Grenville Goodwin Among The Western Apache

Grenville Goodwin was one of the leading field anthropologists during a crucial period in American Indian research--the 1930s. His letters from the field provide original source material on Western Apache beliefs and customs. They also reveal the attitudes and methods which made him so effective in his work. A dedicated and thorough ethnographer, Goodwin became familiar with every aspect of Western Apache culture. During this same period, Morris Opler was studying the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache in New Mexico. In order to exchange information about their studies, Goodwin and Opler began corresponding. Both men were convinced that a long-overdue, systematic comparison of Apachean cultures would yield significant results.

Grenville Goodwin was one of the leading field anthropologists during a crucial period in American Indian research--the 1930s. His letters from the field provide original source material on Western Apache beliefs and customs. They also reveal the attitudes and methods which made him so effective in his work. A dedicated and thorough ethnographer, Goodwin became familiar with every aspect of Western Apache culture. AbeBooks.com.

Originally appeared as a double issue of the Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 43, nos. 1 and 2 (Spring-Summer 2001) Includes bibliographical references.

Presents an in-depth historical reconstruction and a detailed ethnographic account of the Western Apache culture based on firsthand observations made over a span of nearly ten years in the field The Social Organization of the Western Apache is still one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the social life of an American Indian tribe. Grenville Goodwin knew the Western Apache better than any other ethnographer who ever lived. And he wrote about them from the conviction that his knowledge was important--not only for specialists interested in the tribes of the Southwest, but for all anthropologists concerned with the structure and operation of primitive social systems.

This is a remarkable series of personal narrations from Western Apaches before and just after the various agencies and sub-agencies were established. It also includes extensive commentary on weapons and traditions, with Apache words and phrases translated and complete annotation.

This volume describes in detail two collections of Western Apache artifacts from east-central Arizona. The materials, belonging to the Arizona State Museum, range in age from the mid-1800's to the present and represent a thorough cross-section of tools, clothing, religious paraphernalia, and games.

These 57 tales (with seven variants) gathered between 1931 and 1936 include major cycles dealing with Creation and Coyote, minor tales, and additional stories derived from Spanish and Mexican tradition. The tales are of two classes: holy tales said by some to expalin the origin of ceremonies and holy powers, and tales which have to do with the creation of the earth, the emergence, the flood, the slaying of monsters, and the origin of customs. As Goodwin was the first anthropologist to work with the White Mountain Apache, his insights remain a primary souce on this people.