Recent from talks
Gene Weltfish
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Gene Weltfish
Gene Weltfish (born Regina Weltfish) (August 7, 1902 – August 2, 1980) was an American anthropologist and historian working at Columbia University from 1928 to 1953. She had studied with Franz Boas and was a specialist in the culture and history of the Pawnee people of the Midwest Plains. Her 1965 ethnography, The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture, is considered the authoritative work on Pawnee culture to this day.
She is also known for the 1943 pamphlet for the U.S. Army, called The Races of Mankind, which she co-wrote with Ruth Benedict. It was intended to educate military personnel about the cultural differences among the peoples of the world in preparation for their fighting with a variety of allies from other cultures. The authors stated that perceived differences between the races are cultural rather than biological. Among the data used in the text was an IQ study from World War I, which found higher scores among some northern Blacks in the United States forces than among some southern Whites. The pamphlet was not widely circulated within the Army, and by the early 1950s, it was banned as subversive.
Engaged in social activism during the 1940s, Weltflish attracted the attention of the FBI, which suspected her (and others on the Left) of being a communist. In 1952 and 1953 she was called to Congress for questioning by two of the Senate sub-committees dedicated to investigating "un-American activity" during the 1950s red scare. Two weeks before appearing at a 1953 hearing, in which she refused to answer questions from staffer attorney Roy Cohn and Senator Joseph McCarthy as to whether she was a communist, her 16-year appointment at Columbia was terminated. She was blacklisted and unable to find an academic position for nearly a decade. During her last decade in academia full-time, she taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She continued to teach part-time after retirement.
Regina Weltfish was one of two daughters; she was born in 1902 into a German Jewish family in New York City's Lower East Side. She grew up speaking German as her first language, taught by a German governess hired by her grandfather. Her father, to whom she was very close, died when she was 13. Encouraged by her grandmother, she went to the synagogue daily to say the kaddish for him during the first year after his death, an honor and responsibility traditionally reserved for a son. Without a father, the family was in a difficult economic situation. Because her father had died without a will, the state managed his estate and kept it in trust. Weltfish's mother had to submit formal notarized petitions for every disbursement. To help the family, at 14 Weltfish started working as a school clerk and attended high school in the evenings.
Graduating from Wadleigh High School for Girls in 1919, Weltfish entered Hunter College where she majored in journalism. She transferred to Columbia University's Barnard College, where she minored in philosophy under John Dewey. She graduated from Barnard in 1925 and enrolled in Columbia's graduate program in anthropology. She had already taken courses with Franz Boas during her senior year and continued to study with him as her adviser.
During this time, she married fellow graduate student Alexander Lesser, who also studied with Boas and became an anthropologist studying Siouan-speaking tribes. They were married for 15 years. Their daughter Ann was born in 1931. The two did their first field work together in Oklahoma, working on Siouan kinship systems.
Happening to meet Henry Moses, a Pawnee in New York, Weltfish decided to study his tribe as the subject of her dissertation. She traveled to the reservation in Oklahoma, where tribal members still mostly spoke Pawnee language. Weltfish had not previously studied that language but learned it during her years of studies. She focused on the study of aesthetics and craftsmanship, learning the art of basket-making, which was practiced exclusively by Pawnee women. Her doctoral dissertation from Columbia was titled The Interrelation of Technique and Design in North American Basketry. She completed her dissertation in 1929, but did not formally receive her Ph.D. until 1950. At that time Columbia modified its policy requiring that grad students pay to publish dissertations (at a cost of $4,000) and began accepting copies of mimeographed theses.
In 1935 Weltfish was invited by Boas to teach at Columbia. She stayed on a year-to-year appointment until 1953. Among her students at Columbia were Eleanor Leacock and Vera Mae Green. Columbia University never granted Weltfish tenure, most likely because of a long-standing practice of discrimination against women. In 1938 Ruth Benedict was the first woman to achieve tenure at Columbia but did not receive a full professorship until 1948, months before her death. She intervened on behalf of Weltfish at a board meeting, when the trustees were considering terminating the younger woman's employment.
Hub AI
Gene Weltfish AI simulator
(@Gene Weltfish_simulator)
Gene Weltfish
Gene Weltfish (born Regina Weltfish) (August 7, 1902 – August 2, 1980) was an American anthropologist and historian working at Columbia University from 1928 to 1953. She had studied with Franz Boas and was a specialist in the culture and history of the Pawnee people of the Midwest Plains. Her 1965 ethnography, The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture, is considered the authoritative work on Pawnee culture to this day.
She is also known for the 1943 pamphlet for the U.S. Army, called The Races of Mankind, which she co-wrote with Ruth Benedict. It was intended to educate military personnel about the cultural differences among the peoples of the world in preparation for their fighting with a variety of allies from other cultures. The authors stated that perceived differences between the races are cultural rather than biological. Among the data used in the text was an IQ study from World War I, which found higher scores among some northern Blacks in the United States forces than among some southern Whites. The pamphlet was not widely circulated within the Army, and by the early 1950s, it was banned as subversive.
Engaged in social activism during the 1940s, Weltflish attracted the attention of the FBI, which suspected her (and others on the Left) of being a communist. In 1952 and 1953 she was called to Congress for questioning by two of the Senate sub-committees dedicated to investigating "un-American activity" during the 1950s red scare. Two weeks before appearing at a 1953 hearing, in which she refused to answer questions from staffer attorney Roy Cohn and Senator Joseph McCarthy as to whether she was a communist, her 16-year appointment at Columbia was terminated. She was blacklisted and unable to find an academic position for nearly a decade. During her last decade in academia full-time, she taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She continued to teach part-time after retirement.
Regina Weltfish was one of two daughters; she was born in 1902 into a German Jewish family in New York City's Lower East Side. She grew up speaking German as her first language, taught by a German governess hired by her grandfather. Her father, to whom she was very close, died when she was 13. Encouraged by her grandmother, she went to the synagogue daily to say the kaddish for him during the first year after his death, an honor and responsibility traditionally reserved for a son. Without a father, the family was in a difficult economic situation. Because her father had died without a will, the state managed his estate and kept it in trust. Weltfish's mother had to submit formal notarized petitions for every disbursement. To help the family, at 14 Weltfish started working as a school clerk and attended high school in the evenings.
Graduating from Wadleigh High School for Girls in 1919, Weltfish entered Hunter College where she majored in journalism. She transferred to Columbia University's Barnard College, where she minored in philosophy under John Dewey. She graduated from Barnard in 1925 and enrolled in Columbia's graduate program in anthropology. She had already taken courses with Franz Boas during her senior year and continued to study with him as her adviser.
During this time, she married fellow graduate student Alexander Lesser, who also studied with Boas and became an anthropologist studying Siouan-speaking tribes. They were married for 15 years. Their daughter Ann was born in 1931. The two did their first field work together in Oklahoma, working on Siouan kinship systems.
Happening to meet Henry Moses, a Pawnee in New York, Weltfish decided to study his tribe as the subject of her dissertation. She traveled to the reservation in Oklahoma, where tribal members still mostly spoke Pawnee language. Weltfish had not previously studied that language but learned it during her years of studies. She focused on the study of aesthetics and craftsmanship, learning the art of basket-making, which was practiced exclusively by Pawnee women. Her doctoral dissertation from Columbia was titled The Interrelation of Technique and Design in North American Basketry. She completed her dissertation in 1929, but did not formally receive her Ph.D. until 1950. At that time Columbia modified its policy requiring that grad students pay to publish dissertations (at a cost of $4,000) and began accepting copies of mimeographed theses.
In 1935 Weltfish was invited by Boas to teach at Columbia. She stayed on a year-to-year appointment until 1953. Among her students at Columbia were Eleanor Leacock and Vera Mae Green. Columbia University never granted Weltfish tenure, most likely because of a long-standing practice of discrimination against women. In 1938 Ruth Benedict was the first woman to achieve tenure at Columbia but did not receive a full professorship until 1948, months before her death. She intervened on behalf of Weltfish at a board meeting, when the trustees were considering terminating the younger woman's employment.
Recent media