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22-399: In ethnohistory , a lienzo ( Spanish for "canvas") is a sheet of cloth painted with indigenous Mesoamerican pictorial writing . This article related to indigenous Mesoamerican culture is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ethnohistory Ethnohistory uses both historical and ethnographic data as its foundation. Its historical methods and materials go beyond

44-609: A leader of studies of the Iroquois. Fenton wrote a number of position papers during the 1940s and 1950s that outlined problems and issues relating to Iroquois studies which required further work. He encouraged other students of the Iroquois to meet and discuss issues of concern in the field, notably in meetings at Red House in New York. Fenton focused attention on such issues as diversity in culture and connections between northern and southern tribes. In his work as an ethnologist with

66-505: A more in-depth analysis than the average historian is capable of doing based solely on written documents produced by and for one group. They try to understand culture on its own terms and according to its own cultural code. Ethnohistory differs from other historically-related methodologies in that it embraces emic perspectives as tools of analysis. The field and its techniques are well suited for writing histories of Native American peoples because of its holistic and inclusive framework. It

88-1119: A number of academic societies: the American Folklore Society (1959-1960), the American Ethnological Society (1959), and the American Society for Ethnohistory (1961). He was also a member of a number of committees, including the Phillips Fund Committee of the American Philosophical Society (1975-1991) and of the American Committee of the Permanent Council of the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (1952-1972). Fenton wrote extensively on Iroquois ethnology, historiography,

110-466: A time period as the sources allow." He described ethnohistory as an endeavor based on a holistic , diachronic approach that is most rewarding when it can be "joined to the memories and voices of living people." Reflecting upon the history of ethnohistory as research field in the US, Harkin has situated it within the broader context of convergences and divergences of the fields of history and anthropology and

132-585: Is especially important because of its ability to bridge differing frameworks and access a more informed context for interpretations of the past. The definition of the field has become more refined over the years. Early on, ethnohistory differed from history proper in that it added a new dimension, specifically "the critical use of ethnological concepts and materials in the examination and use of historical source material," as described by William N. Fenton . Later, James Axtell described ethnohistory as "the use of historical and ethnological methods to gain knowledge of

154-721: The New Philology . That built on an earlier tradition of practitioners writing the history of Mexico that fully integrated the history of its indigenous peoples. In the United States, the field arose out of the study of American Indian communities required by the Indian Claims Commission . It gained a pragmatic rather than a theoretical orientation, with practitioners testifying both for and against Indian claims. The emerging methodology used documentary historical sources and ethnographic methods. Among

176-659: The New York State Museum at Albany in 1954. Becoming director, he developed an extensive collection of Iroquois materials. Some tribal representatives criticized Fenton for failing to return artifacts. He regarded museums as necessary safeguards for cultural heritage. Some tribal leaders also criticized him for revealing too much material about sacred rituals. Fenton chaired the Committee on Anthropological Research in Museums (CARM) from 1965 to 1973, during

198-648: The Smithsonian Institution 's Bureau of American Ethnology, Fenton drew attention to existing historic and ethnographic sources. During the 1930s and 1940s, Fenton undertook substantial studies of Iroquois music and dance while working at the Smithsonian. It has been noted that Fenton's career saw profound changes in anthropological methods and how research was perceived, with "the patron-client relationships of anthropologist and "informant" ... greeted with increasing suspicion by young Iroquois after

220-600: The State University of New York at Albany . He worked there until his retirement in 1979. He remained active in continued research and writing about the Iroquois. He published The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois in 1998 when he was nearly 90. He died on June 17, 2005, in Cooperstown, New York , at the age of 96, on the way to the hospital. Fenton served as President of

242-588: The 1950s". Furthermore, Fenton's classic work was carried out when "...Iroquois ceremonialists were worried about the potential loss of their knowledge and delighted in having someone who wanted to listen and to record it". After becoming senior ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution in the 1950s, and then serving as executive secretary for anthropology and psychology at the National Research Council , he went to work at

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264-605: The early postcontact period directly and to address important theoretical questions. Michael Harkin argues that ethnohistory was part of the general rapprochement between history and anthropology in the late 20th century. Ethnohistory grew organically thanks to external nonscholarly pressures, without an overarching figure or conscious plan; even so, it came to engage central issues in cultural and historical analysis. Ethnohistorians take pride in using their special knowledge of specific groups, their linguistic insights, and their interpretation of cultural phenomena. They claim to achieve

286-404: The history of Mexico's indigenous peoples. The Handbook of Middle American Indians , edited by archeologist Robert Wauchope was involved with creating a multiple volumes on Mesoamerican ethnohistory, published as Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources , appearing in 1973. At the time that the volumes were published, "both the term 'ethnohistory' and its concepts in the sense used here have entered

308-424: The literature rather recently and are not fully agreed upon." The volumes were intended to be an inventory of sources "which in later hands could utilize to produce professionally acceptable ethnohistory." In the mid to late 20th century, a number of ethnohistorians of Mexico began to systematically publish many colonial alphabetic texts in indigenous Mexican languages, in a branch of ethnohistory currently known as

330-670: The majority of its life. CARM, a subcommittee of the American Anthropological Association , encouraged scholarly use of museums and museum collections in anthropological research. CARM also encouraged the early use of computers in documenting and inventorying museums collections across North America. In 1965 Fenton was awarded the Cornplanter Medal . Fenton left the New York State Museum to become Professor of Anthropology at

352-540: The nature and causes of change in a culture defined by ethnological concepts and categories." Others have focused this basic concept on previously ignored historical actors. Ed Schieffelin asserted, for example, that ethnohistory must fundamentally take into account the people's own sense of how events are constituted, and their ways of culturally constructing the past. Finally, Simmons formulated his understanding of ethnohistory as "a form of cultural biography that draws upon as many kinds of testimony as possible over as long

374-531: The scholars working on the cases was Latin Americanist Howard F. Cline , who was commissioned to work on Florida Indians and Jicarilla Apache and Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin , Director of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Research Project and founder of the American Society for Ethnohistory. The field has also reached into Melanesia , where recent European contact allowed researchers to observe

396-752: The special circumstances of American Indian land claims and legal history in North American in the mid-20th century. Commenting on the possibilities for ethnohistory studies of traditional societies in Europe (such as Ireland), Guy Beiner observed that "pioneering figures in the development of ethnohistory … have argued that this approach could be fruitfully applied to the study of Western societies, but such initiatives have not picked up and very few explicitly designated ethnohistories of European communities have been written to date". William N. Fenton William N. Fenton (December 15, 1908 – June 17, 2005)

418-452: The standard use of documents and manuscripts. Practitioners recognize the use of such source material as maps, music, paintings, photography, folklore, oral tradition, site exploration, archaeological materials, museum collections, enduring customs, language, and placenames. Scholars studying the history of Mexico 's indigenous peoples have a long tradition, dating back to the colonial era; they used alphabetic texts and other sources to write

440-668: Was also a community worker for the New York Indian Service. He mainly worked on the Tonawanda Reservation ). During the 1930s, Fenton lived among the Seneca in western New York , becoming fluent in their language and doing field studies. The Seneca nation adopted Fenton into the Hawk clan on January 26, 1934. This was the same clan that had adopted Lewis Henry Morgan . Fenton soon became known as

462-416: Was an American scholar and writer known for his extensive studies of Iroquois history and culture. He started his studies of the Iroquois in the 1930s and published a number of significant works over the following decades. His final work was published in 2002. During his career, Fenton was director of the New York State Museum and a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York . Fenton

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484-615: Was born William Nelson Fenton in New Rochelle, New York , in 1908. The Fenton family had had interactions with the Seneca people since the 1860s. He grew up in the west of New York State , where the Seneca had their traditional territory. After attending local schools, he studied at Dartmouth College , where he graduated in 1931. He went on for graduate study and earned a doctorate in anthropology from Yale University in 1937. (From 1935 until he received his doctorate in 1937, Fenton

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