User:Margaretlantis/sandbox

Education and Early Career Margaret Lantis obtained her BA from the University of Minnesota in 1930 with a double major in both Spanish and anthropology. Afterwards, she went on to study anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley under Robert Lowie and A. L. Kroeber. Lantis earned her Ph.D. in 1939 and returned to study at the University of Chicago in 1942 and at the Washington School of Psychiatry in 1947. As a woman, Lantis did not have many opportunities in the field of Anthropology, due to the period in time. For many years she taught at a number of different universities. Throughout her work as an anthropologist, Lantis’ extended ethnographic work led other anthropologist’s interest to never before explored arctic cultures. While she published a number of articles and field notes, her books can be found in both local and university libraries. “Eskimo childhood and interpersonal relationships: Nunivak biographies and genealogies” (1960) is one of Lantis’ books that has been widely reviewed. With 18 autobiographical accounts and biological sketches from Nunivak Island in east Bering Sea, the book reveals the strains and complaints felt by the small community of approximately 200 Inuit people. The book is based on three different field trips: the first in 1939-40 laid the ethnographic framework of her second trip in 1946 and finally her third trip was in 1956 where she collected data to bring the life records up to date. Furthermore, these accounts are based on personality sketches and Rorschach tests from 12 men and 6 women from the island. While Lantis’ purpose is to give an inside view of Nunivak culture, she also explores Nunivak personality dynamics. Her findings of high suicide and psychosis rates on the island are closely related to these sketches and life stories. In a population of 200, Lantis’ notes 5 cases of people suffering from psychiatric disorders of serious nature. Among these five cases are: 3 suicides, one ‘mental break’ and one who “appeared psychotic” which is presented as a figure of 2.5 %. As the author, Lantis’ accomplishments contribute to the ethnographic fieldwork of Inuit cultures. Being one of the first anthropologists to work with these Alaskan cultures, Lantis is known as “an authority on the contemporary culture of Alaskan Eskimos”. To both non anthropological scientists, and to anthropologists not specifically concerned with Eskimos, the Nunivak life histories present certain intriguing features that may help other field studies. Lantis was elected president of the American Ethnological Society in 1964 to 1965 and was recognized for her strong ethnographic research skills.

In her article entitled Vernacular Culture, Lantis draws on similar ideas and the importance of psychology and communication in relation to cultural behaviors and interactions. In this article, Lantis reflects on her interest in U.S culture and society as a themed issue she edited in the American Anthropologist “The U.S.A as Anthropologists See It”. The concept of vernacular culture places emphasis on “situationally” structured behavior and calls attention to “the culture-as-it-is-lived appropriate to well-defined places and situations”. By comparing everyday situations such as going to a bus station or an after football game event, Lantis makes her point by stating that there are behaviors expected or expressed in any given scenario. These places or sub cultures are related to vernacular culture. Lantis argues that there are particular ways of behavior that are used in any culture-area. In the article she demonstrates a list of components such as: values and goals, appropriate time or place, common knowledge, attitude and relationship systems and finally communication. Vernacular culture, like any ‘functional’, unitary segment of the total culture, has these components. This issue makes the case for the use of the concept of “vernacular culture” while studying complex cultures. Lantis therefore stimulated a ‘widespread use’ of the term in several disciplines, most notably in architecture.

Lantis contributes to studies and heritage websites such as the Native Village of Afognak website (http://www.afognak.org), which is described to celebrate Afognak Alutiiq heritage. The website’s main goal is to “embrace, protect, develop and enhance Alutiiq culture” and to protect traditional areas as well as to encourage unity among Alutiiq and the Kodiak Archepelago tribes. In the Heritage- Resource Archives, Lantis is listed four times as a contributor.