Sylvia Marguerite Broadbent (

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, 26 February 1932 -

Arlington, California Arlington is a community about seven miles southwest of Riverside, California that is part of the Inland Empire, which is east of the Los Angeles and Orange County metropolitan areas. With a population of about 12,300, the major commercial hub o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, 30 July 2015) was an American anthropologist and professor, specializing in

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

peoples.

Early life

Broadbent was born in

. She emigrated with her family in the wake of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Carmel, California Carmel-by-the-Sea (), often simply called Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, United States, founded in 1902 and incorporated on October 31, 1916. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is known for its natural scenery and ric ...

, in 1947. Broadbent graduated from Carmel High School in 1948 at the age of 16. Broadbent enrolled at

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 ...

, where she was awarded the Horatio Stebbins scholarship as a junior and earned her Associate of Arts degree in Anthropology (with honors) in 1951. She went on to win a Genevieve McEnerny fellowship and receive her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology (with highest honors) in 1952. From 1955 to 1960 she performed research among native peoples in Southern California and recorded Chukchansi, Ohlone, and

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok languages in the Utian family. The word ...

. Her 1960 doctoral dissertation was ''A grammar of Southern Sierra Miwok'', written under the advisement of

Mary Haas Mary Rosamond Haas (January 23, 1910 – May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics. She served as president of the Linguistic Society of America. She was elected ...

Career

Broadbent began teaching at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

for Spring Semester 1961 followed by

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

that fall. She joined the faculty of Universidad de Los Andes in the Fall of 1964 to focus on the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

, native to the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alt ...

, the high plateau of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. She began teaching at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

(UCR) in 1966 and was promoted to full professor in 1972. She eventually retired as chair of the anthropology department. Her papers are archived with the special collections department at UCR. Broadbent, a member of the Sierra Club, was party to a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management to restrict the use of vehicles in the California desert. In 1981 she wrote ''The Formation of Peasant Society in Central Colombia'' for which she was awarded the American Society for Ethnohistory's 1983

Robert F. Heizer Robert Fleming Heizer (July 13, 1915 – July 18, 1979) was an Archaeology, archaeologist who conducted extensive Field research, fieldwork and reporting in California, the Southwestern United States, and the Great Basin. Background Robert Flemi ...

prize. UCR offers a fellowship for anthropology graduate students in her name.

Selected bibliography

* * * (with

Lucy Shepard Freeland Lucy Shepard Freeland (1890–1972) was an American linguist who pioneered the study of Miwok languages. Though she adopted the name Nancy in everyday life, she continued to publish as L. S. Freeland. A student of Alfred Kroeber, she was married to ...

) * * * *

References

External links

UC Riverside profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadbent, Sylvia M. UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of California, Riverside faculty Barnard College faculty Northwestern University faculty 1932 births 2015 deaths American anthropologists American women anthropologists Academic staff of the University of Los Andes (Colombia) People from Riverside, California Academics from London Muisca scholars People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California 20th-century American Episcopalians American women academics 20th-century American women 21st-century American women