Curtis M. Hinsley, David R. Wilcox. The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2002. xix + 349 pp. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8165-2269-9.
Reviewed by Nicolas Rosenthal (Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles)
Published on H-West (February, 2004)
Excavating the West: Frank Hamilton Cushing and the Production of Scientific Knowledge
Excavating the West: Frank Hamilton Cushing and the Production of Scientific Knowledge
Until now, scholarship on the late-nineteenth-century archaeologist and ethnographer Frank Hamilton Cushing has centered on his fieldwork with the Zuni Pueblo people. Less has been written about Cushing's role as leader of the Hemenway Southwest Archaeological Expedition, which culminated in months of excavations around the area of Tempe, Arizona, and came to be known as "the first major archaeological expedition into the Southwest" (p. xi). Curtis M. Hinsley and David R. Wilcox's The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing, volume two of the multi-volume Frank Hamilton Cushing and the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, 1886-1889, addresses this oversight by presenting Cushing's account of the expedition. Furthermore, Hinsley and Wilcox include a preface, introductory essay, afterword, and notes for context and analysis. Undoubtedly, Hinsley and Wilcox's labors will spur further explorations of Cushing's work and the practices of nineteenth-century anthropologists.
According to the authors, the multi-volume work is meant to be a "cultural history of Hemenway Expedition and early anthropology in the American Southwest, told in the voices of the participants and interpreted by us" (p. xvii). Volume 1, published several years earlier, featured a selection of writings by Sylvester Baxter, the expedition's secretary-treasurer.[1] The volume under review is from the perspective of Cushing and covers the years between 1886, when the expedition was in the planning stages, to the spring of 1887, when it was well underway. Future volumes promise to assess the theories and evidence amassed during the expedition.
Hinsley sets the historical context for the Itinerary in an introduction that probes Cushing's background and the interests of Mary Hemenway, the expedition's sponsor. It is followed by two accounts that Cushing wrote concerning the expedition's formative period, centering on the late summer and early fall of 1886, when Cushing and three Zuni friends were guests at Hemenway's summer home. Rarely addressing the subsequent expedition, these pieces read as tales of idyllic country life, with a smattering of Zuni ethnography. Yet, they also reveal the ways that the production of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century depended upon the beneficence of wealthy patrons. The next chapter of the book, the heart of Cushing's Itinerary, continues to illuminate the processes of scientific research by providing a daily report of the expedition's travels from Zuni Pueblo to Tempe. It alternates between the mundane, poignant, and profane, including details of outfitting, staffing, and maintaining the expedition; descriptions of encountered landscapes, people, and towns; and several humorous misadventures. The final chapter of Cushing's text focuses on the expedition's excavations and findings.
Ultimately, the book's success comes as a rich primary document--while the background information provided by the authors is crucial and their comments are thought provoking, it is Cushing's writings that will most interest readers. To cite just one example, the Itinerary complements recent work that examines the role of American Indians in the nation's cultural imagination, as well as studies that critically examine the production of anthropological knowledge, by providing a fascinating window onto the relationships between nineteenth-century anthropologists and indigenous people. While Cushing shows respect for his Zuni friends and seeks a place within their community, it becomes clear from Cushing's writings that the expedition is essentially a colonial project to obtain hundreds of indigenous artifacts, including human remains. Furthermore, Cushing makes clear distinctions between the "ancients" he believes to be researching and the modern day Pimas employed as laborers and guides. These types of issues are imbedded throughout the text and can hardly be done justice in a review such as this, yet they are sure to provide ample material for extended classroom discussions and scholarly work.
Note
[1]. Curtis M. Hinsley and David R. Wilcox, eds., The Southwest in the American Imagination: The Writings of Sylvester Baxter, 1881-1899 (Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 1996).
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Citation:
Nicolas Rosenthal. Review of Hinsley, Curtis M.; Wilcox, David R., The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing.
H-West, H-Net Reviews.
February, 2004.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8893
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