Martha Warren Beckwith (January 19, 1871 – January 28, 1959) was an American

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

and

ethnographer 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 o ...

, appointed to the first chair in Folklore established in the U.S.

Early life and education

Beckwith was born in Wellesley Heights,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

to George Ely and Harriet Winslow (née Goodale) Beckwith, both schoolteachers, before the family moved to

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, whic ...

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 stat ...

, where they had relatives descended from early missionaries. There, Beckwith made friends with many locals including members of the wealthy Alexander family who later sponsored her folklore work, and she developed an early interest in Hawaiian folk dancing. Beckwith graduated from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

in 1893 and taught English at

Elmira College Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in a ...

Mount Holyoke Mount Holyoke, a traprock mountain, elevation , is the westernmost peak of the Holyoke Range and part of the 100-mile (160 km) Metacomet Ridge. The mountain is located in the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts, and is the ...

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

, and

Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...

. Her formal education in anthropology did not begin till the 1900s. In 1906, she obtained a Master of Arts degree in anthropology after studying under

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and she received her Doctor of Philosophy in 1918.

Career

In 1920, Beckwith was appointed to the chair in Folklore at

, making her the first person to hold a chair in Folklore at any college or university in the United States. The chair was part of The Folklore Foundation, established at Vassar by an anonymous donation (by the naturalist, Annie Alexander, who Beckwith knew from her childhood in Maui). Beckwith became a full professor in 1929 and retired in 1938.

Research

Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society XVII

Beckwith conducted research in a variety of European and Middle Eastern countries but her most extensive research focused on

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

, and the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

and Mandan-Hidatsa Native American Reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota where she was inducted into the Prairie Chicken Clan of the Mandan-Hidatsa. Beckwith carried out fieldwork in Jamaica between 1919 and 1922. Her publications on Jamaican folklore often included details on music recorded by Helen H. Roberts, who accompanied Beckwith to Jamaica in 1920 and 1921. Beckwith's research in culminated in ''Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folklife'' (1929), which was the subject of an extended review in the ''Journal of American Folklore'' by

Melville J. Herskovits Melville Jean Herskovits (September 10, 1895 – February 25, 1963) was an American anthropologist who helped to first establish African and African Diaspora studies in American academia. He is known for exploring the cultural continuity from Af ...

, and to which Beckwith responded. Although not an uncritical review, Herskovits - an anthropologist who specialised on Africa - praised Beckwith for her detailed descriptions of customs, so much so that "he felt able to identify some as not merely African in origin but specifically, say, as

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

or Ashanti". In 1926 Beckwith gathered folktales at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In 1926 to 1927 - during a sabbatical year from Vassar - her fieldwork took her to Goa - where she worked among Portuguese settlers - as part of travels that also took place in Italy, Greece, Palestine and Syria. Beckwith's most recognised work was her studies of Hawaiian culture, including creation chants and myths and translations of 19th century Hawaiian writers such as

Kepelino Zepherin "Kepelino" Kahōʻāliʻi Keauokalani ( – ) was a Native Hawaiians, Native Hawaiian cultural historian who wrote ''Kepelino's Traditions of Hawaii''. Born into a family descended from both the Hawaiian priestly class and nobility, Kep ...

and Kamakau, on the later period of the Hawaiian monarchy. Her ''Hawaiian Mythology'' (1940) has been described as "representing more than thirty years of exhaustive research".

Recognition

Between 1932 and 1933 Beckwith served as President of the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...

Later life

Beckwith retired from Vassar in 1938 but continued to research and publish. Her last years focused on work pertaining to Hawaiian herbal remedies. Beckwith died on 28 January 1959 and is buried on Maui in Makawao Cemetery, in the same cemetery as her parents, brother, sister, and Annie Alexander.

Selected bibliography

* Beckwith, Martha W. (1916). "The Hawaiian Hula-Dance". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. 29 (113): 409–412. doi:10.2307/534686.

ISSN An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSNs a ...

0021-8715. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1922). ''Folk-Games of Jamaica'' (with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts). Poughkeepsie, N. Y.: Vassar College.

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It wa ...

10555685. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1923). "Signs and Superstitions Collected from American College Girls". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. 36 (139): 1–15. doi:10.2307/535105.

0021-8715. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1923). ''Christmas Mummings in Jamaica'' (with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts). Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College.

47059596. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1923). ''Polynesian Analogues to the Celtic Other-World and Fairy Mistress Themes''. New Haven, C.T.: Yale University Press.

16327978. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1924)
''Jamaica Anansi Stories''
(with music recorded in the field by Helen Roberts). New York: American Folklore Society.

2322187. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1924). 'The English Ballad in Jamaica: A Note upon the Origin of the Ballad Form'. ''Publications of the Modern Language Association'', ''39''(2), 455–483. https://doi.org/10.2307/457194 * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1925). ''Jamaica Proverbs''. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College.

4513341. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1927). ''Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany''. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College.

18484068. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1928). ''Jamaica Folk-Lore'' (with music recorded in the field by Helen H. Roberts). New York: American Folk-Lore Society.

312470569. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1929). ''Black Roadways: A Study of Jamaican Folk Life''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

870469911. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1930). ''Myths and Hunting Stories of the Mandan and Hidatsa Sioux''. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Vassar College.

3371330. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1930). "Mythology of the Oglala Dakota". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. 43 (170): 339–442. doi:10.2307/535138.

0021-8715. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1937). ''Mandan-Hidatsa Myths and Ceremonies''. New York: American Folk-Lore Society.

800851041. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1940)
''Hawaiian Mythology''
New Haven, C.T.: Yale University Press, 1940.

316816993. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1948). "An Old Song". ''Western Folklore''. 7 (2): 176–177. doi:10.2307/1497388.

0043-373X. * Beckwith, Martha W. (1949). "Function and Meaning of the Kumulipo Birth Chant in Ancient Hawaii". ''The Journal of American Folklore''. 62 (245): 290–293. doi:10.2307/537203.

0021-8715. * Beckwith, Martha Warren (1951)
''The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant''
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.

898842854.

References

External links

* *
Books by Martha Warren Beckwith
at the Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania Library.

(digitized text at ''Sacred Texts Archive'')
''The Kumulipo, a Hawaiian Creation Chant'' by Martha Warren Beckwith
(digitized text at ''Sacred Texts Archive'')
''Jamaica Anansi Stories'' by Martha Warren Beckwith
(digitized text at ''Sacred Texts Archive'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Beckwith, Martha Warren 1871 births 1959 deaths American folklorists Women folklorists American ethnographers Mount Holyoke College alumni American anthropologists American women anthropologists Vassar College faculty Smith College faculty Columbia University alumni Place of death missing American women non-fiction writers American women academics Presidents of the American Folklore Society