Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology)

336 Pages·2003·5.08 MB·English

by  Sally Cole

CriticalStudiesintheHistoryofAnthropology SeriesEditors:RegnaDarnell,StephenO.Murray
Ruth Landes

Sally Cole
Ruth Landes
A Life in Anthropology
UniversityofNebraskaPress:Lincoln&London
©bytheBoardofRegentsof
theUniversityofNebraska(cid:4)
Allrightsreserved.Manufactured
intheUnitedStatesofAmerica
PermissiontoquotefromRuth
Benedict’sandMargaretMead’s
correspondencewithRuthLandes
hasbeengrantedbytheInsti-
tuteforInterculturalStudies,Inc.,
NewYork.Permissiontoquote
fromMelvilleJ.Herskovits’scor-
respondencewithRuthLandes
andGuyJohnsonhasbeengranted
byDr.JeanHerskovits.Permis-
siontoquotefromRuthLandes’s
personalcorrespondencehas
beengrantedbyLambrosComitas,
LiteraryExecutor.
BookdesignbyRichardEckersley.
TypesetinEnschedéTrinité
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Cole,SallyCooper,–
RuthLandes:alifeinanthropology/SallyCole.
p. cm.–(Criticalstudiesinthehistoryofanthropology)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
---(cloth:alkalinepaper)
.Landes,Ruth,– .Anthropologists–United
States–Biography. .Womenanthropologists.
.Title. .Series.
. '.–dc [[]] 
ToMyParents
JeanMurrayColeandAlfredCooperCole

Contents
ListofIllustrations viii
SeriesEditors’Introduction ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction 
PartOne:Beginnings
 ImmigrantDaughter 
 NewWoman 
 StudentatColumbia 
PartTwo:ApprenticeshipinNativeAmericanWorlds
Prologue 
 MaggieWilsonandOjibwaWomen’s
Stories 
 LustyShamansintheMidwest 
PartThree:She-BullinBrazil’sChinaCloset
Prologue 
 FieldworkinBrazil 
 WritingAfro-BrazilianCulturein
NewYork 
 TheEarlyEthnographyofRaceand
Gender 
Conclusion:LifeandCareer 
Notes 
Bibliography 
Index 
  
followingpage
. RuthLandes,
. Ruth’sparents
. JosephSchlossberg,Ruth,and‘‘Mattie’’
. AnnaGrossman,Ruth,and‘‘Mattie’’
. BrookwoodSchoolgraduation,
. Ruth,summer
. RuthBenedict
. RuthatRedLake,
. MaggieWilson
. WillRogers
. Inthegarden,MuseuNacionaldeRiodeJaneiro
. Sabina’sfestadeIemanja,Bahia
. AFestadaLavagemdoBonfim,Bahia
. EdisonCarneiro
. E.S.Imes
. RuthinLondon,
. RuthinLosAngeles,
Series Editors’ Introduction
I
  ininterestingtimesisacurse,itwasonethatbeset
RuthLandes(néeSchlossberg).Asanunconventionalpartici-
pantobserverofAfro-BraziliancultureandaJewinanincreas-
ingly Nazi-sympathizing Brazil during the s, she made the
timesinthatplacestillmoreinteresting.Inmanywaysherstayin
BrazilbeforeWorldWarIIresembledthatoftheIngridBergman
characterduringthewarinAlfredHitchcock’sclassicfilmNotorious.
Landeswasbrandedas‘‘notorious’’fornonmaritalsexualrelations
(andfor‘‘betraying’’herclassandraceinassociatingwiththeblack
‘‘lower orders’’). There were spies and wild accusations of spying
(theseledtoLandes’sexpulsionfromBrazil).Shehadasuaveand
romantic champion (a darker Cary Grant type), and her enemies
tendedtobeconnectedtolocalNazisandNazisympathizers.
AftertheveryinterestingtimeinBrazilLandeshadalongafter-
life as a marginal anthropologist, not securing a stable position
until,threefulldecadesafterearningherPh.D.fromColum-
biaUniversity,andthenatwhatsheconsideredaCanadianback-
water(McMasterUniversityinHamilton,Ontario).AsSallyCole’s
perceptive and massively researched biography shows, being a
woman in a man’s world was less of a problem for Landes than
underestimating the will to dominance of those whom she sup-
posedwereonthesamesideasshe,otherinter–WorldWarstudents
ofFranzBoas.
NotjustLandes’sfieldresultsbutalsoherlivingamonghersub-
jects and doing participant observation in Afro-Brazilian Bahia
challengedthepatronizingBrazilianauthorityon‘‘Negroes,’’Artur
Ramos, who never got his hands dirty visiting the slums. Ramos
was allied with American anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits,
who was claiming for himself paramount authority for identify-
ingwhatwasAfricanintheculturesof‘‘thenewWorldNegro’’and