Sylvia Marguerite Broadbent (

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 26 February 1932 -

Arlington, California Arlington is a community about seven miles southwest of Riverside, California, that is part of the Inland Empire, which is east of the Los Angeles and Orange County metropolitan areas. With a population of about 12,300, the major commercial hub ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, 30 July 2015) 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 ...

and professor, specializing in

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

peoples.

Early life

Broadbent was born in

. She emigrated with her family in the wake of

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 ...

Carmel, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 3,220, down from 3,722 a ...

, in 1947. Broadbent graduated from

Carmel High School Carmel may refer to: * Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea * Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea * Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order Carmel may also ...

in 1948 at the age of 16. Broadbent enrolled at

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 ...

, where she was awarded the Horatio Stebbins scholarship as a junior and earned her Associate of Arts degree in anthropology (with honors) in 1951. She went on to win a Genevieve McEnerny fellowship and receive her bachelor's degree in anthropology (with highest honors) in 1952. From 1955 to 1960 she performed research among native peoples in Southern California and recorded

Chukchansi The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. Yokuts ...

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

, and

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native Americans in the United States, Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok lan ...

. Her 1960 doctoral dissertation was ''A grammar of Southern Sierra Miwok'', written under the advisement of

Mary Haas Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American indigenous languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was el ...

Career

Broadbent began teaching at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

for Spring Semester 1961 followed by

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

that fall. She joined the faculty of Universidad de Los Andes in the Fall of 1964 to focus on the

Muisca The Muisca (also called the Chibcha) are indigenous peoples in Colombia and were a Pre-Columbian culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Muisca spe ...

, native to the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. (Do not confuse with The Altiplano or the Altiplano Nariñense, both fur ...

, the high plateau of the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

. She began teaching at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

(UCR) in 1966 and was promoted to full professor in 1972. She eventually retired as chair of the anthropology department. Her papers are archived with the special collections department at UCR. Broadbent, a member of the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

, was party to a lawsuit against the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

to restrict the use of vehicles in the California desert. In 1981 she wrote ''The Formation of Peasant Society in Central Colombia'', for which she was awarded the American Society for Ethnohistory's 1983

Robert F. Heizer Robert Fleming Heizer (July 13, 1915 – July 18, 1979) was an Archaeology, archaeologist who conducted extensive Field research, fieldwork and reporting in California, the Southwestern United States, and the Great Basin. Background Robert Flem ...

prize. UCR offers a fellowship for anthropology graduate students in her name.

Selected bibliography

* * * (with Lucy Shepard Freeland) * * * *

References

External links

UC Riverside profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadbent, Sylvia M. UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of California, Riverside faculty Barnard College faculty Northwestern University faculty 1932 births 2015 deaths American anthropologists American women anthropologists Academic staff of the University of Los Andes (Colombia) People from Riverside, California Academics from London Scholars of the Muisca civilization People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California 20th-century American Episcopalians American women academics 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Carmel High School (Carmel, California)