Edmund Snow Carpenter (September 2, 1922 – July 1, 2011) was an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

best known for his work on tribal art and visual media.

Early life

Edmund Snow Carpenter was born on September 2, 1922, in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

to the artist and educator Fletcher Hawthorne Carpenter (1879–1954) and Agnes "Barbara" Wight (1883–1981). He was one of four children. He was a fraternal twin with Collins W. "Connie" Carpenter, later of

Canandaigua, New York Canandaigua () is a city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,576 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrative offices are at the county complex in the adjacent town of Hopewell. ...

.Prins and Bishop 2002"Dr. Collins W. (Connie) Carpenter - Obituary"
''

Democrat and Chronicle The ''Democrat and Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York, area. Headquartered at 245 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's ...

'', Rochester, New York, August 25, 2008Sherwood, Julie
"In Memory of Craftsman, doctor, civic leader: Dr. Connie Carpenter will be remembered for his many talents and his caring nature"
, '' Daily Messenger'', Canandaigua, New York, August 31, 2008 He was a descendant of William Carpenter (1605 England - 1658/1659 Rehoboth, Massachusetts) the founder of the

Rehoboth Carpenter family The Rehoboth Carpenter family is an American family that helped settle the town of Rehoboth, Massachusetts in 1644. Note: This book has been reprinted and duplicated by many organizations in print, CD, DVD, & digital formats. This 900-plus page to ...

who came to America in the mid-1630s.''Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2009'' (DVD format), Subject is RIN 128585; this work contains updates to the 1898 Carpenter Memorial by Amos B. Carpenter Carpenter began his anthropology studies under Frank G. Speck at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1940. After completing his semester in early 1942, he volunteered to serve his country during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

World War II

He joined the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

in early 1942, fighting in the Pacific Theater of Operations for the duration of the war especially in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

, the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

, and

Iwo Jima is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, which lie south of the Bonin Islands and together with them make up the Ogasawara Subprefecture, Ogasawara Archipelago. Together with the Izu Islands, they make up Japan's Nanpō Islands. Although sout ...

. After the war ended, he was assigned to oversee hundreds of Japanese prisoners, putting them to work on an archaeological dig in Tumon,

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

Post war

Discharged as a captain in 1946, he returned to the University of Pennsylvania using his

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

, was awarded a bachelor's degree, and earned his doctorate four years later in 1950. His doctoral dissertation was on the pre-history of the Northeast, entitled ''Intermediate Period Influences in the Northeast''. Carpenter began teaching anthropology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in 1948, taking side jobs such as radio programming for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

(CBC). In 1950, he started fieldwork among the Aivilingmiut, returning to these

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

in the famine winter of 1951–52, and again in 1955. When public television took off in Canada with the launching of CBC-TV in 1952, Carpenter began producing and hosting a series of shows. Moving back and forth between Toronto's broadcasting studios and Arctic hunting camps, Carpenter collaborated on the theoretical ideas in development by Harold Innis and

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

. He and McLuhan co-taught a course, and together hatched core ideas about the agency of modern media in the process of culture change. In 1953, after a well-received proposal written by Carpenter, he and McLuhan received a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

grant for an interdisciplinary media research project, which funded both the Seminar on Culture and Communication (1953–1959) and their co-edited periodical ''Explorations'' throughout the 1950s. Meanwhile, Carpenter continued his programs on CBC-TV, including a weekly show also titled "Explorations" (which started as a radio program). Together with Harold Innis, Eric A. Havelock, and

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...

, McLuhan and Carpenter have been characterized as the Toronto School of communication theory. In his famous article "The New Languages" (1956), Carpenter offers a succinct analysis of modern media based on years of participant observation in different cultures, academic and popular print publishing, and radio and television broadcasting.

Visual media

In 1959, Carpenter joined anthropologist Raoul Naroll at San Fernando Valley State College ( California State University-Northridge) and was appointed an assistant professor and founder of an experimental interdisciplinary program of Anthropology and Art, where students were trained in visual media, including filming.''Valley State Sentinel'', San Fernando Valley State College newspaper, March 17, 1960 As the only faculty member in the new department, Carpenter went on to hire more faculty. In 1960, he was promoted to the rank of associate professor. In 1961, he was made chairman of the anthropology department. With award-winning filmmaker Robert Cannon, he made an innovative documentary about "

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

" Kuskokwim Eskimo masks. Carpenter also co-authored ''Georgia Sea Island Singers'' (1964), a film documenting six traditional African-American songs and dances by

Gullah The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African Americans, African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within ...

s of St. Simon Island, based on fieldwork by

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activ ...

. And with Bess Lomax Hawes, he collaborated on ''Buck Dancer'' (1965), a short film featuring Ed Young, an

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

musician-dancer from

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. In 1967, however, just when visual anthropology began to take institutional form as an academic enterprise, the program was closed. During this period, Carpenter worked with McLuhan on the latter's book ''Understanding Media'' (1964). In 1967 McLuhan was awarded the Schweitzer Chair at

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

, and he brought Carpenter (on a sabbatical from Northridge), Harley Parker, and Eric McLuhan to be on his research team. On leave from his faculty position at Northridge, Carpenter subsequently held the Carnegie Chair in anthropology at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

(1968–69), and then took a research professorship at the

University of Papua New Guinea The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...

, officially having resigned his position at Northridge. Joined by photographer Adelaide de Menil (who later became his wife), he journeyed to remote mountain areas where indigenous Papua had "no acquaintance" yet with writing, radios, or cameras. They took numerous Polaroid and 35mm photographs, made sound recordings, and shot some 400,000 feet of 16mm film in black and white, as well as color and

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

film. During the next dozen years, Carpenter taught at various universities, including

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York, United States. Adelphi also has centers in Downtown Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County in addition to a virtual, online campus for remote students. As of 2019, it had ...

(c. 1970–1980),

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

New School University The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(c. 1980–1981). In addition to numerous other publications, he also completed art historian Carl Schuster's massive cross-cultural study on traditional art motifs, ''Materials for the Study of Social Symbolism in Ancient and Tribal Art: A Record of Tradition and Continuity'', published privately in three volumes, with a much-abbreviated one-volume version published in 1996 by Abrams under the title ''Patterns That Connect''. In 2008, Carpenter guest-curated an important Eskimo traditional and prehistoric art exhibit ''Upside Down: Les Arctiques'' at the Musée du quai Branly, the ethnographic art museum in Paris, France. This exhibit was re-installed in 2011 as ''Upside Down: Arctic Realities'' at The

Menil Collection The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs a ...

, an art museum in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, which, since 1999, also houses his permanent exhibit ''Witnesses to a Surrealist Vision.''

Personal life and death

On June 14, 1946, Carpenter married a fellow student at the University of Pennsylvania, Florence Ofelia Camara, and had two children with her; sons Stephen and Rhys. Their marriage united two of the earliest English and Spanish families to settle in the New World: the Camaras were a Spanish

Conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...

family who settled in the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

of Mexico. They served under

Francisco de Montejo Francisco de Montejo (; 1479 – 1553) was a Spanish conquistador in Mexico and Central America. Early years Francisco de Montejo was born about 1473 to a family of lesser Spanish nobility in Salamanca, Spain. He never documented his parentag ...

, the

Adelantado ''Adelantado'' (, , ; meaning 'advanced') was a title held by some Spain, Spanish nobles in service of their respective kings during the Middle Ages. It was later used as a military title held by some Spanish ''conquistadores'' of the 15th, 16th a ...

and Capitan General of Yucatán, and after that under his son, Francisco de Montejo (el Mozo), conqueror of the Yucatán. They divorced in the mid-1950s. On September 6, 1961, in Yorkville, Michigan, Carpenter married Virginia York Wilson, of Toronto, the daughter of the well-known Canadian artist Ronald York Wilson. This marriage produced a third son, Ian Snow Carpenter. This marriage also ended in divorce. In the late 1960s, Carpenter met Adelaide de Menil, the daughter of Dominique de Menil and John de Menil of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas. Adelaide was a professional photographer who had worked for the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

, and who joined Carpenter in

when he took a professorship there in 1969. Their collaborations and subsequent marriage lasted until his death in 2011. Carpenter died on July 1, 2011. He was 88 years old.

Memorial service

A memorial service for Carpenter, attended by 400 people, was held on October 29, 2011, at the LeFrak Theater of the

in New York City. It was followed by a celebration of his life at the Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 West 18th Street.

Selected publications

"An Unusual Pottery Jar from East Milton"
(1943) ''Bulletin Of The Massachusetts Archaeological Society'', Vol.4, No.3, April, 1943. (submitted December, 1942) *''Intermediate Period Influences in the Northeast.'' (PhD Thesis, U Penn, 1950) *''Eskimo.'' (with Robert Flaherty, 1959) *''Explorations in Communication, An Anthology.'' (co-edited with Marshall McLuhan, 1960) *''They Became What They Beheld.'' (1970) *''Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me!'' (1972) *''Eskimo Realities'' (1973) *"The Tribal Terror of Self-Awareness." Pp. 451–461. In: Paul Hockings, ed., ''Principles of Visual Anthropology.'' (1975a) *"Collecting Northwest Coast Art." pp. 8–27. In: Bill Holm & William Reid. ''Form and Freedom: A Dialogue on Northwest Coast Indian Art.'' (1975b) *''In the Middle, Qitinganituk: The Eskimo Today.'' (with Stephen G. Williams, 1983) *''Social Symbolism in Ancient and Tribal Art.'' (with Carl Schuster; 3 Parts, 12 vols., 1986–1988) *''Patterns That Connect:Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art.'' (1996) *"19th Century Aivilik/Iglulik Drawings." pp. 71–92. In ''Fifty Years of Arctic Research: Anthropological Studies.'' Eds. R. Gillberg and H.C. Gullov. Copenhagen: The National Museum of Denmark. (1997) *"Arctic Witnesses." pp. 303–310. In ''Fifty Years of Arctic Research: Anthropological Studies.'' Eds. R. Gillberg and H.C. Gullov. Copenhagen: The National Museum of Denmark. (1997) *"That Not-So-Silent Sea." pp. 236–261. In: Donald Theall. ''The Virtual Marshall McLuhan.'' (2001) *"European Motifs in Protohistoric Iroquois Art." pp. 255–262. In: W.H. Merrill and I. Goddard, eds., ''Anthropology, History, and American Indians: Essays in Honor of William Curtis Sturtevant.'' (2002) *''Norse Penny.'' (2003a)
''Comock: The True Story of an Eskimo Hunter.''
(with Robert Flaherty, 2003b) *''Two Essays: Chief & Greed.'' (2005) *"Marshall." pp. 179–184. ''Explorations in Media Ecology'', Vol.5, No.3 (2006)
''Upside Down: Arctic Realities.''
Ed. Edmund Carpenter. Houston: Menil Foundation/Yale U Press. (2011)

Documentary film

(2003; Video/DVD, 55 minutes). Filmmakers John Melville Bishop and Harald E.L. Prins,Cf. Media-Generation.co
"Profile: John Bishop"
/ref>

References

*Prins, Harald E.L. and John Bishop
Edmund Carpenter: Explorations in Media & Anthropology
''Visual Anthropology Review''. Volume 17, Number 2, Fall-Winter 2001–2002:110-140. *Prins, Harald E.L., Book Review of "Patterns that Connect: Social Symbolism in Ancient & Tribal Art." ''American Anthropologist'' 100 (3): 841. *Prins, Harald E.L. and John Bishop. "Edmund Carpenter: A Trickster's Explorations of Culture & Media." pp. 206–245. B. Engelbrecht, Ed. ''Memories of the Origins of Ethnographic Film.'' (2007) *Prins, Harald E.L. and Bunny McBride."Upside Down: Arctic Realities & Indigenous Art." Review Essay & Obituary. ''American Anthropologist'' 114 (2):359-64.(2012)

External links

Edmund Carpenter's ''Oh, What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me!''
��text of Carpenter's book as well as film clips and photographs from fieldwork
An annotated and illustrated transcript of the film on Carpenter

About the controversial Norse penny found at a prehistoric Indian site on the Maine coast

Book reviews and information for TWO ESSAYS: CHIEF & GREED by Edmund Carpenter, PhD and PATTERNS THAT CONNECT by Carl Schuster and Edmund Carpenter
* Richard Pyle
"Benevolent Bidder returns mask to Alaskan tribe"
''The Washington Post'', Dec. 3, 1998. {{DEFAULTSORT:Carpenter, Edmund Snow 1922 births 2011 deaths University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard University staff Academic staff of the University of Toronto American anthropologists American expatriate academics in Canada Visual anthropologists United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II

Early life

World War II

Post war

Visual media

Personal life and death

Memorial service

Selected publications

Documentary film

References

Further reading

External links