The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona: a Brief Genealogy

The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona: A Brief Genealogy

Thomas R. McGuire Research Anthropologist Emeritus Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, School of Anthropology University of Arizona

John H. Provinse was on Dean Upper Gila. Spicer took his un- Byron Cummings’ staff in the De- dergraduate training at the Uni- partment of Archaeology when versity of Arizona in economics in he heard that Eshreh Shevky was 1932, then received an MA under recruiting a team of anthropolo- Dean Cummings in archaeology gists to conduct surveys for the the following year. Getty worked Soil Conservation Service on the as a field technician, gathering Navajo reservation. Provinse had and analyzing tree ring data for received his Ph.D at the Univer- Andrew Ellicott Douglass before sity of Chicago under the direc- being hired by Cummings as an tion of A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and assistant in the Arizona State Mu- Robert Redfield. Upon getting seum. Cummings then moved the SCS job, he wrote to Redfield Getty to the department to take in the fall of 1936: “I am sure that over the instructional load after my Chicago training was largely Provinse’s departure. Getty also responsible for securing me the worked with Spicer and a fellow appointment… I am trying to fit student, Louis Caywood, on the my conceptual scheme into the excavation of the large pueblo site concepts employed by Shevky of Tuzigoot in the Verde Valley in and his associates in the Planning 1933 and 1934. Spicer would be Division. I find it very stimulating credited with defining the prehis- after the antiquarian sterility of toric Prescott wares. Trained as Tucson” (Kelly 1985:142). archaeologists, Spicer and Getty During his abbreviated stay would reconfigure themselves as in Tucson, Provinse established sociocultural anthropologists, and friendships with two young col- begin to fulfill the vision of Cum- leagues, Harry T. Getty and mings and his successor, Emil Edward H. (Ned) Spicer. Getty Haury, of a “program in anthro- received a master’s in 1932 for a pology” (Thompson 2005:338). thesis on the archaeology of the Provinse would, in government

Arizona Anthropologist Centennial Edition: 52-69. © 2015 Arizona Anthropologist McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 53 service and policy formulation, John Provinse’s abiding interest lay a model for an applied anthro- became apparent, now that his pology which saw its fruition in basic training in theory had been the establishment in 1952 of the completed. At Arizona, in his department’s Bureau of Ethnic first teaching job, it was evident that he was not completely at Research (BER, now the Bureau of home in the classroom or even in Applied Research in Anthropolo- the academic atmosphere gener- gy) under the leadership of William ally. He was impatient with the H. Kelly. piling up of knowledge for its Watson Smith, the inveterate own sake, and turned steadily Southwestern archaeologist and toward activities in which social rough contemporary of Provinse, knowledge was being sought by Getty, Spicer and Kelly, briefly re- administrators for the solution flects on Ned Spicer’s conversion of urgent human problems. In from archaeologist to sociocultur- the classroom he radiated a deep al anthropologist: conviction that the social scienc- After such a seminal beginning, es ought to be used practically, with the resultant creation of and at the same time fostered two “new” cultures and the skepticism and caution about recovery of thousands of pots facile claims for them (Spicer and other artifacts it might be 1966:991). supposed that Ned was off and This essay offers a brief -gene running for additional archae- alogy of the early development ological laurels. But, instead, of sociocultural and applied an- he was persuaded by his friend thropology at the University of and professor John Provinse to Arizona, from the “antiquarian enter the University of Chicago sterility of Tucson,” through the for graduate study in anthropol- heady and taxing matriculation of ogy in the fall of 1934. He was Spicer and Getty in Chicago, to the awarded a fellowship at Chica- institutionalization of an applied go, and under the influence of program in the Bureau of Ethnic Professors A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and Robert Redfield, his inter- Research at the university. It will ests focused on cultural anthro- intertwine the efforts and interests pology (Smith 1983:77). of Provinse (1897-1965), Spicer And Spicer, in his obituary of (1906-1983), Getty (1904-1995), Provinse, recounts his friend’s and Kelly (1902-1980). Provinse path into applied work, which and Kelly will serve to bracket Spicer would follow as well: my focus on Getty and Spicer – 54 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL their “coming of age,” as it were, the San Carlos Apache cattle in- through graduate school, through dustry was influential when I their devotion to, and trepidation worked on the history of the Fort about, advisors, and to their ear- Apache cattle industry for the ly careers. Getty and Spicer (and Arizona State Museum’s Cultur- their respective wives) were close al Resource Management Section friends, and their rich correspon- (Getty 1963; McGuire 1980). My dence1 reveals a picture of mutual own field research and disserta- support and respect at crucial de- tion, completed in 1979 and pub- velopmental stages in their careers lished as Politics and Ethnicity on as anthropologists and educators. the Rio Yaqui: Potam Revisited (Mc- Kelly, Getty, and Spicer were Guire 1986), attempted to place senior members of the depart- Spicer’s structural/historical study mental faculty when I entered the of Potam (Spicer 1954) in a more graduate program in 1971. I had processual and interactionist audited Kelly’ applied anthropol- perspective. Spicer, a member of ogy class when I arrived. When I my committee, was, I think,- be worked on the “Douglas Project” mused at best. for the Bureau of Ethnic Research in 1973, Thomas Weaver had suc- Provinse and the SCS ceeded Kelly as the Bureau’s di- Historian Lawrence Kelly traces rector. Getty was graduate student the work of the handful of anthro- advisor when he awarded me an pologists brought to the Navajo MA degree, without additional Reservation in 1936 to assist soil work, after I had gone through scientists in addressing problems the comprehensive exams. At the of overgrazing. The reformist time, the “comps” were two-day, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, closed book, written exams on John Collier, built on previous ef- four fields, and they determined forts by the New Deal soil conser- if you would be accepted into the vation agencies and hired Eshreh Ph.D program. I failed archaeolo- Shevky, a Ph.D in experimental gy the first time around, but per- medicine but well-read in anthro- haps Getty had sympathy from pology, ecology, economics, and his experiences, recounted below, colonial administration, to build a with his own experience with the team of anthropologists. Through comps at Chicago. His study of 1 The Spicer-Getty correspondence is in “human dependency surveys,” the Spicer Papers, Arizona State Museum the team was to gather social and Archives. McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 55 economic information on the Na- Functionalists were interested in vajo to inform the efforts of soil those aspects of a society which scientists in implementing range were also of most interest to gov- management measures. Shevky ernmental planners: land and recruited two recent Ph.Ds from property concepts, social and political organization, kinship Harvard, Burleigh Gardner and patterns, native law, status sys- Solon T. Kimball. Interestingly, tems. Functionalists were also Kimball and a fellow Harvard insistent upon “explaining” cul- graduate student (and fellow ture in terms of the relationships Kansan), Emil Haury, worked to- between various parts of culture. gether on the Canyon Creek site They were, above all, insistent on the Mogollon Rim during the upon the point that cultures sur- summer of 1932 (Haury 1995). vived and withered according A third anthropologist, John to their ability to maintain an Provinse, sought Shevky out di- “equilibrium” among the vari- rectly and got a job. At Harvard, ous parts of the system, and this Gardner and Kimball were stu- insistence made them especially dents of W. Lloyd Warner, who sensitive to the effects which a change in any part of the system had received his own training di- would have upon every other rectly from A.R. Radcliffe-Brown part (Kelly 1985:141). during fieldwork in Australia. Burleigh Gardner resigned from Radcliffe-Brown’s appointment the team to join his mentor, W. to the faculty of the Universi- Lloyd Warner, who had taken up a ty of Chicago coincided with position at Chicago. Provinse was Provinse’s decision to leave a law put in charge of the Navajo human practice and study anthropology, dependency survey, and Kim- obtaining a Ph.D in 1934 for a dis- ball joined him shortly from an sertation on social control among assignment with the Rio Grande the Plains Indians. Thus, all three Pueblos. Together, the two pub- of Shevky’s team were trained as lished a brief but seminal paper functionalists, as distinct from the in applied anthropology, “Navajo Boasian-inspired traditions of cul- Social Organization and Land Use ture history, trait diffusion, and Planning” (Kimball and Provinse evolution, dominant theories in 1942). It defined the “land use com- the United States. munity” of the Navajo, a group Kelly provides a succinct of matrilineally-related families summary of functionalism and working a traditional territory its utility: 56 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL in cooperative groups. Stressing War Relocation Authority (WRA), that land management programs and Spicer first as social science must acknowledge and utilize lo- analyst for WRA’s Japanese relo- cal leadership, they elaborate on cation camp in Poston, AZ, then the significance of their finding: in the WRA office in Washington “Through the recognition of com- (Gallaher 1984; Spicer 1966). Solon munity areas, it is now possible Kimball also worked for the WRA, to indicate specific land use areas then went on to a teaching career, for administration and planning. retiring from the University of The same mechanisms of cohesion Florida in 1980. All three were ac- and direction operating within the tive in the formation of the Society community group will continue for Applied Anthropology in 1941. to operate where administration recognizes and manages land on a Malinowski’s Tucson Sojourn community basis” (1942:23). Provinse had attempted to re- Bronislaw Malinowski of the Lon- cruit Ned Spicer to the work on don School of Economics made the Navajo reservation as Spicer several overtures to Dean Cum- was finishing up his dissertation mings and his successor, Emil at Chicago. But Spicer made a dif- Haury, about spending a sabbat- ficult decision to accept a short- ical in 1939 in the Department of term teaching job in the UA an- Anthropology. Haury was quite thropology department, filling in receptive to the idea of bringing for Harry Getty, who was embark- one of Great Britain’s foremost ing for his dissertation training. It social anthropologists to campus was perhaps the right decision for and expressed his appreciation af- Spicer, as the Interior Department ter Malinowski had left: “…Your canceled the use of anthropolo- willingness to conduct a group gists in soil conservation, citing of seminars without remunera- Congressional “impatience with tion gave all of us an opportunity the multiplicity of surveys and which rarely comes to an insti- the absence of results therefrom” tution. To be able to discuss inti- (quoted in Kelly 1985:146; see also mately with you the problems of Kelly 1980). With the approaching social anthropology stands out as war, Provinse and Spicer would the one incomparable experience find themselves working togeth- of the year and I am confidant that er, Provinse as Chief of the Com- you have stimulated us to carry munity Services Division of the on our work more intelligently McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 57 than we could have done other- stand as his major statement on wise” (Haury to Malinowski, June his brand of functionalism which, 1, 1939, quoted in Troy 1998:161). in a footnote, he claimed as “pure” Haury later confirmed to the functionalism and contrasts this accountant at the London School to the “hyphenated” functional- that Malinowski had expended ism of his intellectual rival, A.R $357.03 for research assistants, Radcliffe-Brown(Malinowski two of whom were Harry T. Get- 1939:939). As a reader, Getty was ty and Carleton S. Wilder (Troy involved in this revision activity, 1998:162). Wilder was doing and he reports on it in a letter to graduate work at Chicago which Spicer in early January, 1939: “The would result in a monograph editors of the Encl butchered up on the Yaqui deer dance (Wilder the article as he sent it to them, so 1963). He and Getty were assigned he is re-writing it to be published to Malinowski as “readers,” sit- elsewhere. I have had one session ting with the professor, reading to on it with him, and tonight Car- him from various works, discuss- leton joins the discussion. As I told ing the contents of those read- him, I don’t know anything about ings, and recording notes of those socl anthrop but I’m out to learn discussions. Wilder, in a letter to everything I can. What a golden Malinowski’s daughter, remem- opportunity, to have Malinowski bers the experience: “I imagine plopped down in my yard (not we functioned adequately as read- literally of course). So, Carleton er and recorder – but had doubts and I are going to get saturated in even then that we met his severe functionalism a la Malinowski by and demanding standards as dis- the old maestro himself” (Getty to cussants…your father, as I recall, Spicer, January 12, 1939). was just as uncompromising in crit- Another of Malinowski’s in- icizing us as he was the authors we terests while in Tucson was to were discussing” (Troy 1998:146). observe the Yaqui Easter cere- One of Malinowski’s main tasks monies, and in his brief report, while in Tucson was to revise a “Functional Interpretation of the paper he had prepared for the En- Yaqui Fiesta de Gloria (in Troy cyclopedia of Social Sciences. The 1998:178-180), he would mildly ultimate revision would appear in chide Spicer for not fully placing the American Journal of Sociology as the Yaqui community of Pascua “The Group and the Individual in in its historical context of being Functional Analysis.” This would an uprooted group, dependent on 58 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL wage labor, without any political “…the Department of Anthro- or municipal organization. Thus, pology, despite its name change, Malinowski observed, the reli- continued to be focused on South- gious societies bear the burden of western archaeology. Much of carrying out whatever functions what Malinowski was professing these other pursuits once served was simply beyond the interest in the indigenous pueblos of the and understanding of the de- Rio Yaqui. Malinowski is rightly partment’s students. Malinowski, regarded as the originator of ex- apparently, was seen by most in tended anthropological fieldwork Tucson as an oddity. His presence with the publication of his Tro- did not generate a great deal of in- briand work. Getty took him out terest” (Troy 1998:148-9). to Pascua and commented briefly on this experience in a letter to Harry Getty’s Intellectual Spicer: “I went out to the Yaqui Journey through Grad School: village with Malinowski last Fri- Berkeley or Chicago? day. He is an aggressive old devil. He would take us rushing right By late summer, 1939, Getty and up to one of the groups in action, his wife, Justine, had moved to peer in to see what he wanted California so that Getty, with Hau- (he is a bit nearsighted) and then ry’s encouragement, could pursue have me make notes literally un- a Ph.D at UC- Berkeley. Spicer, der their nose. I expected that we having just completed his dis- would be run out of the country, sertation at Chicago, returned to but the Yaquis didn’t seem to ob- Tucson with his wife, Rosamond ject. It’s a great life if I can man- (Roz), to fill the temporary vacan- age to live through it – keeping up cy created by Getty’s absence. The with my regular classwork, trying Spicers also house-sat for the Get- to work on German and French, tys, and there is much correspon- and getting a very small part of all dence between the couples about that he wants me to do…” (Getty gardens, flood damage, and the to Spicer, March 13, 1939). anxieties and pleasures of depart- Timothy Troy aptly summa- ing and returning to Tucson. Over rizes Malinowski’s impact on the several years, Harry and Ned anthropological community in pondered the worthiness of the Tucson, suggesting that Haury’s two dominant paths of American vision of a broad program in an- anthropology – the historical-dif- thropology was still incubating: fusionist school centered around McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 59

Figures 24 and 25. (left) Harry Getty and (right) Edward Spicer. Faculty photos taken in 1967. Images courtesy of the Arizona State Museum Archives. Berkeley, and the emergent func- I appreciate more than I can tell you the tionalist school embedded in Chi- time you took from your rush work there cago. Having failed the required to write me. Your advice and counsel was language exams in German and not in vain, even tho it might seem that French at Berkeley, Getty had sent way. There were two things mainly that kept me from tearing right out for Chica- a telegram to Spicer soon after his go. One was the matter of money…Well, arrival, wanting out of California. the other thing that restrained us was He then expanded on his initial that actually I didn’t have much basis for impressions of Berkeley in a letter forming an opinion of things here. My of October 1, 1939: feelings are based pretty much on what others said. Of course, I’ll agree that when …As Justine said in her letter to Roz, more than 75% of the grad students seem we have not yet decided to stay here. The to be highly dissatisfied with things, there first few skirmishes here left me very dis- must be something wrong. couraged and bewildered, particularly my …But as to the setup here, I still am failure in the two language exams (even not ready to pass any final judgment. I tho it is customary). But that meant that cant seem to get much interest in Kroeber I could take no graduate courses at all. I and his work, undoubtedly due largely to sent my wire to you at the time that I was that inane Pro-seminar every graduate feeling most discouraged, and believe me, 60 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL student must take before being admitted Ned, I know darn well that I would never to the graduate courses. We are taking make a social anthropologist, my mental the section on the hoop-and-pole games setup isn’t the kind for a social anthropol- in BAE 24, Culin’s “Games of the Amer ogist. But I do feel that I could do ethno- Inds”, and completely working it over to graphic work that was largely tempered see if we can arrive at any distribution- by the social viewpoint. If in going to Chi- al conclusions. Culin, of course, simply cago I would have to be a social anthrop or presents the games of the various tribes else, then I had better not think about go- without any attempt at analysis. Low- ing there; but if I could plan to work heav- ie seems to have more on the ball, and ily in ethnography, and temper it largely seems to look at things more from a social with social anthrop then I could feel very point of view. He agreed to let me audit happy about it. What do you think? the only graduate course he gives, a sem- You said in your letter from Chicago to inar on acculturation. It has meet twice me, that you never felt quite right about so far, but so far he hasn’t been in action me coming here. One reason I came here very much, its been straight student re- was that I thought I would fit best into the ports. But, while Lowie is the stronger of type of anthrop they seemed to give here, the two men mentally, the brains of the and I sincerely thought that. But since outfit as it were, yet Kroeber still runs the getting here in the middle of it, I question roost, definitely so. Kroeber strikes me as very strongly whether I was right. Per- being an old-school, classical, historical haps my contact with Malinowski plant- anthropologist. Gifford is also a stalwart ed a germ that isn’t getting much nour- historical anthropologist, with innumera- ishment here. Sometimes it takes a very ble quantities of traits at hand with which severe jolt to make us see the light. Anoth- to befuddle one, and I suspect himself too er reason why I came here, was to try to at times. establish relationships between here and …The offerings to graduate students Tucson. But I don’t believe there is much here seem to me to be along historical and interest in such a contact so far as this end distributional lines, plus what one may be of the line is concerned, and I don’t see able to get along social lines from Lowie, that we would benefit a great deal thereby but even that seems to be strongly tinged at Tucson. with history and distribution… …Sometimes I think what the Hell is As I see it now, my problem is going all the uproar about, get the degree in any to shape itself into a question of getting way and get it over with. On the other the historical-distributional approach hand, as I said to Doc Provinse, it seems here, or getting a broader social-func- to me I should get some real inspiration tional approach such as I understand it and stimulus from this graduate work. to be at Chicago…. As I said in a letter What do you think about it, having just to John Provinse this past week, it seems finished the work. Any light you can to me that ethnologic studies now should throw on the financial situation at Chica- be more than mere ethnographic studies. go will be a big help. You and Roz must McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 61 have made it through without any great sort of reductio ad absurdum of the dis- amount of finances. tributional approach, that he has carried I guess the two fraus have pretty well the method to the point where its results discussed the house matters so I wont say are no longer significant in any way. The anything about that. Except that I hope weakness of the work is based, I think, in you two enjoy the place as much as we a fundamental misunderstanding of the did – it made leaving Tucson just that nature of culture, which could be cor- much tougher. rected (in a younger person) by a simple reading of Linton’s chapters on Function, Spicer responded quickly on Historical Reconstruction, and Classifi- October 5, first commending cations. I have a hunch, in other words, Getty for staying on through the that study under Kroeber is likely to lead semester and noting that Haury up one of the blind alleys of anthropology rather than to lead out into the very fruit- agrees that an early departure, ful paths that have been developing in the after the results of the mandatory last fifteen years elsewhere.… Lowie has language exams were discourag- a great deal more to offer. You can’t beat ing, would not have given Getty his Crow Indians for deep insight into adequate time to assess the poten- the workings of a culture and all along tial of Berkeley’s program. Then he has shown an interest that goes much Spicer turns to an assessment of deeper than mere geographical distribu- the Berkeley offerings and Getty’s tion. His point of view has been broader other concerns: in most ways than Radcliffe-Brown’s, for instance. A seminar in acculturation with Frankly, I can’t believe that Kroeber him ought to be very, very good. I would and Lowie have nothing to offer, though envy the chance to take it, providing Low- I think it may be possible to get most of ie hasn’t got himself too far removed from what they have in a fairly brief contact. I the actualities of field work in the past few feel very much that Kroeber is out of touch years… with more recent developments in cultur- Anyway, I am glad you are going al anthropology, that he simply does not through the intellectual turmoil which understand the approaches of men like seems to be assailing you, unpleasant Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski, Redfield, though it may be at the moment. It makes and even Linton. His seminar at Chicago me think of my return to Chicago with the two years ago was very unpopular and al- Yaqui material. I turned in an outline (fif- though students went religiously and took teen pages or so) of a report on the work to notes, I have talked with no one who came Redfield and then went in for a conference out of it with any inspiration or any new with him. He ripped the outline up and ideas. I think that Kroeber’s latest work on down, told me I had no formulated prob- trait distribution (with Driver, etc.) is a lems in conjunction with it which had any general significance, and said that 62 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL it looked as if ethnologists were getting believe you when you say you haven’t got so that they made merely more and more the “mental set-up” to understand social complete ethnographies but were failing anthropology. Maybe you don’t have the to synthesize their data in any significant interest in the mechanics of culture, but way. I contemplated suicide for a couple there is little chance that you lack the of weeks after that. But I struggled on, ability to understand the fundamentals working with the Culture Contacts sem- (in as far as they are known) of how cul- inar, thinking, discussing, and writing ture works and grows and its parts fit and eventually thought my way out into together. Once you master those funda- an approach that satisfied Redfield and mentals, then you can go on to an inter- which has borne much fruit for myself est in purely historical developments in ever since. It was a very tough experience, the Southwest. but it was an experience and as a result of it I find that I thought through most of By November, the Gettys, the basic problems of social anthropology. Harry and Justine, had made up I had to do that in order to save my life, their minds. In a brief note to the as it were. Consequently the writing of Spicers on November 19, Harry my thesis was for me the most important announces: thing I have ever done. It was not a rou- tine task at any point. It was forged out Well so far as we’re concerned we are of direct personal contact with Redfield’s going to Chicago. After weeks of mental brain…. wrestling the die is cast. I may be letting You wonder in your letter whether you myself in for many months of mental tor- will have to be a social anthropologist or ture at Chicago U, but that seems much else. You won’t, but you will have to un- more preferable to me than a slow-death derstand that culture is something more here. I still think the Egyptian mum- than shreds and patches, or at least that my-case just inside the door at the Anthro the patches are cut to fit certain holes. If Bldg is very symbolic. you want to be a historian of culture, and why shouldn’t you?, you will get plenty One of Getty’s first letters, Jan- of inspiration and assistance. Fred Eggan uary 12, 1940, to Spicer after set- is working out the history of kinship ter- tling in at Chicago is up-beat. On minologies and usages all the time…. their apartment, Getty writes: The thing is that ethnology and social anthropology aren’t separated at Chicago, in the sense that you are supposed to be We have our Indian things in the main able to interpret culture history without room, so its quite homey. I got some lum- reference to culture processes. You use the ber and built a book-case… its stained and latter all the time in working out the for- looks very nice. Our windows don’t do us mer and you use the former as a source of much good except for ventilation, as there material for the study of the latter. I don’t is only a blank brick wall immediately op- McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 63 posite. From the Catalina Mts to a brick ing so. I felt that I had the fundamental wall. But we are very comfortable…. knowledge of archaeology generally, well As to school. I am greatly pleased with enough in hand to warrant my being ex- everything here There is no comparison cused from the exam, and the preparation between the atmosphere here and at Berke- I would have done would have been get- ley…I have had a hell of a time getting on ting in hand illustrative specific material. to Redfield, but in the Folk Society he just So I felt it would be much better for me goes great guns, he’s a veritable streak of to apply that time instead to getting a greased lightning. He talks fast, sort of better grasp of the subjects that were less mumbles at times, and is talking a lingo familiar to me – socl anthrop and lin- that I’m not to yet – though I’m improv- guistics – and I believe the results fully ing day by day…he’s definitely stimulat- justify my action. ing, he constitutes a distinct challenge, … Well, I’m glad that’s behind me. It’s and that’s what I did not find at Berkeley. a bit of a strain, at least it was for me, and My short paper in the Mexico course will apparently it was for others as well. The be on the Ball Courts of America. extent of the body of knowledge for which one is held on those exams, not only gen- Getty proceeded to take the erally but in detail, is enormous. I have comprehensive exams for a Mas- always been skeptical of ‘comprehensive ter’s degree in early 1941 (he al- exams’, and since participating in these ready had a UA Masters degree exams and observing the preparations for his archaeological work on the made by others as well as myself I am Upper Gila in 1932), and his letter still more skeptical. However, I admit I to Ned and Roz on March 17, 1941 am not just certain what I would do in will resonate with many current their place. and former graduate students at the University of Arizona: He continued course work at Chicago and passed what were es- For the last three months study and re- sentially qualifying exams for the view has taken absolute preference over Ph.D. He would return to Tucson everything and everybody else. The en- in late 1941 or early 1942, teach- forced slavery became a bit monotonous ing his signature course on World at times, but it paid dividends, so I feel Ethnography. He contemplated it was well worthwhile… When I talked several different dissertation top- to Fred [Eggan] about the exams early in ics, but settled on a study of Mex- January, the faculty was quite willing to ican-American relationships with excuse me from the exam in archaeology, other ethnic groups in Tucson. He so I took advantage of the fact. I felt there offers Spicer a progress report in a were good reasons for my doing so, even June 8, 1945 letter: though you, Ned, advised against do- 64 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL

I am pressing work on my thesis again this summer at full speed. The teaching load was too heavy this past year to per- mit me to do anything much on the thesis. This next year will be even worse. Believe it or not I am scheduled for seven classes the first semester, but two are almost certain not to materialize – they just can’t. You can well see how much we need another staff member.

He submitted his dissertation, “Interethnic Relationships in the Community of Tucson,” to his Chicago advisors, W. Lloyd War- ner and Robert Redfield, in 1949. Figure 26. Image of William Kelly, from Kelly’s faculty profile printed in After some revisions, Getty was the December 1964 edition of the At- awarded his Ph.D in 1950 (Getty latl. Atlatl reprint courtesy of the Ari- 1976). Spicer’s activities War Re- zona State Museum Archives. location Authority came to an end took in his Cocopa ethnographic and he accepted Emil Haury’s of- work: “Southwestern ethnogra- fer of a position in the Department phies prior to 1940 were written of Anthropology. in the tradition of history: one of William Kelly’s Bureau of the primary interests was to re- Ethnic Research cover an account of the pre-Eu- ropean cultures before the mem- A native of Arizona, Bill Kelly ory of an earlier way of life was graduated with a BA from the lost. Since this was my interest, I University of Arizona in 1936 un- chose to write a monograph in a der Byron Cummings. He went style reminiscent of those written on to Harvard for a Ph.D, work- by Alfred Kroeber, E.W. Gifford, ing under the tutelage of Clyde Grenville Goodwin, and Leslie Kluckholn and Leslie Spier. In the Spier” (1977:vi). acknowledgements of his revised One of these mentors, Spier, 1944 dissertation, published in the had argued when he was editor Anthropological Papers of the U of the American Anthropologist that of A, he related the approach he acculturation studies were polit- McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 65 ical science and had no place in about the desired changes (Kelly anthropology (Vincent 1990:198). 1954:714). But when Kelly was hired by Emil Kelly’s paper was part of a spe- Haury to direct the newly-estab- cial 200-page issue of the American lished Bureau of Ethnic Research, Anthropologist devoted to assess- he would bring applied anthro- ing the state of anthropology in pology to bear against the mount- the Southwest. Edited and pref- ing efforts in the Bureau of Indian aced by Haury, the papers and Affairs and the U.S. Congress to commentary were first presented terminate reservations and speed at a symposium, organized by up assimilative processes. One Spicer and Haury, at the annu- of Kelly’s first salvos came in his al AAA meetings held in Tucson assessment of applied anthropol- in December, 1953. The topical ogy in the Southwest, decrying papers cover perhaps the full ex- the reversal of even the contested tent of what Haury envisioned efforts of Commissioner John Col- for a “program in anthropolo- lier to seek the advice and service gy”: hunters and gatherers (Paul of anthropologists such as Solon Kirchhoff), Southwestern archae- Kimball and John Provinse: ology (Walter Taylor), South- The great block to the applica- western cultural interrelation- tion of social science principles ships (Joe Ben Wheat), the history remains nearly as effective to- of the Pueblo Southwest (Erik day as twenty years ago when Reed), physical anthropology Collier first attempted to make (J.N. Spuhler), linguistics (Stanley use of them. The Indian Service Newman), intercultural relations is the product of people, and in the greater Southwest (Ruth it is constantly recruiting peo- Underhill), Spanish-Indian accul- ple who possess a deep-seated American assumption that, by turation (Spicer), culture and per- and large, instruction and ex- sonality (Clyde Kluckholn), Kel- ample are all that are needed ly’s applied anthropology, and a to bring the American Indian concluding paper by E. Adamson into our way of life. This is ac- Hoebel, “Major Contributions of companied by the belief that Southwestern Studies to Anthro- no unusual injury to the Indian pological Theory.” There were need result from the process of 22 commentaries from a virtual acculturation and that no spe- “who’s who” in American anthro- cial knowledge and no special pology at the time. techniques are required to bring When Collier resigned from 66 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL the BIA in 1945, termination and the possibility of increasing ten- assimilation talk gained ascen- sion in Indian-white relations in dency. The Hoover Commission’s towns nearest the reservations. report in 1948 strongly recom- Arizona’s citizens are, on the mended that the federal govern- whole, ambivalent in their feelings towards the Indians. There ment should remove itself from is a high degree of tolerance, and the Indian business as quickly as even a tendency to glorify the possible. Under Indian Commis- Indian, while at the same time sioner Glenn Emmons, a New giving verbal expression to the Mexico banker, a heavy empha- usual expressions that Indians sis was placed on employment are lazy, unreliable, et cetera. assistance, including adult voca- It is the hope of the Universi- tional training and off-reservation ty that an educational program placement efforts. These portend- will help to establish realistic ed a significant population shift attitudes towards Arizona’s In- off-reservation to surrounding dians before behavior becomes communities. And, with the pas- crystallized and before the In- sage of Public Law 83-280 in 1953, dian population becomes more numerous in white communities Congress authorized some states (Anon. 1952:40). to take legal jurisdiction over Kelly and the Bureau of Eth- tribes, and allowed other states to nic Research were also concerned assume jurisdiction – and provide that, even if the termination services – whenever they chose to movement was averted, Indians do so (Officer 1984:79). It was this on reservation and off, many of specter of state responsibility for whom were returning war veter- tribes that surrounded the estab- ans, would need assistance. Fun- lishment of the Bureau of Ethnic damental to this effort was the Research by the state in 1952: This is something of a revolution collection of information on the in the policy of state govern- conditions of Native Americans ments in that this action of the in Arizona. The Bureau’s first Board of Regents indicates their annual report received a positive appreciation of the importance review in the American Anthropolo- of research and the gathering of gist: “Mr. Kelly and the University facts before important state pol- of Arizona must be commended icies must be formulated…The for this first big step in establish- greatest immediate problem, so ing an easily obtainable source of far as the state is concerned, is basic information for one of Ari- McGuire - The Advent of Sociocultural and Applied Anthropology at Arizona 67 zona’s largest minority groups” ical ideas and practical interests. (Olson 1954:333). Provinse, in his brief academic Through the 1950s the fervor stint at Arizona, mentored both for termination did wane as oppo- Getty and Spicer, and would be a sition groups lobbied Interior and continuing model for Spicer of the Congress. When President Kenne- role of anthropology in the poli- dy nominated an anthropologist, cy world. Kelly, the undergradu- Philleo Nash, as Commissioner, ate student of Bryon Cummings, federal involvement in resource formed an applied unit in a de- development and education and partment that had been primed larger appropriations became for such an endeavor. Kelly’s matters of policy (Officer 1984:81). Bureau then served as a training Ironically, had the termination ground for a number of respected policies and the predicted flood anthropologists, including James of Native Americans into nearby Officer, Robert Hackenberg, Har- communities occurred, Getty’s land Padfield, and John van Wil- baseline study of interethnic rela- ligen. Getty carried out a heavy tionships in Tucson would proba- teaching load and was appointed bly have obtained a higher profile. as the first academic advisor to American Indian students. And Consolidation Spicer, once his Radcliffe-Brown- ian and Chicago days were be- By the 1950s, sociocultural and hind him, would quickly turn his applied anthropology were on attention to issues of history, cul- firm footings in the department, ture change, and acculturation, as ratifying the vision of Emil Hau- evidenced in his major edited vol- ry and his predecessor, Dean ume in 1961, Perspectives in Amer- Cummings, for a broad program ican Indian Culture Change. By the in anthropology. Many of the fig- 1970s, Spicer would become a ures in this genealogy got their leading theorist of what he chose start in archaeology, then honed to call “persistent cultural sys- their interests in these subdisci- tems” (Spicer 1971). Although not plines. Their own intellectual and recognized at the time, this piece personal genealogies were deep- in Science is something of a subal- ly intertwined. Spicer and Getty, tern manifesto. and their spouses, shared theoret- 68 ARIZONA ANTHROPOLOGIST CENTENNIAL

References cultural History 59(2):136-147.

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in Arizona, by William H. Science 174:795-800. Kelly. 56:332-333. Spicer, Edward H., ed. Officer, James E. 1961 Perspectives in American 1984 The Indian Service and its Indian Culture Change. Chicago: Evolution. In Sandra L, University of Chicago Press. Cawalader and Vine Deloria, Jr., eds. The Aggressions of Civ- Thompson, Raymond H. ilization: Federal Indian Policy 2005 Anthropology at the University since the 1880s. Pp. 59-103. of Arizona, 1893-2005. Journal Philadelphia: Temple Univer- of the Southwest 47(3):327-374. sity Press. Troy, Timothy Smith, Watson 1998 Professor Bronislaw 1983 The Archaeological Legacy of Malinowski’s Visit to Tucson. Edward H. Spicer. Kiva Journal of the Southwest 40(2): 49(1/2):75-79. 129-186.

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