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An Anthropologist's Arrival: A Memoir
Ruth M. Underhill (1883-1984) was one of the twentieth century's legendary anthropologists, forged in the same crucible as Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. After decades of trying to escape her Victorian roots, Underhill took on a new adventure at the age of forty-six, when she entered Columbia University as a doctoral student of anthropology. Celebrated now as one of America's pioneering anthropologists, Underhill reveals her life's journey in frank, tender, unvarnished revelations that form the basis of An Anthropologist's Arrival. This memoir, edited by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Stephen E. Nash, is based on unpublished archives, including an unfinished autobiography and interviews conducted prior to her death, held by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
In brutally honest words, Underhill describes her uneven passage through life, beginning with a searing portrait of the Victorian restraints on women and her struggle to break free from her Quaker family's privileged but tightly laced control. Tenderly and with humor she describes her transformation from a struggling "sweet girl" to wife and then divorcee. Professionally she became a welfare worker, a novelist, a frustrated bureaucrat at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a professor at the University of Denver, and finally an anthropologist of distinction.
Her witty memoir reveals the creativity and tenacity that pushed the bounds of ethnography, particularly through her focus on the lives of women, for whom she served as a role model, entering a working retirement that lasted until she was nearly 101 years old.
No quotation serves to express Ruth Underhill's adventurous view better than a line from her own poetry: "Life is not paid for. Life is lived. Now come."
In brutally honest words, Underhill describes her uneven passage through life, beginning with a searing portrait of the Victorian restraints on women and her struggle to break free from her Quaker family's privileged but tightly laced control. Tenderly and with humor she describes her transformation from a struggling "sweet girl" to wife and then divorcee. Professionally she became a welfare worker, a novelist, a frustrated bureaucrat at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a professor at the University of Denver, and finally an anthropologist of distinction.
Her witty memoir reveals the creativity and tenacity that pushed the bounds of ethnography, particularly through her focus on the lives of women, for whom she served as a role model, entering a working retirement that lasted until she was nearly 101 years old.
No quotation serves to express Ruth Underhill's adventurous view better than a line from her own poetry: "Life is not paid for. Life is lived. Now come."
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Ruth M. Underhill
40 books4 followersRuth Murray Underhill was an American anthropologist. She was born in Ossining-on-the-Hudson, New York, and attended Vassar College, graduating in 1905 with a degree in Language and Literature. In 1907, she graduated from the London School of Economics and began travelling throughout Europe. During World War I, she worked for an Italian Orphanage run by the Red Cross. After the war, she married Charles C. Crawford and published her first book The White Moth. Her marriage ended in 1929 and by 1930 she decided to go back to school to learn more about human behavior. After speaking with Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict in the Anthropology Department at Columbia University, she decided to pursue the field, graduating in 1937. She wrote numerous books on Native Americans and helped to dispel many myths about their culture.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 7, 2023
I have been researching and studying Miss Underhill for months now for a paper I’m working on and finally got a hold of her autobiography from the library. Ruth is one of the most fascinating women I have ever known of. Her life and her work have been such a great inspiration to me. And though she has been dead for almost 40 years, she has been a source of connection and also advice. I truly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to find their path. It’s reassuring to know that this feeling of uncertainty is not a new phenomenon and does not exist only in me, it connects us all across time and space.
December 17, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Her story is inspiring, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves autobiographies, biographies, or is searching for answers on their path in life. While she is not ultra successful, I still think this book is a helpful contribution to society because I love reading other people's journeys.
May 18, 2014
It was late. She felt the pinch on her career of having begun so late. Ruth Murray Underhill had already led a full life before she entered graduate school in anthropology at the age of forty-six. She had been a world traveler, a social worker, a nurse in the Great War, a writer, and even, unsuccessfully, a wife. Only after all of that did she find her real work. Despite a very long life, she never caught up to the reputations of peers like Margaret Meade and Franz Boaz and Ruth Benedict, and at 98 she was still pondering why. "Those larval years are a grief to me now when I realize I am only a youngster in anthropology in spite of my years."
The editors of her memoir see it this way, "If Underhill had taken a more traditional path...she would not have developed into the self-confident poet and sympathetic friend that later gave her a strong foundation for her anthropological work." And her work was impressive. Studying with the best in what was still a relatively new field at Columbia University, Underhill found her passion. Because no one else wanted to be in the Arizona desert during the summertime, she accepted an area of study yet to be explored and took up fieldwork with the Papago people, now called the Tohono O'odham.
Underhill lived outside through summer after summer, mostly ignoring her small tent in favor of a groundcloth and a sleeping bag, glad for a car that could get her around the baking desert. She took the time to develop relationships, sitting patiently and quietly as the people did, earning trust and confidence, and gradually growing a body of knowledge. In particular, she grew a friendship with a woman named Chona. Underhill's most famous book, The Autobiography of a Papago Woman, was built around Chona's life. Published in 1936, it is still read for its insight and foundational information. She would go on to write many more fascinating books.
Ph.D. in hand, Ruth Underhill studied other native groups and worked for over a decade with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, trying to educate the bureaucrats to the people whose lives were in their hands. Eventually, she took up teaching at Denver University, and had a long career there. In her nineties, still reviewing her life choices and career path, she drafted a memoir. As forthright about her personal life as she is about her professional journey, the details of her experiences reveal Underhill to be courageous, tough, sensitive, and funny. The draft is part of a large archive of materials that she left to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Stephen E. Nash, both scientist-authors on the Museum's staff, have done a wonderful job of editing Underhill's initial manuscript. While they respected her voice, they seamlessly supplemented information where there were gaps, using an extensive series of her audio interviews. The hope is to renew a conversation about Underhill and to make her place in the history of anthropology firmly clear.
This book is a good start. Ruth Underhill was a remarkable woman, an important advocate and educator for native culture who freed herself from the Victorian Quaker social corset. Her life is a compelling story, and the editors have ensured that it's also a good read.
by Susan Schoch
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
The editors of her memoir see it this way, "If Underhill had taken a more traditional path...she would not have developed into the self-confident poet and sympathetic friend that later gave her a strong foundation for her anthropological work." And her work was impressive. Studying with the best in what was still a relatively new field at Columbia University, Underhill found her passion. Because no one else wanted to be in the Arizona desert during the summertime, she accepted an area of study yet to be explored and took up fieldwork with the Papago people, now called the Tohono O'odham.
Underhill lived outside through summer after summer, mostly ignoring her small tent in favor of a groundcloth and a sleeping bag, glad for a car that could get her around the baking desert. She took the time to develop relationships, sitting patiently and quietly as the people did, earning trust and confidence, and gradually growing a body of knowledge. In particular, she grew a friendship with a woman named Chona. Underhill's most famous book, The Autobiography of a Papago Woman, was built around Chona's life. Published in 1936, it is still read for its insight and foundational information. She would go on to write many more fascinating books.
Ph.D. in hand, Ruth Underhill studied other native groups and worked for over a decade with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, trying to educate the bureaucrats to the people whose lives were in their hands. Eventually, she took up teaching at Denver University, and had a long career there. In her nineties, still reviewing her life choices and career path, she drafted a memoir. As forthright about her personal life as she is about her professional journey, the details of her experiences reveal Underhill to be courageous, tough, sensitive, and funny. The draft is part of a large archive of materials that she left to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and Stephen E. Nash, both scientist-authors on the Museum's staff, have done a wonderful job of editing Underhill's initial manuscript. While they respected her voice, they seamlessly supplemented information where there were gaps, using an extensive series of her audio interviews. The hope is to renew a conversation about Underhill and to make her place in the history of anthropology firmly clear.
This book is a good start. Ruth Underhill was a remarkable woman, an important advocate and educator for native culture who freed herself from the Victorian Quaker social corset. Her life is a compelling story, and the editors have ensured that it's also a good read.
by Susan Schoch
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
May 23, 2014
This is a thoughtful memoir that recalls the early days of anthropology in the US. A number of the early pioneers in this field are mentioned as we follow the life and career of an amazing woman and anthropologist.
January 12, 2015
Ruth Underhill was quite a woman for her time and I enjoyed reading about her. I found the pre-anthropologist part less interesting and a bit repetitive. Has inspired me to re-read Hawk Over Whirlpools which I loved as a teenager - had no idea she was the author.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews