Guide to the Indigenous Materials at the American Philosophical Society

Description: The Mexico materials, John Alden Mason Papers include a log of a trip to Sonora, itinerary of pack trip from Yecora to Maicoba; lists of photographs; journal. Archaological materials: report on archaeological sites near Rancho Guiracoba, Sonora, Mexico with report on surface collections at six sites in southern Sonora. Notes on the Northern Extension of the Chalchihuites Culture, written for the Mexican Historical Congress, Zacatecas. Slayton Creek Excavation, regarding Mexico; the Papago [Tohono O'odham]; a dig at Slayton Creek, Delaware. Regarding archaeological, ethnological, and linguistic work in Mexico; genetic classification of languages of Central America and Mexico. Regarding internal strife in local (Durango) Indian tribe (including murders); archaeology in Durango; collection of specimens of material culture; work at Schroeder pyramid; cliff dwellings near Mezquital. Mentions Alex Krieger. Cave investigations in Durango and Coahuila, report on search conducted with Robert H. Merrill for traces of early man, particularly on the Folsom horizon. Written for Weitlaner volume. Includes description of three varieties of Cucurbita moschata; evidence in conflict with the theory that Cucurbita moschata was introduced into southern Arizona in late prehistoric or early historic times from the north and east. Regarding Maya pottery; Piedras Negras, Guatemala; archaeological work in Mexico and Guatemala; the University Museum (University of Pennsylvania); Vaillant's obituary. Includes correspondence between Mason and Sue Vaillant (Mrs. George C.) and between Mason and Charles Marius Barbeau. Linguistic materials: a list entitled, "Familias linguisticas de Mexico-idiomas y dialectos a ellas pertencientes," with the families with subdivisions: for Museo nacional de arqueologia, historia y etnologia, Anales. Includes lexical items in the various languages--Hokan, Oto-Manguren, Uto-Aztecan, and Maya-- arranged in columns; Spanish glosses. Regarding Mason's Subtiaba-Hokan-Caduveo-Mataco comparative vocabulary. Kroeber is not much impressed with the possible resemblances in Mason's list (included). Mexican linguistics, comparative vocabularies, etc., includes short comparative vocabularies for Comecrudo, Papago-Tepecano, Nahua, Huaxtec, Choctaw, Coahuiltec, Karankawa, Torkana, Atakapa, Chitimacha, Tunica; notes on Sapir's classification; other miscellaneous notes. Comparative vocabulary, includes letter from Frederick Johnson to John Alden Mason; comparative vocabulary which is number-keyed to a list of twenty-two languages and arranged in columns headed by Spanish glosses. Words lacking in some languages for almost all items. Languages include Otomi, Mazahua, Matlatzinca, Ocuiltec, Pame, Chichimeca, Cuitlateco, Mazatec, Popoluca, Chochotec (Tlapanec), Ichcateco, Trique, Chiapanec, Manque, Mixtec, Cuicatec, Amuzgo, Zapotec, Chatino, Chinantec, Tarasco, and Tlapanec. Scholarly materials: two versions of a paper, entitled, "Los Cuatro Grandes Filones Linguisticos de Mexico y Centroamerica," for the International Congress of Americanists, August 1939, Mexico. Photographs: Unidentified photographs showing people, dwellings, terrain, etc. Images of temples, excavations, crypts, jade work, etc. Includes a photograph of John Alden Mason and Burton W. Bascom from Palenque. Entire series of photographs from the Mason papers. The bulk of the images are from Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora, etc.). Also 3 contact sheets of images from Peru. From the Durango expedition, a list of photographs; "Informes hacera de la Sierro de la Candela:" notes from Tarayre, pages 184-185; "Ruins of an agricultural colony near Zape"; possible routes of migration into Mexico; Everardo Gamiz "La Raza Pigmea," Durango, April 1934; an incomplete set of numbered photos enumerated in above list (all duplicates from museum set). A linguistic realignment north of Mexico, which gives six phyla, one "broken phylum," and two uncertain languages (for presentation at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, 1940) and a detailed outline of five phyla plus several unaffiliated languages.

Collection: John Alden Mason Papers Mss.B.M384

Go to the collection