Talk:Alfred Métraux

No first person / original research
Moving some wholly inappropriate (apparent) first person / original research to Talk. If this is actually quoted from something, check for copvio and cite appropriately. --

- Teaching at Yale University -

I first met Alfred Metraux in 1939 when he was teaching at Yale University. I hoped after completing my doctoral dissertation to undertake field research in South America, perhaps in the Gran Chaco, perhaps in Brazil. My knowledge of South American ethnography was scanty, for South America was somewhat of an ethnographic “dark continent” at the time; the data were scarce and were published in Spanish,, Portuguese, Italian, French, and German. I arrived in New Haven just before Metraux was to lecture. That day he discussed the work of the 18th century Jesuit, Sanchez Labrador (El Paraguay catolico) of whom I had never heard. Before the day was over, I had heard of, and was armed with a long bibliography on the Chaco and on Brazilian Indians. I also met through Metraux that day a graduate student at Yale, a man about my own age named Allan Holmberg, who under Metraux’s guidance was also determined to do field research in South America. At first, I was attracted by Metraux’s invitation to join forces with him and to work in the Argentine Chaco; but then out of his notes, he recommended the Tapirape, a Tupi tribe of Central Brazil, which Boron von Nordenskiold suspected to be the remnants of the now extinct Tupinamba (which they turned out not to be). - Visiting Brazil -

In any case, I sailed on the SS ARGENTINA in January 1939, in the company of Alfred Metraux – he, on his way to Argentina, and I to Brazil. The 12 days aboard ship before reaching Rio de Janeiro were instructive and delightful for a younger anthropologist. Metraux talked of South American anthropological problems; briefed me on conditions in the field and on people whom I would meet and upon whom I would depend. He gave me letters of introduction to several people. He was well known in Brazil for his scholarly studies of the Tupinamba, based on early sources. In his two days in Rio de Janeiro, he introduced me to colleagues at the Museu Nacional, which was to be my research base for many years to come. Thus began a rich professional association and friendship which lasted from 1939 until his death. I use these personal reminiscences to illustrate something about the man. He was able, out of his own enthusiasm for his subject and his work, to impart enthusiasm to others. And his influence extended internationally. Florestan Fernandes, the well known Brazilian sociologist whose own brilliant studies of the Tupinamba derive from and develop Metraux’s earlier works, glows when he tells of the dinner he cooked himself for “O Mesire Metraux.” One constantly encounters anthropologists from Latin America and Europe whose careers have been influenced by Alfred Metraux – and yet he spent so little time in formal teaching.

- Accomplishments -

His great strength was, in my opinion, syntheses and historical research. His two books and many articles on the Tupinamba, based on reports by 16th and 17th century chroniclers, are classics. His studies of Argentine, Paraguayan and Bolivian tribes are often based more on historical sources than on field work; and he often was the only person to know the obscure data on an extinct tribe. In other words, he was fundamentally a scholar, but a scholar willing and able to undertake the tedious work of empirical historical and field research. A man of his erudition and knowledge of European languages (he wrote well in French, Spanish, and English) would be hard to find in anthropology today. As one might well imagine, with Metraux’s talents and interests, he was often irked by some of his mundane obligations as a staff member of UNESCO. But, in fact, he performed them well and efficiently. He was an inveterate world traveler. He was always plotting how to relieve himself of administrative duties, but always accepted the obligations of new projects and programs. In recent years, he wrote his books and articles at night and on weekends. He had looked forward to teaching and “pure” research after his retirement from UNESCO in 1962 and two students from Paris were waiting for him in Paraguay to undertake field work among the Guayaki when he died.

-- Writtenonsand 15:43, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:14, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

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