Ira Stuart Jacknis (March 25, 1952 - September 29, 2021) was an American anthropologist who studied Native American art of the Northwest Coast. Jacknis had studied anthropology and art history as an undergraduate, deepening his interests in the history of anthropology while working as an intern at the Smithsonian Institution under curator William C. Sturtevant. He then continued his studies in history and anthropology under the tutelage Nancy Munn, Raymond Fogelson, and George W. Stocking at the University of Chicago. Much of Jacknis' work connected to ethnography, art history, and the history of anthropology. He was based at the

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (formerly the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology) is an anthropology museum located in Berkeley, California, on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. History Founded in 1901 under the pa ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

since 1991 until his death.

Early Years

Ira Jacknis was born in New York City in 1952, the oldest of three children. Then his family moved to the East Hills section of Roslyn Heights, Long Island.

Education

After high school, Jacknis attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in anthropology and art history in 1974. He then continued his studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

where he earned his M.A. and PhD in anthropology. Jacknis completed his dissertation, "The storage box of tradition : museums, anthropologists, and Kwakiutl art, 1881-1981," in 1989.

Career

After receiving his doctorate degree, Ira Jacknis joined the

(then the Lowie Museum) as an associate research anthropologist in 1991. Then he became a full research anthropologist until his retirement. Jacknis specialized in the ethnography of Native Americans, especially Indigenous people of the Northwest Coast and California. He also extensively researched the lives of people associated with the museum, including

Phoebe Hearst Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst (December 3, 1842 – April 13, 1919) was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. Hearst was the founder of the University of California Museum of Anthropology, now called the Phoebe A. Hearst Mu ...

Alfred Kroeber Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...

Samuel Barrett Samuel Alfred Barrett (1879 in Conway, Alaska – 1965) was an anthropologist and linguist who studied Native American peoples. Education Barrett received all three of his degrees from UC Berkeley—B.S. in 1905, M.S. in 1906, and a doctorate i ...

, and Ishi.

Bibliography

* Jacknis, Ira (1985) 'Franz Boas and Exhibits, On the Limitations of the Museum Method of Anthropology.' in ''Objects and Others, Essays on Museums and Material Culture'', George W. Stocking (ed.) Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 75–111. * Jacknis, Ira (2002) ''The Storage Box of Tradition: Kwakiutl Art, Anthropologists, and Museums, 1881-1981.'' Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. * Mauzé, Marie, Michael E. Harkin, and Sergei Kan (eds.) (2004) ''Coming to Shore: Northwest Coast Ethnology, Traditions, and Visions.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * Jacknis, Ira, ed. (2004) "Food in California Indian Culture." Berkeley: Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology. * Jacknis, Ira (2007) "Carving Traditions of Northwest California (Classics in California Anthropology)" Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley.

References

Living people American anthropologists University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty 1952 births {{US-anthropologist-stub