Transcript Chimariko in Areal and Typological Perspective

John Peabody Harrington:
Exploring a Legacy
Carmen Jany, Cal State San Bernardino
[email protected]
Dorothy Ramon Learning Center
January 17, 2011
Why talk about Harrington?
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Documented numerous Native American
languages (many are no longer spoken)
His field notes are a great source for many
California indigenous languages
Notes are accurate - good ear for phonetics
Notes are available on microfilm & can be
used for language revitalization
‘One of the most colorful personages’ in
anthropology (Stirling 1963)
This presentation
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Harrington’s life
Overview of his legacy (type of data)
Where and how to access data
Importance of his work for California
indigenous languages
My work on Chimariko
Notes for language revitalization
Who was Harrington?
 John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961)
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Linguist and ethnographer
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Born in Massachusetts, raised in Santa Barbara
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From early age interest in languages and indigenous
peoples
Graduated from Stanford University
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Left behind archival legacy of unique importance
Graduated in 1905: Classical languages/anthropology
Studied philology in Leipzig and Berlin
Returned to US in 1906
 Worked as high school teacher in Santa Ana 1906-9
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Who was Harrington?
 John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961)
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While working in Santa Ana
Spare time: documented Diegueño, Mohave, Yuma
 Publications gained him supporters from the Bureau
of American Ethnology (BAE)
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1915 hired by BAE as Research Ethnologist
Worked for nearly 40 years for the BAE
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Retired in 1954
1916-1921 married to Carobeth Tucker
Married on field trip; carried out research together
 Daugher: Awona
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Who was Harrington?
 Carobeth Tucker (Laird) (1895 -1983)
Carobeth Laird wrote a
vivid portrait of the
obsessed genius
Laird, Carobeth. 1975.
Encounter With an Angry God:
Recollections of My Life with John
Peabody Harrington. Malki
Museum Press, Banning, CA.
Who was Harrington?
Source: American Anthropologist
Vol 65, 1963.
Source: National Anthropological Archives
Who was Harrington?
 John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961)
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Gave up all social life to document languages
Collected close to a million pages of notes
 Data on more than 125 separate languages
 Obsessed (16-18 hrs/day, on deathbeds, no breaks)
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Linguistics began moving away from massive
data collection to more interpretive research
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Only one honorary doctorate from USC 1934
Very chaotic and secretive
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Sent only small portion of work to BAE
Who was Harrington?
 John Peabody Harrington (1884 -1961)
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Very chaotic and secretive (con’t)
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Worked until his death (on Chumash)
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Paranoic that others would steal/publish materials
Died in 1961 in Santa Barbara
After his death
Smithsonian began cataloguing his papers
 Materials started to show up (until late 1960s)
 Organizing and microfilming 1977-1991
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Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data
 Data collection of close to one million pages
on over 125 indigenous languages
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Mostly interested in the collection of words &
texts (little or no interest in grammar)
When he became familiar with a language, he
omitted translations (also often used Spanish)
Notes on loose sheets with no organization or
labeling (language, speaker, etc)
Excellent ear for phonetics (accurate data)
Many abbreviations nowhere explained (“ch.”
= clearly heard; “nescit” or “n.” = don’t know)
Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data
Chimariko;
reel 21
Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data
 Sometimes only one word per page (space
for later annotations); data disorganized
 Contents
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Language (words, phrases) and culture (practices)
Narratives (personal, local history, ceremonies, creation
stories, etc)
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Placenames & tribal names
Botany (plant names and uses)
Numerous sound recordings on wax cylinder
Thousands of photographs
Harrington’s Legacy & Nature of Data
 This treasure of indigenous knowledge is
useful for
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Indigenous communities and tribal scholars
Linguists
Anthropologists
Biologists
Geographers
Historians
Archaeologists
Where and How to Access the Data
 1960s-1970s
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1977-1991
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Archiving, organizing, microfilming
1980s: Guides to the field notes
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Most materials at the National Anthropological
Archives (NAA)
Nine guides (Mills, Mills & Brickfield)
1992-present
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Conferences and workshops on materials
Sound recordings digitized: online (NAA)
Guides to Harrington Collection
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494 reels divided into 9 sections
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Part 1: Alaska/Northwest Coast, 1982, 30 reels
Part 2: Northern and Central California, 1985, 101 reels
Part 3: Southern California/Basin, 1986, 182 reels
Part 4: Southwest, 1986, 58 reels
Part 5: Plains, 1987, 17 reels
Part 6: Northeast/Southeast, 1987, 18 reels
Part 7: Mexico/Central & South America, 1988, 36 reels
Part 8: Notes & Writings on Special Linguistic Studies, 1989,
35 reels
Part 9: Correspondence & Financial Records, 1991, 17 reels
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Where and How to Access the Data
 Today
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Data finding their way back to communities
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/guides.htm
http://siris-archives.si.edu (search engine
for Smithsonian)
Various UC libraries, Santa Barbara Natural
History Museum
The Harrington Database Project
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UC Davis: NSF funded project to increase
access to the linguistic & ethnographic notes
Coding & creating searchable database
Where and How to Access the Data
 The Harrington Database Project (2010)
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http://nas.ucdavis.edu/NALC/JPH.html
Importance for California Languages
 California is home to some of the greatest
and densest linguistic diversity in the world
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Pre-contact: about 100 languages
1994 (Hinton): only about 50 languages still
spoken by elders
Some languages with only one speaker
Harrington’s most extensive work was on
California indigenous languages
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Harrington worked with last fluent speakers
Importance for California Languages
California indigenous
languages
Importance for California Languages
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Southern California (local languages)
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Serrano
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Cahuilla
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1922: Macario Lugo; Adan Castillo
Reels 107-114; about 6000 pages
Luiseño/Juaneño
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1918: Manuel Santos; Tomás Manuel; placenames
Reel 101; 862 pages
1919: rehearings of older documents, texts, vocabulary
Reels 115-129; about 12000 pages
Cupeño
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1915: Martin J. Blacktooth
Reel 130; 712 pages
Importance for California Languages
Importance for California Languages
Source: Mills, Elaine,
and Ann J. Brickfield.
1986. The Papers of John
Peabody Harrington,
Volume 3 (Southern
California).
My work on Chimariko
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Few villages along Trinity
River & New River
Small tribe (250 people in
1850s)
Gold mining in the area
Mostly fled to live with
neighboring tribes
Today not recognized tribe;
descendants with Hupa
Source: Shirley, Silver,
‘Shastan Peoples’, Handbook
of North American Indians
My work on Chimariko: Grammar
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Chimariko Grammar
 3500 pages collected by Harrington in 1920s
from last speakers
 Notes include: Narratives with translations,
sentences, vocabulary items, ethnographic
information
 Other sources: Data collected by other linguists
and anthropologists (Dixon 1910, Sapir in
Berman 2001)
 Sound recording (wax cylinder; words)
My work on Chimariko: Stress
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Sound recording
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Speaker: Martha Ziegler
Length: 13 minutes
Content: Elicitation of words; some repetitions
Media: from wax cylinder to cassette tape;
digitized from cassette tape
Finding out how stress is reflected phonetically
My work on Chimariko: Stress
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Predictable stress = stress determined by
shape of word (on penultimate root syllable)
Phonetically? Length, intensity, pitch: pitch
Examples
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áqha
á’ah
áqhaqhut
‘water’
‘deer’
‘river’
My work on Chimariko: Stress
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Higher pitch in stressed vowel
’á’ah ‘deer’
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500
10
0
0
0.859138
0.835918
Time (s)
My work on Chimariko: Narratives
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Reel 21: 539 pages containing Chimariko
narratives with some translations
Pieced together 9 narratives (20 pages in Word)
My work on Chimariko: Narratives
My work on Chimariko: Narratives
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Contents
Personal accounts, personal stories relating to historic
events (flood, tribal wars),
 Cultural practices (healing rituals),
 Stories with animals as characters (watersnake, doe, bear)
=> material of great cultural & historic value
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Challenges
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No interlinear or missing translations
Scattered segments of same narrative
Goals
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Make materials more accessible to tribal descendants
Examine the structure and language of narratives
Harrington & Language Revitalization
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Great potential of Harrington’s notes for
language revitalization
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Accurate data; sound recordings
Comprehensive, but not easily accessible
Some projects
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Mutsun revitalization since 1996
Rumsen revitalization
Chumash
Harrington & Language Revitalization
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Source: LA Times, 1/31/2010
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“John Peabody Harrington relentlessly studied
Indian families for decades. Today, a 71-year-old
woman who considered him a pest is grateful for
his intense scholarship.”
“It's due to his madness that we are who we are
today," said De Soto, a 71-year-old nurse who
works at a Santa Barbara rest home. "We have a
language. We have an identity.”
Article author: Steve Chawkins
Thank you!