Adrienne Lois Kaeppler (July 26, 1935 – March 5, 2022) was an American anthropologist, curator of oceanic

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. She served as the President of the International Council on Traditional Music between 2005 and 2013. Her research focused on the interrelationships between social structure and the arts, including dance, music, and the visual arts, especially in

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. She was considered to be an expert on Tongan dance, and the voyages of the 18th-century explorer James Cook.

Career

Her research focused on material culture and the visual and performing arts in their cultural contexts, including traditional social and political structures and modern cultural identity. Kaeppler attended the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscon ...

, and received her Masters and PhD from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

. In the 1970s, she was an anthropologist at the Bishop Museum in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. She has taught anthropology, ethnomusicology, anthropology of dance, and art history at the

; the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

; the Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland;

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

; and the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

. She was also a member of the State Council on Hawaiian Heritage. In 1998, she worked in Tonga at the Tongan National Museum, setting up a special exhibition on the 80th birthday of King

Taufa'ahau Tupou IV George Tupou I (4 December 1797 – 18 February 1893), originally known as Tāufaʻāhau I, was the first king of modern Tonga. He adopted the name Siaosi (originally Jiaoji), the Tongan equivalent of ''George'', after King George III of the U ...

. In 2004, she was vice-president of the

International Council for Traditional Music The International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is a scholarly non-governmental organization which focuses on the study, practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries. Founded in Lo ...

, and she was elected as President in 2005, taking over from

Krister Malm Krister Malm (born 1941) is a Swedish musicologist. Malm has in his research been engaged in music ethnology and finished his doctorate in 1981 at the University of Gothenburg with a dissertation on the music culture of the Tanzania. From 1973 to ...

. She was a curator and anthropologist at the

of the

Personal life

Kaeppler was a majorette for her high school band, played violin in high school orchestra, and studied voice at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Kaeppler died on March 5, 2022, at the age of 86.

Awards

In 1978, Kaeppler was honored by the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

as a leading female scientist whose work increased the understanding of native cultures. Kaeppler was also lauded for the book ''James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific'' (published in 2009). The work was recognized with the 201
First International Tribal Art Book Prize
organized by Tribal Art magazine in partnership with Sotheby's Paris Headquarters, and in April 2010, it was named Book of the Month by Hodern House in Australia. In 2010, Kaeppler delivered a Smithsonian Secretary's Distinguished Research Lecture Award, which "recognizes a scholar’s sustained achievement in research, longstanding investment in the Smithsonian, and outstanding contribution to a field, as well as his or her ability to communicate research to a non-specialist audience."

Publications

Selected writing

* * * * * * ''Poetry in Motion: Studies in Tongan Dance'', 1993 * * ''Polynesian and Micronesian sections of Oceanic Art'', published in French, German, and English, 1993–1997 * ''From the Stone Age to the Space Age in 200 Years: Tongan Art and Society on the Eve of the Millennium'', 1999 * * ''The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2008 * * *

Editing

* Co-editor, ''Australia and the Pacific Islands,'' volume 9 of the

Garland Encyclopedia of World Music ''The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music'' is an academic reference work. It was initiated by editors at Garland Publishing in 1988 as a 10-volume series of encyclopedias of world music. The final volumes appeared in 2001, but editions have since ...

, 1998 *

References

* ''

Who's Who of American Women Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...

''. Ninth edition, 1975–1976. Wilmette, IL {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaeppler, Adrienne L. 1935 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American anthropologists American ethnologists American ethnomusicologists American women anthropologists Dance historians Smithsonian Institution people Women ethnologists Writers from Milwaukee American women curators American curators