Barbara Helen Tedlock (born September 9, 1942- September 11,2023) was an American

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term s ...

and oneirologist. She was a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Buffalo. Her work explores cross-cultural understanding and communication of

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

ethnomedicine Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. The ...

, and

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

and focuses on the indigenous Zuni of the Southwestern United States and the Kʼicheʼ

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

. Through her study and practice of the healing traditions of the Kʼicheʼ

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, Tedlock became initiated into

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

. She was the collaborator and wife of the late anthropologist and poet Dennis Tedlock.

Early life and education

Barbara Helen Tedlock was born in

Battle Creek, Michigan Battle Creek is a city in northwestern Calhoun County, Michigan, United States, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo River, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek River, Battle Creek rivers. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a tota ...

, to Byron Taylor and Mona Gerteresse (O'Connor) McGrath. Tedlock earned a Bachelor's degree in Rhetoric from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1967. In 1973, she earned a Master's in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

. Tedlock completed her PhD in Anthropology at

SUNY Albany The State University of New York at Albany (University at Albany, UAlbany, or SUNY Albany) is a public research university in Albany, New York, United States. Founded in 1844, it is one of four "university centers" of the State University of N ...

in 1978.

Career

After earning her PhD, Tedlock taught at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, and the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. In 1987, Tedlock joined the State University of New York, Buffalo anthropology faculty. That same year, she edited ''Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations'', an anthology significant for presenting cross-cultural perspectives on dreaming. The collection featured cultural perspectives that challenge the typical Western conception of dreaming as a phenomenon existing completely separate from

objective reality The distinction between subjectivity and objectivity is a basic idea of philosophy, particularly epistemology and metaphysics. Various understandings of this distinction have evolved through the work of countless philosophers over centuries. One b ...

. Tedlock examined how linguistic conventions mediate the performance and interpretation of dream experience. She explored how communications about dreams reveal patterns and variations around how different cultures perceive the role and significance of dreaming. For example, the Kʼicheʼ

people use the first-person pronoun "I" to narrate dreams with the understanding that this "I" does not necessarily relate to the conscious self of the dream teller. Likewise, the use of third person pronouns, particularly in relating negative dreams, communicates distance between the dream teller and the experience of the dream self. Tedlock rejected the existence of any hard boundary between anthropologist and the peoples with whom they interact in the field. She advocated for narrative

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

as a methodological innovation that honored and more accurately represented the intertwining, interdependent relationship between anthropologist and the subjects of their research. From 1993 to 1997, Tedlock, with collaborator and husband Dennis Tedlock, edited ''American Anthropologis''t, the American Anthropological Association's flagship journal. In 1998, she became the chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Buffalo. Tedlock serves on the Anthropology and Humanism advisory board.

Publications

Books

''Time and the Highland Maya'' (1992) ''The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Encounters with the Zuni Indians'' (2001) ''The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine''. (2005).

Co-authored or edited books

''Teachings from the American Earth: Indian Religion and Philosophy'' (1975) ''Dreaming: Anthropological and psychological interpretations''. (1987)

Selected articles and book chapters

Tedlock, B. (1981). Quiché Maya dream interpretation. ''Ethos'', ''9''(4), 313-330. doi.org/10.1525/eth.1981.9.4.02a00050 Tedlock, B. (1982). Sound texture and metaphor in Quiche Maya ritual language. ''

Current Anthropology ''Current Anthropology'' is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax1907-1995. ''Curren ...

'', ''23''(3), 269-272. doi.org/10.1086/202830 Tedlock, B. (1983). Zuni sacred theater. ''

American Indian Quarterly The ''American Indian Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering studies on the indigenous peoples of North and South America. It is published by the University of Nebraska Press and was established in 1974. The editor-in-ch ...

'', 93-110
doi:10.2307/1184258
Tedlock, B. (1984). The Beautiful and the Dangerous Zuni Ritual and Cosmology as an Aesthetic System. ''Conjunctions,'' (6), 246-265
jstor.org/stable/24515110
Tedlock, B. (1985). Hawks, meteorology and astronomy in Quiché-Maya agriculture. ''

Archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cultur ...

'', ''8'', 80. Tedlock, B. (1986). Keeping the breath nearby. ''Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly'', ''11''(4), 92-94. doi.org/10.1525/ahu.1986.11.4.92 Tedlock, B. (1987). An interpretive solution to the problem of humoral medicine in Latin America. ''Social science & medicine'', ''24''(12), 1069-1083. doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(87)90022-0 Tedlock, B. (1991). From participant observation to the observation of participation: The emergence of narrative ethnography. ''

Journal of Anthropological Research The ''Journal of Anthropological Research'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering anthropology. It was established in 1937 as the ''New Mexico Anthropologist'', with its first issue published on March 13 of that year. At the begi ...

'', ''47''(1), 69-94. doi.org/10.1086/jar.47.1.3630581 Tedlock, B. (1992). The role of dreams and visionary narratives in Mayan cultural survival. ''Ethos'', ''20''(4), 453-476
jstor.org/stable/640279
Tedlock, B. (1999). Maya Astronomy: what we know and how we know it. ''Archaeoastronomy'', ''14''(1), 39. Tedlock, B. (1999). Sharing and interpreting dreams in Amerindian nations. In D. Schulman & G.G. Stroumsa (Eds.), ''Dream cultures: Explorations in the comparative history of dreaming'', (pp. 87–103.) Oxford University Press. Tedlock, B. (2001). Divination as a way of knowing: Embodiment, visualisation, narrative, and interpretation. ''

Folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

'', ''112''(2), 189-197. doi.org/10.1080/00155870120082236 Tedlock, B. (2004). Narrative ethnography as social science discourse. ''Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 27'', 23-32. doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(04)27004-1 Tedlock, B. (2004). The poetics and spirituality of dreaming: A Native American enactive theory. ''Dreaming, 14''(2-3), 183–189. doi.org/10.1037/1053-0797.14.2-3.183 Tedlock, B. (2006). Toward a theory of divinatory practice. ''Anthropology of Consciousness'', ''17''(2), 62-77. doi.org/10.1525/ac.2006.17.2.62 Tedlock, B. (2007). Bicultural dreaming as an intersubjective communicative process. ''Dreaming, 17''(2), 57–72. doi.org/10.1037/1053-0797.17.2.57 Tedlock, B. (2009). Writing a storied life: Nomadism and double consciousness in transcultural ethnography. ''Etnofoor'', ''21''(1), 21-38
jstor.org/stable/25758148
Tedlock, B. (2013). Braiding evocative with analytic autoethnography. In S.L. Holman Jones, T.E. Adams, & C. Ellis (Eds.), ''Handbook of autoethnography'', 358-362.

Co-authored articles

Tedlock, B., & Tedlock, D. (1985). Text and textile: Language and technology in the arts of the Quiché Maya. ''Journal of Anthropological Research'', ''41''(2), 121-146. doi.org/10.1086/jar.41.2.3630412 Tedlock, D., & Tedlock, B. (2002). The Sun, Moon, and Venus Among the Stars: Methods for Mapping Mayan Sidereal Space. ''Archaeoastronomy'', 17.

Awards

Society of Humanistic Anthropology Prize for Ethnographic Fiction (1986) (for " Keeping the Breath Nearby"). American Anthropological Association President's Award (1997) (with Dennis Tedlock)

References

External links

*
Breaking the Maya Code, Transcript of Filmed 2005 Interview with Barbara and Dennis Tedlock, Night Fire Films
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tedlock, Barbara 1942 births University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American anthropologists American women anthropologists University at Buffalo faculty Shamans Oneirologists Living people American women academics American Anthropologist editors 21st-century American women People from Battle Creek, Michigan American ethnomusicologists Women ethnomusicologists Ethnobiologists