John Reed Swanton

John Reed Swanton

John Reed Swanton (born February 19, 1873 in Gardiner , Maine , † May 2, 1958 in Newton , Massachusetts ) was an American anthropologist and linguist .

Live and act

Swanton attended his hometown school and then began studying at Harvard University . He received his MA in 1897 and went to Columbia University with Franz Boas from 1898 to 1899 . Then Swanton returned to Harvard and received his doctorate there in 1900 with Frederic Ward Putnam .

After completing his studies, Swanton specialized in field research ; he was one of the first to scientifically research the Tlingit and the Haida . After a while he got a job at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and stayed there until his retirement . Here the Muskogee languages ​​became his research focus.

As a long-time member of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Swanton was entrusted with its management in 1932. Previously, he served as editor of the scientific journal The American Anthropologist in 1911 and 1921–1923 . In 1932 Swanton was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

Swanton spent the last years of his life in Newton, Massachusetts. He died on May 2, 1958 and was also buried there.

Honors

• 1913 Loubat Prize for Tlinget Myths and Texts and Indian Tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent coasts of the gulf of Mexico

Fonts (selection)

Essays

• Modern Square Grounds of The Creek Indians. In: Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 85, No. 8, 1931, ISSN  0096-8749 , pp. 1-46, ( digitized version ).
• Religious beliefs and medical practices of the Creek Indians. In: Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 42, 1924/1925, ZDB -ID 208194-5 , pp. 473-672, ( digitized version ).
• An early account of the Choctaw Indians. In: Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association. Vol. 5, No. 2, 1918, ISSN  1040-4759 , pp. 51-72, ( digitized ).

Books

• The Indian Tribes of North America (= Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin. 145, ZDB -ID 799398-5 ). United States Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1952.
• Source Material for the social and ceremonial life of the Choctaw Indians (= Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin. 103). United States Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1931.
• Haida Texts and myths. Skidegate dialect (= Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin. 29). United States Government Printing Office, Washington DC 1905, ( digitized ).