John Peabody Harrington: Exploring a Legacy Carmen Jany, Cal State San Bernardino [email protected] Dorothy Ramon Learning Center January 17, 2011

John Peabody Harrington: Exploring a

Legacy

Carmen Jany, Cal State San Bernardino

[email protected] Ramon Learning Center

January 17, 2011

Why talk about Harrington? Documented numerous Native

American languages (many are no longer spoken)

His field notes are a great source for many California indigenous languages

Notes are accurate - good ear for phonetics

Notes are available on microfilm & can be used for language revitalization

‘One of the most colorful personages’ in anthropology (Stirling 1963)

This presentation Harrington’s life Overview of his legacy (type of

data) Where and how to access data Importance of his work for

California indigenous languages My work on Chimariko Notes for language revitalization

Who was Harrington? John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961)

Linguist and ethnographer Left behind archival legacy of unique importance

Born in Massachusetts, raised in Santa Barbara From early age interest in languages and

indigenous peoples Graduated from Stanford University

Graduated in 1905: Classical languages/anthropology

Studied philology in Leipzig and Berlin Returned to US in 1906 Worked as high school teacher in Santa Ana

1906-9


While working in Santa Ana Spare time: documented Diegueño, Mohave,

Yuma Publications gained him supporters from the

Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) 1915 hired by BAE as Research

Ethnologist Worked for nearly 40 years for the BAE

Retired in 1954 1916-1921 married to Carobeth Tucker

Married on field trip; carried out research together

Daugher: Awona

Who was Harrington? Carobeth Tucker (Laird) (1895 -

1983) Carobeth Laird wrote a vivid portrait of the obsessed geniusLaird, Carobeth. 1975. Encounter With an Angry God: Recollections of My Life with John Peabody Harrington. Malki Museum Press, Banning, CA.

Who was Harrington?

Source: American Anthropologist Vol 65, 1963.

Source: National Anthropological Archives


Gave up all social life to document languages Collected close to a million pages of notes Data on more than 125 separate languages Obsessed (16-18 hrs/day, on deathbeds, no

breaks) Linguistics began moving away from massive

data collection to more interpretive research Only one honorary doctorate from USC 1934

Very chaotic and secretive Sent only small portion of work to BAE


Very chaotic and secretive (con’t) Paranoic that others would steal/publish

materials Worked until his death (on Chumash)

Died in 1961 in Santa Barbara After his death

Smithsonian began cataloguing his papers Materials started to show up (until late

1960s) Organizing and microfilming 1977-1991

Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data Data collection of close to one million

pages on over 125 indigenous languages Mostly interested in the collection of words

& texts (little or no interest in grammar) When he became familiar with a language,

he omitted translations (also often used Spanish)

Notes on loose sheets with no organization or labeling (language, speaker, etc)

Excellent ear for phonetics (accurate data) Many abbreviations nowhere explained

(“ch.” = clearly heard; “nescit” or “n.” = don’t know)

Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data

Chimariko; reel 21

Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data Sometimes only one word per page

(space for later annotations); data disorganized

Contents Language (words, phrases) and culture

(practices) Narratives (personal, local history, ceremonies,

creation stories, etc)

Placenames & tribal names Botany (plant names and uses)

Numerous sound recordings on wax cylinder

Thousands of photographs

Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data This treasure of indigenous

knowledge is useful for Indigenous communities and tribal

scholars Linguists Anthropologists Biologists Geographers Historians Archaeologists

Where and How to Access the Data 1960s-1970s

Most materials at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA)

1977-1991 Archiving, organizing, microfilming

1980s: Guides to the field notes Nine guides (Mills, Mills & Brickfield)

1992-present Conferences and workshops on

materials Sound recordings digitized: online

(NAA)

Guides to Harrington Collection 494 reels divided into 9 sections Part 1: Alaska/Northwest Coast, 1982, 30 reels Part 2: Northern and Central California, 1985, 101 reels Part 3: Southern California/Basin, 1986, 182 reels Part 4: Southwest, 1986, 58 reels Part 5: Plains, 1987, 17 reels Part 6: Northeast/Southeast, 1987, 18 reels Part 7: Mexico/Central & South America, 1988, 36 reels Part 8: Notes & Writings on Special Linguistic Studies,

1989, 35 reels Part 9: Correspondence & Financial Records, 1991, 17

reels

Where and How to Access the Data Today

Data finding their way back to communities

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guides.htm http://siris-archives.si.edu (search

engine for Smithsonian) Various UC libraries, Santa Barbara

Natural History Museum The Harrington Database Project

UC Davis: NSF funded project to increase access to the linguistic & ethnographic notes

Coding & creating searchable database

Where and How to Access the Data The Harrington Database Project

(2010) http://nas.ucdavis.edu/NALC/JPH.ht

ml

Importance for California Languages California is home to some of the

greatest and densest linguistic diversity in the world Pre-contact: about 100 languages 1994 (Hinton): only about 50 languages

still spoken by elders Some languages with only one speaker

Harrington’s most extensive work was on California indigenous languages Harrington worked with last fluent

speakers

Importance for California Languages

California indigenous languages

Importance for California Languages Southern California (local languages)

Serrano 1918: Manuel Santos; Tomás Manuel; placenames Reel 101; 862 pages

Cahuilla 1922: Macario Lugo; Adan Castillo Reels 107-114; about 6000 pages

Luiseño/Juaneño 1919: rehearings of older documents, texts,

vocabulary Reels 115-129; about 12000 pages

Cupeño 1915: Martin J. Blacktooth Reel 130; 712 pages



Source: Mills, Elaine, and Ann J. Brickfield. 1986. The Papers of John Peabody Harrington, Volume 3 (Southern California).

My work on Chimariko Few villages along Trinity

River & New River Small tribe (250 people in

1850s) Gold mining in the area Mostly fled to live with

neighboring tribes Today not recognized

tribe; descendants with Hupa

Source: Shirley, Silver, ‘Shastan Peoples’, Handbook of North American Indians

My work on Chimariko: Grammar

Chimariko Grammar 3500 pages collected by Harrington

in 1920s from last speakers Notes include: Narratives with

translations, sentences, vocabulary items, ethnographic information

Other sources: Data collected by other linguists and anthropologists (Dixon 1910, Sapir in Berman 2001)

Sound recording (wax cylinder; words)

My work on Chimariko: Stress

Sound recording Speaker: Martha Ziegler Length: 13 minutes Content: Elicitation of words; some

repetitions Media: from wax cylinder to cassette

tape; digitized from cassette tape Finding out how stress is reflected

phonetically


Predictable stress = stress determined by shape of word (on penultimate root syllable)

Phonetically? Length, intensity, pitch: pitch

Examples áqha ‘water’ á’ah ‘deer’ áqhaqhut ‘river’


Higher pitch in stressed vowel ’á’ah ‘deer’

Time (s)0 0.835918

0

500

Time (s)0 0.859138

0

500

Time (s)0 0.835918

0

104

Time (s)0 0.835918

0

500

My work on Chimariko: Narratives

Reel 21: 539 pages containing Chimariko narratives with some translations

Pieced together 9 narratives (20 pages in Word)



Contents Personal accounts, personal stories relating to historic

events (flood, tribal wars), Cultural practices (healing rituals), Stories with animals as characters (watersnake, doe,

bear) => material of great cultural & historic value

Challenges No interlinear or missing translations Scattered segments of same narrative

Goals Make materials more accessible to tribal descendants Examine the structure and language of narratives

Harrington & Language Revitalization

Great potential of Harrington’s notes for language revitalization Accurate data; sound recordings Comprehensive, but not easily

accessible Some projects

Mutsun revitalization since 1996 Rumsen revitalization Chumash

Harrington & Language Revitalization

Source: LA Times, 1/31/2010 “John Peabody Harrington relentlessly

studied Indian families for decades. Today, a 71-year-old woman who considered him a pest is grateful for his intense scholarship.”

“It's due to his madness that we are who we are today," said De Soto, a 71-year-old nurse who works at a Santa Barbara rest home. "We have a language. We have an identity.”

Article author: Steve Chawkins

Thank you!

Documents

John Peabody Harrington: Exploring a Legacy Carmen Jany, Cal State San Bernardino [email protected] Dorothy Ramon Learning Center January 17, 2011