Raymond J. DeMallie (October 16, 1946 – April 25, 2021) was an American
anthropologist whose work focuses on the cultural history of the peoples of the Northern Plains, particularly the
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
. His work is informed by interrelated
archival
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
,
museum-based, and
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
research in a manner characteristic of the
ethnohistorical method. In 1985 he founded and became the director of the American Indian Studies Research Institute at
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest ca ...
, alongside Douglas Parks, whom he worked collaboratively throughout majority of his career to preserve and translate various Indigenous languages, after having first met in 1980. Shortly after Parks started to work with DeMallie at Indiana University Bloomington. They got married in 2016.
Early life and education
Raymond DeMallie was born in 1946 and raised in
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
. In 1964, in his last year of high school, he attended th
Lewis_Henry_Morgan_Lecture.html" ;"title="Lewis Henry Morgan">Lewis Henry Morgan
Lecture">Lewis Henry Morgan">Lewis Henry Morgan
Lecture at the University of Rochester, given by Fred Eggan of the University of Chicago.
This inspired DeMallie's decision to attend the University of Chicago for undergraduate and graduate work; Eggan would eventually serve as the chair of his dissertation committee. Other influential teachers at Chicago included
Sol Tax
Sol Tax (30 October 1907 – 4 January 1995) was an American anthropologist. He is best known for creating action anthropology and his studies of the Meskwaki, or Fox, Indians, for "action-anthropological" research titled the Fox Project, and fo ...
(with whom he worked as a member of the staff o
''Current Anthropology'',
George Stocking,
Ray Fogelson, and
David Schneider.
DeMallie's dissertation
fieldwork on the
Cheyenne River Indian Reservation
The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation was created by the United States in 1889 by breaking up the Great Sioux Reservation, following the attrition of the Lakota in a series of wars in the 1870s. The reservation covers almost all of Dewe ...
focused on kinship and
social organization
In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups.
Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, s ...
. DeMallie drew from both cultural and linguistic data, and he received his PhD in 1971. (He earned his B.A. with honors in 1968 and his M.A. in 1970, with the Department of Anthropology throughout his education at Chicago.)
["Raymond J. DeMallie"](_blank)
Indiana University, accessed December 20, 2009.
Career
DeMallie was a member of the
University of Wyoming's Department of Anthropology from 1972-73.
In 1973 he joined
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
's Anthropology Department, which allowed him to work with the department's founder,
Carl Voegelin. In 1985 DeMallie founded and became the director of th
American Indian Studies Research Instituteat Indiana University. The Institute collaborates with tribes to document endangered native languages and develop materials to teach the languages, many of which are being revived in tribal schools and colleges.
On the Indiana faculty, Professor DeMallie was also the Class of 1967 Chancellor’s Professor of Anthropology and American Studies.
During his career at Indiana, DeMallie has trained a significant number of scholars who have taken up research and teaching posts in several fields concerned with Native North American studies. These include
Brenda Farnell, Paula Wagoner, Mindy J. Morgan,
Jason Baird Jackson, and Carolyn Anderson.
DeMallie has been active in professional associations; in 1991-1992, he was elected as president of the American Society for Ethnohistory.
Legacy and honors
*In 2002-2003, he was the French-American Foundation Chair in American Civilization at the ''
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
'' in Paris.
Representative works
Articles
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Books
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demallie, Raymond
1946 births
2021 deaths
American anthropologists
Linguists of Siouan languages
Indiana University Bloomington faculty
People from Rochester, New York