Mexico/Central America/South America

Object Details

Culture: Indians of Mexico; Indians of Central America; Indians of South America

Collection Citation: John Peabody Harrington papers, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution; The preferred citation for the Harrington Papers will reference the actual location within the collection, i.e. Box 172, Alaska/Northwest Coast, Papers of John Peabody Harrington, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. However, as the NAA understands the need to cite phrases or vocabulary on specific pages, a citation referencing the microfilmed papers is acceptable. Please note that the page numbering of the PDF version of the Harrington microfilm does not directly correlate to the analog microfilm frame numbers. If it is necessary to cite the microfilmed papers, please refer to the specific page number of the PDF version, as in: Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Microfilm: MF 7, R34 page 42.

Arrangement: Series is arranged into 8 subseries: (1) Pima/Papago/Seri/Opata; (2) Nahuatl; (3) Quiche; (4) Cakchiquel; (5) Yucatec; (6) Cuna; (7) Records relating to South American languages; (8) General and miscellaneous materials

Existence and Location of Copies: Microfilm and digital surrogates of microfilm are available. See volume 7 reels and subseries catalog records.

Scope and Contents: The arrangement of material in this section forms the basis for Volume 7 of the microfilmed papers. The reel numbers of corresponding microfilm are listed where appropriate. "n/a" indicates material that was not included in the original microfilming.; This series within the John Peabody Harrington papers represents the results of Harrington's work on the native languages and cultures of the western hemisphere outside of the United States and Canada. Most of the work was done either by bringing native speakers to Washington, D.C., or by examining various secondary sources, although Harrington did make several fieldtrips to Mexico, first in 1930 and again in 1950 and 1951. All of the field notes and writings were recorded during his employment as ethnologist by the Bureau of American Ethnology (1915 -1954); the earliest date from 1921 and the latest from around 1952. The documents focus primarily on linguistic data, although they also include some ethnographic and historical information.