ANTH 208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: New York State Senate, Algic Languages, Ethnography
ANTH 208 Week Two Lecture Notes
● Recognizable ethnography starts being seen in the early 19th century.
○ Notes on the Iroquois by Henry Roe Schoolcraft comes out around then (1846),
focusing on mostly the ones living in central and western New York. Possibly can
count as an ethnography, possibly not.
○ Schoolcraft was born in Albany, book was written quickly in order to finish a
report for the New York State Senate about conditions of Native Americans,
second edition in 1847 more anthropologically correct one.
■ At one point went to the Northwest territories wrote the first book on
mining, then lived for a while in the Western Great Lakes and found the
mouth of the Mississippi river and met the governor of Michigan and John
C. Calhoun.
■ Was campaigning for the US gov. To have a post that was in charge of
the dept. Of mining. Didn’t work out.
■ Lived in Hamilton for a few years and started a literary magazine and
eventually got an appointment as the Indian Agent for the Western Great
Lakes but didn’t really do much with it.
■ Met and falls in love with Jane Johnson who was half Algonquin and was
very well-educated and came from a family that also was. Wrote a book of
poetry and art back and forth to one another which was later published
making her the first Native American poet published as well as first Native
American woman writer.
■ Johnson’s mother knew all the folklore of the Cree Indians and many of
the other Algonquins of the area which Schoolcraft published in a book
called Algic Researches. After this gets job with New York state and
writes book Notes on the Iroquois.
● League of the Iroquois (1851) actually a series of magazine articles. Dedicated to Ely S.
Parker his primary source in the Iroquois, a Seneca. Has the markers of being objective,
holistic, carrying the emic perspective and is uses an exegesis native american
perspective. A full ethnography in other words.
○ Morgan is actually fairly functionalist in this book, but functionalism separated
itself from it’s old nineteenth century version in the twentieth century.
■ Then was asking questions about the reasons behind the things people in
cultures did but not answering them in a way they were in the 20th
century.
○ Durkheim developed what we think of functionalism in the 20th century which
focused on how things worked in the moment component wise. Understanding
things in relation to the parts of the whole.
● Notes on the Iroquois not epiphetic though it was objective and with good sources, an at
least proto-holistic view and is etic but not emic.
○ Schoolcraft didn’t have that element of functionalism.
● The intellectual and social functions of ethnographies thus start to come into play with
the creation of ethnography.
Document Summary
Recognizable ethnography starts being seen in the early 19th century. Notes on the iroquois by henry roe schoolcraft comes out around then (1846), focusing on mostly the ones living in central and western new york. Possibly can count as an ethnography, possibly not. Schoolcraft was born in albany, book was written quickly in order to finish a report for the new york state senate about conditions of native americans, second edition in 1847 more anthropologically correct one. To have a post that was in charge of the dept. Lived in hamilton for a few years and started a literary magazine and eventually got an appointment as the indian agent for the western great. Lakes but didn"t really do much with it. Met and falls in love with jane johnson who was half algonquin and was very well-educated and came from a family that also was.
