Marvin Opler
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Marvin Kaufmann Opler (June 13, 1914 in
Biography
Education
Marvin Opler attended the
Marvin Opler was granted an A.B. in social studies from the University of Michigan in 1935. After college, he continued his academic career at
, he was granted a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1938.Early ethnographic work
In his work with the Ute and Paiute peoples, Marvin Opler noted that Ute and Paiute
Work on Japanese-American internment
From 1943 until 1946, Opler worked as a Community Analyst at the
Historian Peter Suzuki writes that most of the anthropologists who worked for the War Relocation Authority (WRA) accepted the government's action of interning the Japanese Americans as morally justified. Suzuki believes, however, that Marvin Opler's work was a model of the positive role that these anthropologists could have played. Suzuki suggests that Opler's acknowledgment of a wider social and political field as part of his analysis, Opler's criticism of the segregation of so-called "loyal" versus "disloyal" internees, and the respect that Opler paid to Japanese culture made his work such a model.
At Tule Lake, Marvin Opler befriended several well-known Japanese American internees. One of these was Yamato Ichihashi, one of the first academics of Asian ancestry in the United States. Ichihashi wrote a comprehensive account of his experiences as an internee. Opler was impressed by the work of George Tamura, a Japanese American artist who spent his teenage years imprisoned at Tule Lake. Marvin Opler also co-authored an article on Senryū folk poetry with another internee, F. Obayashi, which was published in the Journal of American Folklore in 1945.
In his book Threatening Anthropology anthropologist
After the internment camps were closed, Opler taught anthropology and sociology at various colleges, including
Social psychiatry
It was in 1952 that Opler joined the Midtown Community Mental Health Research Study (New York), which hinted at widespread stresses and psychopathology among city-dwellers. Opler directed the Ethnic Family Operation within the Midtown Study. This portion of the project investigated sociocultural factors relating to mental health. Although Opler's work was intended to be the third volume of the study, he died before it could be published. The most complete draft of this intended third volume is housed with his papers in the Columbia Health Science Library Archives. His work in social psychiatry also yielded observations of differences in the manifestations of
In 1964, The First International Congress of Social Psychiatry was held in London. This conference was co-organized by Opler and the British social psychiatrist Joshua Bierer. That same year, Marvin Opler toured the psychiatric hospitals of Moscow with his wife Charlotte and fellow anthropologist Robert F. Spencer. Spencer later admitted that he was not impressed by Opler's abilities as an anthropological theorist. Spencer also conceded that Spencer's own abilities did not impress himself, either. On the other hand, some scholars, such as Richard Drinnon and Peter Suzuki, seemed to have more respect for Opler's ideas. Richard Drinnon believed that Opler's insights into cultural revivalism deserved more systematic study than they had received.[citation needed] One of the popular articles of Opler was 'Cross-cultural aspects of kissing' which appeared in the Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality journal in 1969.
Family
In December 1935, the same year that he earned his degree from the University of Michigan, Marvin Opler married vocational specialist and student counselor Charlotte Fox, who subsequently became involved in biological research, Japanese-American rights, and environmental activism. They divorced in 1970. Their children include Ruth Opler Perry and Lewis Alan Opler.
Death
Marvin Kaufmann Opler died on January 3, 1981. His memorial was held in New York, where he was remembered both for his scholarly contributions as well as for his work with the community. His papers are housed in the Columbia University Health Sciences Library Archives [1].
Publications
Marvin Opler was a prolific writer and some of his publications are listed below.
On anthropology
- With R. Linton, Acculturation in Seven American Indian Tribes, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1940.
- Opler, Marvin K. The Integration of the Sun Dance in Ute Religion. American Anthropologist October–December, 1941 Vol.43(4):551-572.
- Women's Social Status and the Forms of Marriage. American Journal of Sociology. Spring, 1943.
- The Creative Role of Shamanism in Mescalero Apache Mythology. Journal of American Folklore. 59:268-281, 1946.
- The Creek Town and the Problem of Creek Indian Political Reorganization. in Edward Spicer, Human Problems and Technological Change, 1953.
- Contributor, North American Indians in Historical Perspective, Random House, 1971.
On social psychiatry
- Culture, Psychiatry and Human Values, C. C. Thomas, 1956.
- Entities and organization in individual and group behavior - a conceptual framework. Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. 9 (4): 290-300, 1956.
- Co-author, Symposium on Preventive and Social Psychiatry, Walter Reed Institute of Research, 1958.
- Co-author, Clinical Studies in Culture Conflict, G. Seward (ed.), Ronald Press, 1958.
- Cross-Cultural Uses of Psychoactive Drugs (Ethnopsychopharmacology). In W.G. Clark, Ph.D. & J. del Giudice, M.D. (editors) Principles of Psychopharmacology, pp. 31–47. New York: Academic Press, 1970.
- Editor and co-author, Culture and Mental Health, Macmillan, 1959.
- With L. Srole, T. Sanger, S. Michael, and T.A.C. Rennie, Mental Health in the Metropolis: The Midtown Manhattan Study, McGraw, 1962.
- Culture and Social Psychiatry, Atherton, 1967. [2]
- Contributor, Modern Perspectives in International Child Psychiatry, Oliver & Boyd, 1969.
- International and cultural conflicts affecting mental health. Violence, suicide and withdrawal. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 23(4): 608-620, 1969.
- Social Conceptions of Deviance. in H. Resnik and M. Wolfgang, eds., Sexual Behaviors: Social, Clinical, and Legal Aspects. Little Brown and Co., 1972.
On Japanese-American internment and culture
- With K. Luomala, Impounded People, University of Arizona Press, republished in 1969.
- A "Sumo" Tournament at Tule Lake Center. American Anthropologist. Jan-Mar, 1945 Vol.47 (1):134-139.
- With F. Obayashi. Senryu poetry as folk expression. Journal of American Folklore. 58 (1-3/45).
Other contributions
He also contributed to many professional journals and held the following positions:
- Associate editor, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 1957–58, editor, 1958–81; associate editor of American Anthropologist, 1962–65, and Psychosomatics.
Papers and correspondence
Marvin K. Opler's papers and correspondence are primarily housed in the Columbia University Health Sciences Library Archives [3].
Other papers and correspondence of Opler's can be found in the following library collections:
- The Japanese American Research Project at the Manuscripts Division of the Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California, Los Angeles
- The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records at the Bancroft Library of The University of California, Berkeley (finding aid available via the Online Archive of California)
- The Leslie A. White Papers at the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library
- The Ruth Benedict Papers at the Vassar College Library
- The Franz Boas Collection at the American Philosophical Society
- The Ralph Leon Beals Papers at the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- The Elsie Clews Parsons Papers at the American Philosophical Society
- The Elizabeth Tooker Papers at the American Philosophical Society
- The William Duncan Strong Papers at the National Anthropological Archives
- The Alfred I. Hallowell Papers at the American Philosophical Society
- The E. Adamson Hoebel Papers at the American Philosophical Society
- The W. Horsley Gantt Papers at the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
- The A. L. Kroeber Papers at the University of California, Berkeley
- The Charles Easton Rothwell Papers at the Hoover Institution Archives of Stanford University (finding aid available via the Online Archive of California)
- The Yamato Ichihashi Papers at the Stanford University Archives (finding aid available via the Online Archive of California)
- The Records of the Department of Anthropology at The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley (finding aid available via the Online Archive of California)
- The Dorothy Eggan Papers[permanent dead link] at the University of Chicago
- The Marvin Farber Papers at the University archives of the State University of New York University at Buffalo
- The Charles E. Borden fonds at the University of British Columbia Archives
- The Albert Mayer Papers at the University of Chicago
- The Melville Jacobs Papers at the University of Washington Libraries
References
- The Beacon. (May 10, 2007) "Obituaries - Acton - Charlotte Sagoff, 92." GateHouse News Service. [4]
- Chang, Gordon H. Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Internment Writings, 1942-1945. Stanford University Press, 1999.
- de la Paz, Diane Urbani. Paintings recall California internment camp, which closed 60 years ago this week. Peninsula Daily News. March 19, 2006. [5]
- Drinnon, Richard. Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism. University of California Press, 1987.
- Gale Reference Team. Biography - Opler, Marvin K(aufmann) (1914–1981) Contemporary Authors Online, Thomas Gale, 2004.
- Hansen, Arthur A. (July 15–17, 1987) Interview with Robert F. Spencer. Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study, Gila War Relocation Center.
- Hovens, Peter and Herlaar, Jiska. (2004) Early Anthropology on the Southwest-Great Basin Frontier: The 1883 Fieldwork of Herman Ten Kate. Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 46.
- Kiyota, Minoru. Beyond Loyalty: the story of a Kibei. University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
- Opler, Marvin in Tom C. Clark, Attorney General of the United States and William A. Carmichael, District Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, District 16 vs. Albert Yuichi Inouye, Miye Mae Murakami, Tsutako Sumi, and Mutsu Shimizu. No. 11839, United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. August 1947.
- Opler, Morris. Marvin Kaufmann Opler. American Anthropologist. September, 1981 Vol.83(3):617-619.[6]
- Price, David H. Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists. Duke University Press, 2004.
- Price, David H. and Peace, William J. Un-American anthropological thought: The Opler-Meggers exchange. Journal of Anthropological Research. vol. 59, no2, pp. 183–203, 2003.
- Shallit, Barney. Songs of Anger: Tales of Tule Lake. California State University, 2001.
- Stein, Rita. Disturbed Youth and Ethnic Family Patterns. State University of New York Press, 1971.
- Susser, Ida and Patterson, Thomas C. Cultural Diversity in the United States. Blackwell Publishing, 2000.
- The Columbia University Health Sciences Library Archives [7]
- Opler, Marvin K. (1969) Cross-cultural aspects of kissing. Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, Feb, vol.3(2): 11, 14, 17, 20-21.