Martha Warren Beckwith

Martha Warren Beckwith (January 19, 1871 – January 28, 1959) was an American anthropologist, ethnographer, Folklore studies folklorist, author, and translator. In 1918 she received from Columbia University a Ph.D. in anthropology under the supervision of Franz Boas. In 1920, based upon the philanthropy of Annie Montague Alexander, Beckwith was hired as a research professor in folklore at Vassar College. She thus became the first person to hold a professorial chair in folklore at any college or university in the United States. Quotes The hula, in its ancient and classical form, is analogous to the Japanese Noh Noh dances and to other like institutions throughout the South Sea Islands. It was conventionalized into a real school of dramatic art. ...A hula performance consisted in a series of dramatic dances accompanied by song, sometimes by rhythmical instruments. It was given under the patronage of a chief, often to celebrate some event, like the birthday of a son. It was dedicated to some god, generally to Laka, the goddess of co-ordinated movement, and was bound under a strict decorum to rigid ceremonial conventions. ...The hula company might consist of several hundred persons, men and women, boys and girls, with a retinue of followers to secure and prepare the food-supply. The Hawaiian hula-dance Journal of American Folklore 1916 29 113 409–413 https://books.google.com/books?id=eQgpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA409 Much in the psychology of the Polynesian has been shown to resemble closely that of the prehistoric civilizations which grouped around the Mediterranean. The taste for riddling is a minor but no less interesting example of this parallelism in mental habit and training, and the part played by the riddling contest in Hawaiian story is directly comparable with that which it plays in old European literary sources like the Scandinavian Edda or the Greek tale of Oedipus and the Sphinx#Riddle of the Sphinx riddle of the Sphinx. ... In some Hawaiian stories of the ancient past, the contest of wit is represented as one of the accomplishments of th chiefs, taking its place with games of skill like arrow-throwing or checkers, with tests of strength like boxing or wrestling, and the arts of war such as sling-stone and spear-throwing as a means of rivalry. It is played as a betting contest, upon the results of which contestants even stake their lives. Hawaiian riddling American Anthropologist 1922 24 3 https://books.google.com/books?id=q7HYMYXZ6fYC&pg=PA311 311–331 errata During two trips to Jamaica in the winter of 1922 and the spring of 1924 I secured the names of 136 plants used for medicinal purposes among the colored peasantry, with the method of preparation and the use to which each was put. ...Brief as the list is, I believe it to be representative of present practice in Jamaica. I had it from three parishes and from such diverse informants a obeah- and myal-men, accredited government midwives, house-maids and small settlers; from the isolated Marroon settlement of Accompong and from a flourishing town of white residents like Mandeville, Jamaica Mandeville. All were ready and even pleased to contribute information. Most of the plants were picked from the door-plot or beside the road as we walked ... Notes on Jamaican Ethnobotany 1928 https://books.google.com/books?id=7AvgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA5 5 Publications of the Folk-lore Foundation. no. 8 Vassar College 28009904 Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Quotes about Martha Warren Beckwith Beckwith herself ... has compared the Book of Genesis Hebrew Genesis and the Kumulipo, but this was a comparison of poetic splendor and artistic worth. The two differ basically in theme, she pointed out, with the Kumulipo more reminiscent of Greek than of Hebrew origins. Katharine Luomala, Foreword (1971) by Katharine Luomala The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant University of Hawaii Press 2000 0824807715 i–xix https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ir_cgqw_9QC&pg=PR12 (quote from p. xii; 1st edition 1951, U. of Chicago Press; Kumulipo translated & edited by Martha Warren Beckwith) External links Martha Beckwith Vassar Encyclopedia https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/faculty/prominent-faculty/martha-beckwith/ Category:1871 births Category:1959 deaths Category:Women academics from the United States Category:Anthropologists from the United States Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Vassar College faculty Category:Women scientists from the United States Category:Women authors from the United States