Martha Warren Beckwith

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Martha Warren Beckwith (born January 19, 1871 in Wellesley Heights , Massachusetts , † January 28, 1959 ) was an American folklorist and ethnographer . She was the first female professor to hold a chair in folklore.

Life

Beckwith was born in 1871 to the two teachers George Ely Beckwith and Harriet Winslowe Beckwith. The father had taught at Punahou College in Honolulu , among other things , and the mother had relatives in Hawaii. Beckwith had an intensive relationship with the islands early on and spent numerous vacations. She successfully graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1893 and then taught English at Elmira College, Mount Holyoke College, Vassar College, and Smith College. In 1906 she earned a master's degree in anthropology from Franz Boas at Columbia University . In 1918 she received her doctorate. In 1920 Beckwith received a call from Vassar College to a research professorship in the field of folklore and as an associate professor in the field of comparative literature. In 1929 she became a full professor and in 1938 she retired.

Beckwith did research on both European countries and the Middle East. In 1926/27 she took a break and studied folkloric literature in Italy, Greece, Palestine, Syria and India. She has also published work on Jamaica , the Sioux , and the Mandan and Hidatsa on the reservations in North and South Dakota, where they were introduced to the rite of the Prairie Chicken clan of the Mandan Hidatsa. But her greatest interest was in Hawaii. In addition to compiling an extensive ethnographic collection, Beckwith translated numerous sources on Hawaiian mythology.

Beckwith defined the concept of folklore much broader than other folklorists of her generation. For her, folklore was the idioms , dialects, religious ideas, songs and stories not only of the "savages", but of all cultures. Many colleagues also made a distinction between popular and high culture. Beckwith was also critical of this distinction.

1932/33 Beckwith was president of the American Folklore Society .

Fonts (selection)

  • Folk Games of Jamaica . Vassar College, Poughkeepsie 1922
  • Christmas Mummings in Jamaica . Vassar College, Poughkeepsie 1923
  • Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1929
  • Polynesian Analogues to the Celtic Other-World and Fairy Mistress Themes . NYale University Press, New Haven 1923
  • Jamaica Anansi Stories . American Folklore Society, New York 1924
  • Jamaica Proverbs . Vassar College, Poughkeepsie 1925
  • Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany . Vassar College, Poughkeepsie 1927
  • Jamaica folk lore . American Folk-Lore Society, New York 1928
  • Black roadways; a study of Jamaican folk life . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1929
  • Myths and Hunting Stories of the Mandan and Hidatsa Sioux . Vassar College, Poughkeepsie 193.
  • Mandan-Hidatsa Myths and Ceremonies . American Folk-Lore Society, New York 1937
  • Hawaiian Mythology . Yale University Press, New Haven 1940
  • The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1951

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Martha Beckwith , Vassar Encyclopedia
  2. ↑ a b c d e Katharine Luomala : Martha Warren Beckwith. A Commemorative Essay . In: The Journal of American Folklore , Vol. 75, No. 298 (Oct-Dec 1962), pp. 341-353
personal data
SURNAME Beckwith, Martha Warren
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American folklorist and ethnographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Wellesley Heights , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1959