John Peabody Harrington
John P. Harrington | |
|---|---|
Field ethnologist | |
| Spouse | Carobeth Laird |
John Peabody Harrington (April 29, 1884 – October 21, 1961) was an American
ethnologist and a specialist in the indigenous peoples of California. Harrington is noted for the massive volume of his documentary output, most of which remains unpublished: the shelf space in the National Anthropological Archives dedicated to his work spans nearly 700 feet.[1]
Early life and education
Born in
Native American languages and ethnography
.
Linguistic legacy
Guna language
Rather than completing his doctorate at the Universities of
Mojave, among many others. Harrington also extended his work into traditional culture, particularly mythology and geography. His field collections include information on placenames and thousands of photographs. The massive collections were disorganized in the extreme, and contained not only linguistic manuscripts and recordings, but also objects and realia of every stripe; a later cataloger described how opening each box of his legacy was "an adventure in itself."[2] He published very little of his work; many of his notes appear to have been deliberately hidden from his colleagues. After his death, Smithsonian curators discovered over six tons of boxes stored in warehouses, garages and even chicken coops throughout the West.[3]
Harrington is virtually the only recorder of some languages, such as
Serrano. He gathered more than 1 million pages of phonetic notations on languages spoken by tribes from Alaska to South America. When the technology became available, he supplemented his written record with audio recordings - many recently digitized[4] - first using wax cylinders, then aluminum discs.[1] He is credited with gathering some of the first recordings of native languages, rituals, and songs, and perfecting the phonetics of several different languages.[5] Harrington's attention to detail, both linguistic and cultural, is well-illustrated in "Tobacco among the Karuk Indians of California," one of his relatively few formally published works.[6]
In 1933, at age 87, Isabel Meadows was invited to Washington D.C., to assist Harrington with his research on the Rumsen life, language, and culture in the Carmel Valley, California and Big Sur regions. Isabel was last known speaker of their language.[7] They worked together until the end of her life, on May 20, 1939, at age 94, in Washington D.C.[8]
A more complete listing of the languages he documented includes:[9]
Personal life
Harrington was married to Carobeth Laird (née Tucker) from 1916 to 1923, a relationship that Laird later chronicled in her 1975 memoir Encounter with an Angry God. They had one daughter, Awona Harrington.[10]
See also
- Indigenous languages of California
- Traditional narratives (Native California)
- Native American history of California
- Native Americans in California
- Survey of California and Other Indian Languages
References
- JSTOR 30028216.
- ^ Callaghan, C. A (1991). "Encounter with John P. Harrington". Anthropological Linguistics. 33 (4): 350–356.
- ^ Lisa M. Krieger, "Long gone Native languages emerge from the grave", The Mercury News, 23 December 2007.
- ^ "Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution". collections.si.edu. Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
- Mercury News. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
- ^ Harrington, John P. 1932. "Tobacco among the Karuk Indians of California. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 94. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington.
- ^ Meighan, Clement W. (1952). "Excavation of Isabella Meadows Cave, Monterey County California" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
- ^ "Isabel Meadows, Valley Pioneer, Dies in East". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. 1939-05-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- ISBN 978-0-520-26667-4.
- ^ Laird, Carobeth. 1975. Encounter with an Angry God: Recollections of my Life with John Peabody Harrington. Malki Museum Press, Banning, CA.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Peabody Harrington.
- J.P. Harrington Database Project Archived 2015-06-10 at the Wayback Machine
- Victor Golla, California Indian Languages (UC Press, 2011)
- Bibliography
- John Peabody Harrington: the clue to lost Native American languages: Mike Anton LA Times Staff Writer ()
- Keepers of Indigenous Ways: J.P. Harrington Biography
- "Reconstituting the Chumash: A Review Essay," Peter Nabokov, American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 4, Special Issue: The California Indians. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 535-543.
- A Harrington Chronology
- John P. Harrington Papers 1907-1959 (some earlier)
- Los Angeles Times article and video about Harrington's research amongst the Chumash
- The John Peabody Harrington Collection at the National Anthropological Archives
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