eskimo," American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1931,
16); Demographic and Bodily Changes in Descendants of Mexican Immigrants
with Comparable Data on Parents and Children in Mexico (1943); "Physical
Status of Men Examined through Selective Service in World War II," Public
Health Reports (1951, 66); "Some Vital Statistics Based on Skeletal Material,"
Human Biology (1953, 25); "Longevity and Health Status of Whites and Nonwhites
in the United States," Journal of the National Medical Association (1954,
46); and "Theory of Survival of the Unfit," Journal of the National Medical
Association (1955, 47).
Goldstein summed up his career in the monograph An Odyssey in Anthropology
and Public Health (1995). In it he gives a warm portrayal of all who helped
him: subjects, as well as colleagues. The writing is characterized by modesty
and a sense of humor, qualities that all who knew him will recognize. With
over a 100 scientific publications and a powerful commitment throughout
his life to apply anthropology for the public good, Marcus Goldstein may
surely rest in peace: he did make a difference. (Patricia Smith)
HOMER F HASTINGS, 89, retired Superintendent of Aztec National Monument
and Chaco Culture National Historic Park, passed away at his home in Aztec,
NM, on January 23, 1998.
Born in Montrose, CO, on October 18, 1908, Hastings attended Fort Lewis
College and Western State College, where he received degrees in biology
and archaeology. He left teaching school in Klein and Bayfield, CO, to
become a National Park Service park ranger. His first assignments were
to Aztec Ruins National Monument and Chaco Cultural Historical Park, both
in New Mexico, followed by Montezuma Castle and Walnut Canyon National
monuments in Arizona and Fort Union National Monument in New Mexico. Hastings
eventually became a superintendent of all these areas.
In Chaco Canyon, Hastings was involved in measurement studies of Threatening
Rock, before it fell, jumping onto the rock twice a day to determine the
effect of temperature on the movement of the rock. During his early years
at Fort Union, he supervised the cataloging of all artifacts recovered
during excavation and supervised stabilization of the remaining adobe walls.
He retired from the National Park Service in 1971.
Hastings was an avid collector of antique cameras, eventually donating
his collection to Fort Lewis College in Durango. He was also one of the
charter members of the San Juan Archaeological Society in Aztec.
Hastings is survived by his wife Mary C, daughters Mary J Harris and
Anita Lewis, plus 12 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and 20 great-great-grandchildren.
(Mary C Hastings)
BELA CHARLES MADAY, 85, a distinguished anthropologist and administrator,
died in Gaithersburg, MD on November 21, 1997.
Maday was born in Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire, November 3, 1912,
and received his doctorate from Pazmany U in Hungary (1937). From 1937
to 1945 he was secretary of the Budapest Cultural Department. After WWII
he served as field director of the Red Cross in Hungary. Maday came to
the US in 1947 on a postdoctoral fellowship from Springfield C (MA) and
then joined the faculty at Monterey Peninsula C and the Monterey Language
Institute, where he wrote and edited an extensive series of Hungarian language
texts. In 1956, as executive director of Coordinated Hungarian Relief in
Washington DC, he organized US efforts to aid Hungarian refugees. From
1959 to 1966 he taught at American U and George Washington U and in 1966
was appointed executive secretary of the Cultural Anthropology Fellowship
Review Committee and later chief of the Research Training Branch of the
National Institute of Mental Health. He retired in 1977.
Along with his career in administration, Maday was deeply involved
in teaching, research and writing. He was founding editor of the Hungarian
Studies Newsletter and the Hungarian Reference Shelf and published numerous
articles and books on eastern Europe and Hungarian society. He contributed
to a wide variety of anthropological fields, including work on acculturation,
cognitive studies, comparative studies of society and culture, and applied
and medical anthropology.
Many anthropologists came to know Maday when they served as members
of the Cultural Anthropology Review Committee, which for over a decade
was the major source of dissertation fieldwork funds in American anthropology.
As executive secretary, Maday was a genial host to committee members and
a warm assistant to fellowship recipients. An idealist who also functioned
with great effectiveness within government bureaucracies, he was an enthusiast
about the humanitarian and democratic character of American society. Maday
believed that government can do much good with programs designed and carried
out with knowledge and goodwill. And in his life he accomplished exactly
that with energy, cheer and skill. Maday's wife of 57 years, Maria, died
in 1987. He is survived by their children, Kathryn Maday-Bloom and Steven,
5 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. (Roy D'Andrade and Lorand
Szalay)
MOREAU SANFORD (MAX) MAXWELL, 80, emeritus professor and curator of
anthropology at Michigan State U, died January 30, 1998, after a short
struggle with cancer. Born in 1918, Maxwell was an intrepid field archaeologist
and consummate teacher whose legacy remains indelibly imprinted on all
who knew him.
Maxwell's archaeological career was fostered by the New York Archaeological
Society. He matriculated at the U of Chicago, where he received his AB
(1939), MA (1946) and PhD (1949). His Works Project Administration fieldwork
in Illinois was interrupted by World War II, when he served as a US Navy
pilot in the Pacific as lieutenant (jg). He then joined the faculty at
Beloit C, excavating at the Diamond Bluff and Aztalan sites.
Maxwell worked for the US Air Force Arctic, Desert, Tropical Information
Center (1952-57), where his effort was primarily devoted to Arctic projects.
He engaged in Defense Early Warning system siting as a member of the US
Air Force Eclipse Project and as assistant project officer of the DEW Line
Ice Survey Team. He traveled with Inuit guides, by dogsled, assessing ice
at landing strip locations for DEW Line construction and observed archaeological
evidence of pre-Dorset and Dorset occupation in the high Arctic.
In 1957 Maxwell joined the Department of Sociology and Anthropology
and the Museum at Michigan State U, was the first curator of anthropology
and was the first chair of the independent Department of Anthropology.
Maxwell's Arctic research began in 1958. As a member of a Defense Research
Board group participating in Canada's International Geophysical Year, he
surveyed the Lake Hazen vicinity on Ellesmere Island. He then spent over
15 seasons in the Arctic applying ecological and ethnoarchaeological approaches
to the prehistory of Baffin Island and received a Fulbright fellowship
to the National Museum of Denmark. He subsequently emerged as a dominant
synthesizer of eastern Arctic archaeology. Maxwell also periodically returned
to midwestern research at Fort Michilimackinac and other sites, pioneering
anthropologically oriented historical archaeology.
Maxwell's career led to several significant publications, including
Woodland Cultures of Southern Illinois (1951), an edited SAA Memoir (1976),
a review for Annual Review of Anthropology (1980), Excavation at Fort Michilimackinac,
Mackinac City, Michigan, 1959 Season (with L Binford, 1961) and Prehistory
of the Eastern Arctic (1985).
Maxwell's achievements earned him the MSU Distinguished Faculty Award
and an SAA award for Outstanding Contributions to American archaeology.
On his retirement in 1986, the Department of Anthropology implemented a
graduate student research competition in his name. In retirement he continued
to read proposals, review articles and correspond with colleagues and new
generations of students. He also continued his lifelong friendships with
the Inuit with whom he worked and whom he respected.
Maxwell is survived by Eleanor, his wife of 54 years, children Moreau
Jr, Alan, John and Tia, and 4 grandchildren. He will be missed by all who
knew him. The Department of Anthropology has established the Moreau S Maxwell
Memorial Lecture Series in his memory. Donations should be made to Michigan
State U and mailed to the Department of Anthropology. (William A Lovis)
ALFONSO VILLA ROJAS, 91, investigator at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma
de Mexico, died in Mexico City on January 5, 1998. Born in Merida, Yucatan
on January 31, 1906, Villa Rojas enjoyed a long and distinguished career
in Mexico, becoming renowned for his contribution to the ethnography of
the Mexican tropics, especially of the Mayas of Quintana Roo and Chiapas.
He was a rural schoolteacher in Chan Kom, Yucatan, when he began his ethnographic
career, associating himself with Robert Redfield in the study of Chan Kom
and the exploration of the Yaxuna-Coba sacbeh. Carnegie Institution of
Washington publications resulting from both labors gave Villa Rojas early
international recognition. While a student of anthropology at the U of
Chicago (1933-35), Villa Rojas came to know Radcliffe-Brown and Malinowski,
both of whom strongly influenced his professional development. Villa Rojas
then returned to the Yucatan peninsula to begin fieldwork in Tuzik, one
of the communities that contributed to Redfield's formulation of the folk-urban
continuum. The ethnography of that semiautonomous community of former Maya
rebels long remained a classic work of contemporary ethnography, and Villa
Rojas's field experiences were described in detail in Paul Sullivan's Unfinished
Conversations: Mayas and Foreigners between Two Wars (1991).
Villa Rojas subsequently assumed various official positions and dedicated
himself to applying anthropological insights to the betterment of the social
conditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. He directed a major impact
ethnography of Indians affected by the construction of a hydroelectric
dam across the Papaloapan River (1949-52). He assumed directorship of the
Indigenist Coordinator Center for the Tzeltal-Tzotzil region of Chiapas
in 1955. He was director of anthropological investigations of the International
Indigenist Institute (1967-70) and subdirector of the National Indigenist
Institute of Mexico (1970-76). In 1979 he became an investigator at the
Institute of Anthropological Investigations of the Universidad Nacional
Autonoma of Mexico and a member of the National System of Investigators
in Mexico in 1985. While his failing health eventually required his withdrawal
from active labors, he remained recognized as a distinguished investigator
of UNAM until his death.
Among Villa Rojas's most distinguished publications are The Yaxuna-Coba
Causeway (1934), Chan Kom: A Maya Village (with Robert Redfield, 1932),
The Maya of East-Central Quintana Roo (1945), Los Mazatecos y el problema
indigena de la cuenca del Papalopan (1955) and chapters on the Mayas of
the Yucatan peninsula and of the lowlands of Mexico in the Handbook of
Middle American Indians, vol 7 (1969), while many of his contributions
to the ethnography of Chiapas were collected and republished in 1985 as
Estudios etnologicos: Los mayas (UNAM-IIA). Villa Rojas is survived by
wife Dolores (Loly) Gomez Izquierdo, the same who shared with him the adventures
and hardships of fieldwork in the forests of Quintana Roo half a century
ago.
FREDERICK J DOCKSTADER, 79, author and scholar of Native American art
and culture, died of lymphoma in New York City on March 21, 1998. Born
in Los Angeles, CA, Dockstader received his BA and MA from Arizona State
College, Flagstaff (1940, 1941) and his PhD from Western Reserve U (1951).
On the staff of Cranbrook Institute of Science (1946-52), he designed and
installed many of its ethnological exhibits while pursuing research in
the American Indian field. From graduate study with the Hopi came his The
Kachina and the White Man (1954, 1985). While at Cranbrook, he met and
married Alice Elizabeth Warren.
Dockstader joined Dartmouth College faculty in 1952, serving as the
college museum's curator of anthropology. In 1955 he became assistant director
of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York City,
and was director from 1960 to 1975. Although he left the museum during
a furor over deaccessioning practices, it was never demonstrated that he
benefited personally from any of these exchanges. Dockstader liked to point
out that many of the objects acquired during his tenure were highlighted
in exhibitions mounted by his successors. The uproar caused by problems
at the Museum of the American Indian encouraged many other cultural institutions
to reexamine their acquisition and deaccessioning policies.
While at the museum, Dockstader began to write the series of books
on Native American art for which he became well-known. Indian Art in America
(1962) was followed by Indian Art in Middle America (1964) and Indian Art
in South America (1967), completing one of the first comprehensive surveys
of aboriginal art in the Americas. These publications, along with Indian
Art of the Americas (1973), showcased the remarkable, but relatively unpublished,
collections of the museum. During his years at the museum, Dockstader,
a prize-winning silversmith, served as a commissioner of the Indian Arts
and Craft Board of the US Department of the Interior. He chaired that body
from 1962 to 1967. He also was an adjunct professor in Columbia U's department
of art and archaeology. He was appointed a trustee of the museum's Huntington
Free Library in 1969 and served in that position until his death.
In the years that followed his tenure at the Museum of the American
Indian, Dockstader worked in the field of Native American art. He catalogued
numerous private collections of Indian artifacts, mounted several museum
exhibitions and was adjunct professor of art at Arizona State U. He was
awarded honorary doctorates from Hartwick College (1991) and U of South
Dakota (1992). He continued to publish. Great North American Indians: Profiles
in Life and Leadership (1977) remains a basic reference work. Song of the
Loom: New Traditions in Navajo Weaving (1987), a catalog of a Montclair
Art Museum exhibit, won a "Wrangler" award from the Cowboy Hall of Fame
(1988). When he died, he had just completed the manuscript for a "Dictionary
of American Indian Art." Those who knew Fred Dockstader will remember him
for his ebullient spirit and dedication to the field of American Indian
studies. (Mary B Davis)
JULIAN DODGE HAYDEN, 87, an authority on the archaeology of the Sonoran
Desert, died at his home in Tucson, AZ, March 6, 1998, following a battle
with emphysema. He was born January 10, 1911, in Hamilton, Missouri.
Hayden's early interest in archaeology was stimulated by his father
Irwin. When Hayden graduated from Riverside High School, CA (1927), he
began to get field experience accompanying his father on archaeological
projects.
Hayden's 1935 Snaketown dig was the beginning of his long association
with Emil W Haury. While there, he recorded a Pima creation narrative and
the last performances of the O'odham Vikita ceremony, contributing significantly
to ethnography of the region. There Hayden met Helen Pendleton. They were
married in 1935 and had 4 children: Julian Jr, Mary (Hermans), Serena (Camacho)
and Stephen.
Hayden was employed at the Pueblo Grande Ruin in Phoenix (1936-40),
with trips to record Pima pottery making. While there he developed skills
as a silversmith, producing jewelry based on Hohokam and Aztec motifs.
In 1938 he worked briefly with Malcolm Rogers at the C W Harris site, the
type site for Rogers's San Dieguito III complex. Hayden excavated the University
Indian Ruin in Tucson (1940). He supervised excavation at Ventana Cave
for Haury (1942) and participated in Haury's 1964-65 re-excavation of Snaketown,
contributing innovative use of the backhoe for exploratory purposes.
During World War II, Hayden was a civilian employee of the US Army
Engineers. In 1945 he moved to Tucson and established the Hayden Excavation
Service (offering top soil, sewage disposal systems and precast septic
tanks and manholes). From 1956-78 he published a weekly advertisement in
Tucson newspapers, "Hayden Says," in which he promoted his business and
commented on topics that delighted and infuriated readers. He often featured
archaeological events and ideas, making an important contribution to the
popularization of archaeology in southern Arizona.
Hayden systematically explored the entire Pinacate range. His observations
of differential desert varnish on tools found in the desert pavement led
him to define and defend the Malpais culture occupation of the Pinacate
and Sonoran Desert during the Pleistocene.
Hayden was a rugged individual and could have been the model for A
V Kidder's "hairy-chested archaeologist." He was a gentle, gracious, generous
and caring person with a tremendous sense of humor, deep respect for others
and willingness to share his knowledge and research. Although he attended
junior college, he had no academic training in archaeology. He received
the Crabtree Award for Avocational Archaeology from the Society for American
Archaeology (1988). The Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society honored
him with its Cummings Award for Outstanding Research (1987) and he served
as vice-president (1960-61), president (1961-65) and editor of the Society's
journal Kiva (1970-71). Although he held an honorary position as research
associate in the Arizona State Museum, he was by choice an independent
scholar.
The current issue of the Journal of the Southwest is dedicated to Hayden.
He did not live to see publication of his The Sierra Pinacate, scheduled
to appear this summer, but it will stand as a lasting reminder of his determination
to discover the prehistoric people who occupied that largely unknown desert
region.
LEWIS LEON KLEIN, 59, anthropologist, primate ethologist, environmental
and community activist, died August 15, 1997, in a San Francisco hospital,
of complications following heart surgery.
Klein was born in New York, where he earned his undergraduate degree
in sociology and English. He received his doctorate in anthropology from
UC-Berkeley in 1972 for his dissertation on the ecology and social organization
of the spider monkey (Ateles belzebuth), based on his research in a remote
location in Colombia.
Klein was a pioneer ethologist whose scope and vision encompassed evolutionary
biology, animal behavior and anthropology. His energy and enthusiasm were
fueled by his boundless intellect and uncanny perceptive ability. He was
an exuberant teacher who could grasp an essential idea or make innovative
connections with a facility bewildering to those around him. His original
contributions to the study of New World primates and socioecology helped
set the standard that others hoped to follow, and his accomplishments have
stood the test of time. For example, publications by Klein and his wife
Dorothy on social and ecological contrasts among 4 taxa of Neotropical
primates, and the feeding behavior of Colombian spider monkeys were mentioned
favorably in the late Warren Kinzey's summary article "New World Primate
Studies" in the History of Physical Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, vol
2, 1997. Klein moved to McKinleyville in northern California in 1982, where
he increasingly became dedicated to preserving the environmental quality
of the community he encountered there. He was an active member of the conservation
committee of the Redwood Region chapter of the Audubon Society and served
as its treasurer and delegate to the Northcoast Environmental Center. He
was instrumental in making Humboldt County comply with general land-management
policies and state regulations affecting North Coast rivers and streams.
Klein was an elected director of the McKinleyville Community Services District,
and a founding director of the McKinleyville Land Trust. He strove constantly
to protect environmental resources and public interests in the face of
land development and suburban growth. At the time of his death, Klein was
studying law through correspondence courses to protect the environment
more effectively.
Klein's intellectual honesty was refreshing, and his environmental
stewardship was compelling. His tireless dedication, critical wit and humble
awe of nature were a shining beacon that touched and inspired professional
colleagues and community members alike. Klein is survived by his wife Dorothy
and son Sorel.
Thank you, Lewis, for that glow which, to this day, helps illuminate
my life. Dorothy Klein has set up the Lewis Klein Memorial Fund at Humboldt
Bank, 2095 Central Ave, McKinleyville, CA 95519, to promote local environmental
awareness. (Based on an obituary in Times-Standard, August 17, 1997, and
a tribute by Chad Roberts in Econews, September, 1997. Robert D Rondinelli)
YEDIDA KALFON STILLMAN, 51, died on February 22, 1998, after a valiant
10-month struggle against cancer. She was professor of history, Near Eastern
languages and women's studies at the U of Oklahoma since 1995. Stillman
was world's acknowledged expert on the history of the clothing of the Arab
world, both Muslim and Jewish, from medieval to modern times and did extensive
research on Sephardi and Oriental Jewish ethnography.
Born in Morocco and raised in Israel, Stillman did her undergraduate
studies in folk literature at the Hebrew U and was a researcher at the
Ethnographic Department of the Israel Museum and for the Israel Folklore
Archives. In 1967 she came to the US to marry Norman A Stillman, who became
her lifelong partner and scholarly collaborator. She earned her MA in folklore
and folklife (1968) and completed her doctorate in Oriental studies at
the U of Pennsylvania (1972), with a dissertation on medieval Egyptian
female attire from the trousseau lists of the Cairo Geniza.
Even before obtaining her first academic position at Binghamton U of
the State U of New York, Stillman was engaged by the Museum of International
Folk Art and the International Folk Art Foundation of Santa Fe, NM, to
prepare a major study on its collection of Palestinian costume and jewelry,
which resulted in a major exhibition and a book (1979) subvented by the
National Endowment for the Arts. In subsequent years, she held guest curatorial
and consulting positions at the Smithsonian Institution, Jewish Museum
in New York, Jewish Museum of Greece, Joods Historische Museum of Amsterdam,
Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv and many others. She was on the boards
of several international organizations and learned societies, including
the International Society for Judeo-Arabic Studies and Centre de Recherche
sur les Juifs du Maroc. Over the years Stillman was highly successful at
obtaining grants for her research from such agencies and foundations as
the National Endowment for the Humanities, Littauer Foundation, American
Philosophical Society, American Research Center in Egypt, Institute of
Turkish Studies, Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem and the Bradley Foundation,
which for the past 8 years was the principal ongoing supporter of her life's
work on Middle Eastern and North African costume history. In 1994-95, Stillman
was senior Fulbright research scholar at Muhammad V U, in Rabat, Morocco,
where she conducted a study on Moroccan women and modernity.
In addition to 5 published books (2 in collaboration with her husband),
Stillman was the author of numerous scholarly articles, encyclopedia entries,
journalistic articles and reviews in several languages. Two major books
were in progress at the time of her death: a history of Arab dress and
an encyclopedic dictionary of Arab clothing.
Stillman's contribution as a teacher was no less important than her
scholarship. In 1978 she was honored with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for
Excellence in Teaching. Many of her students, who always knew her simply
as Yedida, became lifelong friends. (Norman A Stillman)
CLAUDIO VILLAS BOAS, 82, frontiersman and indigenist, died March 1,
1998, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, far from the scenes of his and his brothers'
triumphs and tragedies. For more than 20 years, from the mid-1940s until
the late 1960s, Claudio, Orlando and (until his early death) Leonardo Villas
Boas sought to protect Brazilian Indians from the onslaught of ranchers,
farmers, loggers, miners and developers who were opening up Brazil's interior.
Ironically, the Villas Boas brothers had played a crucial role in making
Brazil's Amazonian heartland more accessible to outsiders.
In 1943, as young men, the brothers participated in a government expedition
to the Roncador/Xingu region in central Brazil. The expedition was part
of a "March to the West" promoted by Brazil's dictator, Getulio Vargas.
In the interior they made contact with many indigenous groups whose existence
was threatened by the expansion of Brazilian society.
From then on, the Villas Boas brothers became the principal defenders
of Brazil's Amazonian Indians. After years of lobbying, in 1961 they succeeded
in convincing the Brazilian government to establish the Xingu Indigenous
Park, a 10,000-square-mile area in the state of Mato Grosso. Eighteen peoples
moved into the park, where 17 of them still live in harmony. (The 18th
group, the Panar, also known as the Kreenakrore, have moved back to part
of their ancestral territory, northwest of the Xingu Park.) For years the
Villas Boas brothers ran the park, but more recently an indigenous director
has administered it. Today the Xingu Park is completely surrounded by Brazilian
settlements, ranches and development projects.
In 1966 the brothers helped create FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation,
successor to the government's corrupt and ineffectual Indian Protection
Service. Later, their rescue and forced relocation of the Panar to Xingu
Park had mixed results. This action may have saved the group from extinction,
but the Panar were never happy in the park and returned to their homeland
as soon as they could, in the mid-1990s.
Apparently disillusioned as Brazilian encroachment on indigenous lands
continued, Claudio and Orlando Villas Boas left the forest in the mid-1970s
and retired to Sao Paulo. At a farewell news conference in 1973, Claudio
lamented, "All the pacified Indians slowly lose their characteristics and
authenticity and their culture is corrupted through contact with civilized
outsiders. Once pacified, they stop being free."
Many anthropologists might cavil with Claudio's pessimistic assessment,
the product of old-fashioned Rousseauian romanticism. But no one can doubt
the significance of the Villas Boas brothers' work to preserve indigenous
peoples' physical and cultural integrity in the Xingu Park, their most
important monument. (Linda Rabben)
ALSO NOTED: BILL REID, 78, recognized as North America's greatest aboriginal
artist, died March 13, 1998, in Canada after a 30-year battle with Parkinson's
disease. Best known for his great bronze sculpture "The Spirit of Haida
Gawaii," Reid also carved the yellow cedar sculpture "The Raven and First
Men," the bronze "The Killer Whale" and "Lootas," a 60-foot war canoe.
Recipient of 9 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and honored
by numerous awards, Reid exhibited his work throughout the world. He also
coauthored, with Bill Holm, Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue
on Craftsmanship And Aestheitcs. Reid is survived by his wife Martine,
daughter Amanda Reid-Stevens and 4 grandchildren.
GEORGE S LEWIS, an avocational archaeologist from Augusta, GA, died
in December 1997. He was president of the South Carolina and Georgia state
archaeological societies and received the highest awards each society had
to offer (Caldwell Lifetime Service Award, Stephenson Lifetime Service
Award), plus a great many lesser honors (eg, twice winner of the South
Carolina Archaeologist of the Year).
CARLETON PUTNAM, 96, former chairman of Delta Air Lines and outspoken
opponent of racial integration, died March 5, 1998, in Charlottesville,
VA. Putnam embarked on a campaign to fight integration at the time of Brown
vs Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that outlawed school
segregation. He wrote a reply to a Life magazine editorial supporting the
decision, which was published in the Richmond Times-Democrat. Within weeks,
the "Putnam letter," as it became known, had been published in newspapers
all over the South, creating a huge demand for reprints and drawing thousands
of letters of support, which he used as the basis for Race and Reason,
A Yankee View (1961). Seeing the 1954 decision as a result of an insidious
campaign for "equalitarianism" by anthropologist Franz Boas and other social
scientists, Putnam took pains to discredit their work. Putnam devoted much
of his book to arguing that when it came to personal characteristics that
produced the glories of Western civilization, the Negro race could not
hold a candle to the white race. The evidence he amassed was so impressive
and thoughtfully presented, it was easy to overlook the fact that it was
irrelevant. The Supreme Court, after all, had not used sociological evidence
to establish that black people were the intellectual equals of white people,
but only that they had been harmed by forced segregation. Whatever their
capacities, as citizens they were entitled to equal protection of the laws.
By the time Putnam published a sequel, Race and Reality (1967), Race and
Reason had sold more than 150,000 copies, been widely embraced by Southern
politicians and made required reading for teachers and advanced students
in Louisiana. It is testimony to its power of persuasion in some quarters
that, by his own account, reading the book as a self-described "liberal"
junior high school student sent David Duke on the course that led him to
become a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. |
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