
The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the
Indians of North America from the
Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...
to the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
. But from the start, the bureau's visionary founding director,
John Wesley Powell, promoted a broader mission: "to organize anthropologic research in America." Under Powell, the bureau organized research-intensive multi-year projects; sponsored
ethnographic
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 ...
,
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and
linguistic
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
field research; initiated publications series (most notably its Annual Reports and Bulletins); and promoted the fledgling discipline of
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
. It prepared exhibits for expositions and collected anthropological artifacts for the Smithsonian United States National Museum. In addition, the BAE was the official repository of documents concerning American Indians collected by the various US geological surveys, especially the Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region and the
Geological Survey of the Territories. It developed a manuscript repository, library and illustrations section that included photographic work and the collection of photographs.
In 1897, the Bureau of Ethnology's name changed to the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) to emphasize the geographic limit of its interests, although its staff briefly conducted research in US possessions such as Hawaii and the Philippines. In 1965, the BAE merged with the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology to form the Smithsonian Office of Anthropology within the United States National Museum (now the Department of Anthropology,
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 ...
). In 1968, the SOA archives became the
National Anthropological Archives
The National Anthropological Archives is the third largest archive in the Smithsonian Institution and a sister archive to the Human Studies Film Archive. The collection documents the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures, ...
.
Research
The BAE's staff included some of America's earliest field anthropologists, including
Frank Hamilton Cushing,
James Owen Dorsey,
Jesse Walter Fewkes,
Alice Cunningham Fletcher, John N.B. Hewitt,
Francis La Flesche,
Cosmos
The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...
and Victor Mindeleff,
James Mooney
James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the Great ...
,
William Henry Holmes,
Edward Palmer,
James Stevenson, and
Matilda Coxe Stevenson
Matilda Coxe Stevenson (''née'' Evans) (May 12, 1849 – June 24, 1915), who also wrote under the name Tilly E. Stevenson, was an American anthropologist. She was the first woman ever employed as an anthropologist in the U.S. She was also the ...
. In the 20th century, the BAE's staff included such anthropologists as
John Peabody Harrington (a linguist who spent more than 40 years documenting endangered languages),
Matthew Stirling, and
William C. Sturtevant. The BAE supported the work of many non-Smithsonian researchers (known as collaborators), most notably
Franz Boas
Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...
,
Frances Densmore,
Garrick Mallery
Garrick Mallery (April 25, 1831 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – October 24, 1894) was an American ethnologist specializing in Plains Indian Sign Language, Native American sign language and pictographs.
Family
His father was Judge Garrick ...
,
Washington Matthews,
Paul Radin
Paul Radin (April 2, 1883 – February 21, 1959) was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist of the early twentieth century specializing in Native American languages and cultures. The noted legal scholar Max Radin was his older brothe ...
,
Cyrus Thomas and
T.T. Waterman.
The BAE had three subunits: the Mound Survey (1882–1895); the Institute of Social Anthropology (1943–1952), and the River Basin Surveys (1946–1969).
Mound Survey
At the time the BAE was founded, there was intense controversy over the identity of the
Mound Builders
Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed "Mound Builders", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks that in ...
, the term for the prehistoric people who had built complex, monumental
earthwork mound
A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...
s. Archaeologists, both amateur and professional, were divided between believing the mounds were built by passing groups of people who settled in various places elsewhere, or believing they could have been built by Native Americans.
Cyrus Thomas, the Bureau's appointed head of the Division of Mound Exploration, eventually published his conclusions on the origins of the mounds in the Bureau's ''Annual Report of 1894.'' It is considered to be the last word in the controversy over the Mound builders' identities. After Thomas' publication, scholars generally accepted that varying cultures of
prehistoric
Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
indigenous peoples
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
, Native Americans, were the Mound builders.
See also
*
*
*
Moon eyed people
*
National Anthropological Archives
The National Anthropological Archives is the third largest archive in the Smithsonian Institution and a sister archive to the Human Studies Film Archive. The collection documents the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures, ...
References
* Fagan, Brian M. ''Ancient North America''. Thames & Hudson. New York, 2005
* Hinsley, Curtis M. 1994. ''The Smithsonian and the American Indian: making a moral anthropology in Victorian America''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Hodge, Frederick Webb, and Corinne L. Gilb. 1956. ''Frederick Webb Hodge, ethnologist''. Berkeley, Calif: University of California.* Judd, Neil Merton. ''The Bureau of American Ethnology; a partial history''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1967.
* Thomas, Cyrus
Report on the mound explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology Pp. 3–730. Twelfth annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1890–91, by J. W. Powell, Director. XLVIII+742 pp., 42 pls., 344 figs. 1894.
* Woodbury, Richard B., and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
"The Rise and Fall of the Bureau of American Ethnology."Journal of the Southwest, vol. 41, no. 3, 1999, pp. 283–296. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40170100.
External links
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian InstitutionDepartment of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution*
ttp://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date Digitized copies of the BAE Annual Reports at GallicaDigitized copies of BAE Annual Reports No. 1 - 15at
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...
Digitized copies of BAE Annual Reports No. 16 - 81at
Biodiversity Heritage Library
The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...
Digitized copies of BAE Bulletins No. 1 – 24Digitized copies of BAE Bulletins No. 25 – 200Register to the Records of the Bureau of American Ethnology National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
*
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkLSkaYCe10 Bruce Smith videoon the 1880s Smithsonian BAE Mound Survey explorations to determine who built the ancient earthen mounds in eastern North America can be viewed as part of serie
19th Century Explorers and Anthropologists: Developing the Earliest Smithsonian Anthropology Collections
{{Authority control
Indigenous peoples of North America
History of Indigenous peoples of North America
Smithsonian Institution
Pre-Columbian studies
1879 establishments in the United States
Government agencies established in 1879