Ethnohistory

Ethnohistory
Name	Ethnohistory
Caption	Field research in cultural landscapes
Discipline	Anthropology; History
Subdisciplines	Historical anthropology; Indigenous studies; Oral history
Notable people	Alfred Kroeber, William Robertson, Francis James Child, Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss
Country	Global

Ethnohistory is an interdisciplinary approach combining aspects of anthropology, history, archaeology, and linguistics to reconstruct past lifeways of peoples often underrepresented in dominant documentary records. It synthesizes evidence from oral histories, archival records, material culture, and ethnography to study interactions among societies, including contact, conflict, and exchange. Scholars apply ethnohistorical methods to topics ranging from indigenous resistance and colonial encounters to migration and legal claims.

Definition and Scope

Ethnohistory addresses historical questions about specific peoples by integrating sources such as oral tradition, missionary accounts, voyage narratives, colonial censuses, and treaty documents alongside archaeological excavation reports and linguistic reconstruction. Practitioners focus on groups like the Lakota, Navajo, Haudenosaunee, Mapuche, Māori, Aboriginal Australians, Inuit, Yoruba, Ashanti, Ainu, Sámi, Bedouin, Zapotec, Mixtec, Maya, Inca, Aztec, Cherokee, Choctaw, Sioux, Taino, Guarani, Huron-Wendat, Comanche, Pueblo peoples, Ojibwe, Cree, Métis, Selk'nam, Xingu peoples, Batak, Maya codices, Aztec codices, Codex Mendoza, Florentine Codex, Jesuit Relations, Hernán Cortés reports, and Samuel de Champlain journals. The field overlaps with institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, National Archives (United States), Bibliothèque nationale de France, Archivo General de Indias, Royal Geographical Society, and Royal Anthropological Institute.

Methods and Sources

Methodological toolkits include comparative analysis of ethnographic fieldwork by figures like Bronisław Malinowski, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Franz Boas, and Alfred Kroeber; textual criticism of documents by Edward Gibbon-style historians and historians using paleography from collections like the Vatican Archives and Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico). Researchers employ oral history techniques inspired by practitioners such as Alan Lomax and Studs Terkel, integrate dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating from laboratories like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and consult legal records from Royal Proclamations, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Indian Appropriations Act (1871), Royal Proclamation of 1763, Treaty of Waitangi, Treaty of Paris (1763), and Treaty of Tordesillas. Sources also include material collections from Harvard Peabody Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History, British Library, Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), and Museo del Oro (Bogotá).

Historical Development and Schools

Early antecedents appear in antiquarian studies tied to Gerardus Mercator-era cartography and travelogues by Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and James Cook. Formal formation drew on the work of Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, John R. Swanton, and J. N. B. Hewitt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, evolving through scholars such as Merrill D. Peterson, Theda Perdue, Richard White, James A. Sweet, Charles C. Mann, and Vine Deloria Jr.. Schools include the New Ethnohistory movement influenced by Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. and Julian Steward, the British Empirical tradition connected to E. E. Evans-Pritchard and Lucy Mair, and postcolonial critiques articulated by Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Institutional anchors include Southern Methodist University, University of California, Berkeley, University of New Mexico, University of British Columbia, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Yale University, Harvard University, Columbia University, and Australian National University.

Regional and Case Studies

Ethnohistorical case studies cover the Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Trail of Tears, Taíno resistance in the Caribbean, Mapuche resistance in Chile and Argentina, the Wounded Knee Massacre, the Pueblo Revolt (1680), King Philip's War, Powhatan Confederacy encounters, trading networks like the Hudson's Bay Company routes, the impacts of Mission Systems such as the California missions founded by Junípero Serra, colonial administration in the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire in Brazil, the Dutch East India Company interactions in Indonesia, and indigenous legal claims exemplified by cases brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and adjudications under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Other studies examine migratory episodes like the Great Migration (African American) and diasporas such as the Jewish diaspora, African diaspora, Irish diaspora, Chinese diaspora, Indian indenture movements, and peopling studies of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia.

Debates and Criticisms

Scholars debate issues raised by critics such as Gananath Obeyesekere regarding sources like oral tradition versus written accounts, concerns about ethnographic present formulations critiqued by Clifford Geertz and James Clifford, and disputes over representation addressed in works by Vine Deloria Jr., Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Methodological challenges include handling biases in documents like missionary accounts by Bartolomé de las Casas or Antonio de Montesinos, reconciling archaeological chronologies advanced by Lewis Binford and Gordon Childe, and legal implications in cases referencing Marshall Trilogy decisions and Worcester v. Georgia. Debates extend to ethical concerns highlighted by James Anaya and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about community consent, repatriation under Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act processes, and digital archiving with institutions like Google Arts & Culture and Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Ethnohistory intersects with historical geography, bioarchaeology, paleolimnology, medical anthropology, legal anthropology, economic history, population genetics, sociolinguistics, museum studies, and public history. Collaborations occur with laboratories and centers such as Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Institut Français d'Études Andines, Canadian Museum of History, Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Monash University, University of São Paulo, National University of Colombia, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, University of Auckland, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, and Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social. The field informs policy debates in forums like the United Nations, Organization of American States, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and national commissions addressing historical injustices.

Category:Anthropology Category:History