Jesse Walter Fewkes
Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer and naturalist.Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and initially trained as a zoologist at Harvard University. He later turned to ethnologica
... Read more
Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer and naturalist.Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and initially trained as a zoologist at Harvard University. He later turned to ethnological studies of the native tribes in the American Southwest.
In 1889, with the resignation of noted ethnologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, Fewkes became leader of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, named for its patron Mary Hemenway. While with this project, Fewkes documented the existing lifestyle and rituals of the Zuni and Hopi tribes.
Fewkes was the first man to use a phonograph to record indigenous people for study. He tested its use among the Passamaquoddy in Maine, before traveling to the Southwest to make his recordings of the Zuni (1890) and Hopi (1891). Benjamin Ives Gilman used these recordings to show that they used musical intervals unlike those in the Western tempered scale. In addition to the recordings, he wrote historically valuable descriptions of the music and musical practice
Less
