John Peabody Harrington

Infobox Person
name = John Peabody Harrington


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birth_date = 1884
birth_place = Massachusetts
death_date = 1961
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education = Stanford University, UC Berkeley, University of Leipzig, University of Berlin,
occupation = Field ethnologist
spouse = Carobeth Laird
parents =
children =

John Peabody Harrington (1884-1961) was an American linguist and ethnologist and a specialist in the native peoples of California.

Born in Massachusetts, Harrington moved to California as a child. From 1902 to 1905, Harrington studied anthropology and classical languages at Stanford University. While attending specialized classes at the University of California, Berkeley, he met anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber, whose work was described by his wife Theodora in the book "Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America". Harrington became intensely interested in Native American languages and ethnography.

Rather than completing his doctorate at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin, Harrington became a high school language teacher. For three years, he devoted his spare time to an intense examination of the few surviving Chumash people. His exhaustive work came to the attention of the Smithsonian Museum's Bureau of American Ethnology. Harrington became a permanent field ethnologist for the bureau in 1915. He was to hold this position for 40 years, collecting and compiling several massive caches of raw data on native peoples, including the Chumash, Mutsun, Rumsen, Chochenyo, Kiowa, Chimariko, Yokuts, Gabrielino, Salinan, Yuma and Mojave. He is virtually the only recorder of some languages; Wiyot, Serrano and Luiseno. Gathering more than 1 million pages of phonetic notations on languages spoken by tribes from Alaska to South America. When the technology became available, he supplemented his written record with audio recordings - first using wax cylinders, then aluminum discs. [http://thereporter.com/news/ci_8289386] He is credited with gathering some of the first recordings of native languages, rituals and songs and perfecting the phonetics of several different languages. [cite news | last=Krieger | first=Lisa M. | title=Long gone Native languages emerge from the grave: Millions of cryptic notes from linguist John Peabody Harrington | url=http://www.mercurynews.com//ci_7795964 | publisher=Mercury News | date=2007-12-23 | accessdate=2007-12-30]

Harrington was married to Carobeth Laird (nee Tucker) from 1916-1923. They had one daughter, Awona Harrington.

External links

* [http://nas.ucdavis.edu/NALC/JPH.html J.P. Harrington Database Project]
* [http://www.rock-art.com/jph/biblio.htm Bibliography]
* [http://www.ogmios.org/247.htm John Peabody Harrington: the clue to lost Native American languages: Mike Anton LA Times Staff Writer]
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0095-182X%28198923%2913%3A4%3C535%3ARTCARE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y "Reconstituting the Chumash: A Review Essay," Peter Nabokov, American Indian Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 4, Special Issue: The California Indians. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 535-543.]
* [http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/389/golla.html A Harrington Chronology]
* [http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=120374L6012NF.1723&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!87802~!2&ri=1&aspect=power&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=kiowa+language&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=power&menu=search&ri=1 John P. Harrington Papers 1907-1959 (some earlier)]

References