Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Tepehuan materials, John Alden Mason Papers

Culture:

Date: 1916-1967

Type: Text | Still Image

Extent: 21 items; photographs

Description: Materials relating to John Alden Mason's interest in and research on Tepehuan language and culture. Northern Tepehuan is most prominently represented in this collection, though references to "Southern Tepehuan" indicate the presence of data on what are now distinguished as the Southeastern Tepehuan and Southwestern Tepehuan languages. Items focused on Northern Tepehuan include Mason's report from the Northern Tepehuan Linguistic Expedition, Baborigame, Chihuahua, Mexico (1951); his Northern Tepehuan linguistics file, containing circa 350 cards with words, phrases, and sentences with Spanish glosses and occasionally some Tepecano and Papago [Tohono O'odham] cognates; two 1936 notebooks on Northern Tepehuan linguistics with vocabulary and texts with Spanish glosses based on work with consultant Pedro Valencia; two 1951 notebooks on Northern Tepehuan linguistics with grammatical notes and texts from wire recordings; 20 pages of Northern Tepehuan texts with interlinear Spanish translation; 20 pages of texts relating to myths, official speeches, settling marital difficulties, etc. with interlinear Spanish 14 pages on Northern Tepehuan morphology concerned primarily with suffixes, taken from the files of Burton W. Bascom; 5 pages of Northern Tepehuan miscellaneous notes including verb conjugation labeled "Bascom" and a map; and two copies of "The Sacred Case" in Northern Tepehuan with English translation, attributed to Juan Dolores. There is one item focused on Southern Tepehuan, comprised of seven notebooks of Southern Tepehuan field notes containing grammatical notes, texts, and some transcriptions and translations of recordings at the American Philosophical Society (see also #3738). More general or comparative materials include Mason's "The Primitive Religions of Mexico" (1916), a paper read at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Tepecano prayers to accompany the paper lacking); Mason's "Notes on the Linguistic and Cultural Affiliations of the Tepehuan and Tepecano," written for the Mexican Historical Congress, Zacatecas (1948); Mason's "Tepehuan of Northern Mexico" (1958), regarding observations on the culture which were made incidental to linguistic fieldwork (includes original and two copies with maps); lists of perdones Tepehuanes and notes on same; comparative lists from Southern and Northern dialects of Tepehuan, with English glosses and comments, by Burton W. Bascom and based on his work in 1943-1944 under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics; 14 pages of kinship terms in Southern Tepehuan, Northern Tepehuan, and Tepecano with English glosses; and a notebook containing a digest of Rinaldini's Tepehuane taken from the book in the Ayer Collection, Newberry Library. Correspondence includes letters from Burton W. Bascom regarding Northern Tepehuan with some mention of Tepecano, Pima [Akimel O'odham], Papago [Tohono O'odham], and Southern Tepehuan, and including a short paper by Bascom on the Northern Tepehuan possessive -ga, a Northern Tepehuan verb list for comparison with Mason's Tepecano list, and a discussion of noun plural formation with examples; Brete R. Hart regarding receipt of material on Utaztecan, work on alphabet for Southern Tepehuan, and a brief description of Fiesta for the Dead observed at Xoconoxtle, Durango, Mexico; Phil C. Weigland regarding acculturation, history, and relations with whites in San Sebastian and Azqueltan; and a report and correspondence from John Hobgood concerning events transpiring during a visit by John Hobgood and Carroll L. Riley to Santa Maria Ocotlan: their presentation of letters, request for permission to study the Tepehuan language and customs of the village, and interactions with the villagers. Hobgood mentions Agnes McClain Howard as well as Carroll L. Riley.

Collection: John Alden Mason Papers Mss.B.M384

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