“…J. Alden Mason was born in Germantown, a part of Philadelphia, in 1885 (Satterthwaite 1969, 871–872). It seems that he felt a very close connection to the city, as he spent much of his professional career here.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…With the encouragement of Franz Boas, Mason next did work among the Tepecano Indians around Jalisco, Mexico; here he produced a grammar of the language and a study of religion (Figure 7.1). Mason and Boas also did surface reconnaissance and some surface collection of artifacts around Mexico City as early as 1911 and continuing through 1913 (Satterthwaite 1968, 3; 1969, 873). Mason recounts this effort in his article on Franz Boas as an archaeologist: My main work as delegate from the University of Pennsylvania was linguistic and ethnological, with the Tepecano Indians of Jalisco.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Although this research was published, whether it could be still characterized as a sin for this archaeological ancestor would depend on his relationship with the people he studied; did he do so with their fully informed consent? Again, working with Boas in part, Mason remained focused largely on cultural anthropology, and was part of a Puerto Rican survey project from 1914 to 1915, where he collected local folklore (Satterthwaite 1968, 3; 1969, 872).…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Mason became an assistant curator at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1917 (Satterthwaite 1968, 3). On behalf of the Field Museum, he led an expedition in 1922 to study the ancient Tairona culture of the Santa Marta region of Columbia (see Figure 7.1), which was little known at the time.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In 1925, Mason briefly became a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, around which time his interests shifted from folklore and linguistics largely to archaeology—partly because of the nature of this and subsequent curatorial positions (Butler 1969, 267; Satterthwaite 1968, 3). Less than a year later, he was offered a curatorship at the Penn Museum, which he accepted beginning on January 1, 1926.…”
During the 1930s, J. Alden Mason was a curator at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. He was best known during this time for his work at the site of Piedras Negras in northwestern Guatemala. Yet, the 1930s excavations at Piedras Negras were not published until 2005. This delayed publication prevented other scholars from building on this work. Also, during the 1930s, Mason led lesser‐known excavations around the Philadelphia area with federal work relief funding. No field records exist for these investigations, the whereabouts of artifacts are unknown, and only a single short article was ever published on the scant archaeological findings. Exactly what archaeology was done and where through these New Deal investigations is unknown and may be unknowable. Mason struggled with the overly bureaucratic nature of New Deal archaeology, and this might help explain his lack of due diligence with archiving his records, or with completing a properly detailed report. Today's archaeologists deal with similar constraints. But we are also ethically bound to publish our results in a reasonable time frame, rather than hoard our data the way a dragon hoards a mountain of gold. If we fail to meet these ethical principles, we really are little more than well‐educated looters.
“…J. Alden Mason was born in Germantown, a part of Philadelphia, in 1885 (Satterthwaite 1969, 871–872). It seems that he felt a very close connection to the city, as he spent much of his professional career here.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…With the encouragement of Franz Boas, Mason next did work among the Tepecano Indians around Jalisco, Mexico; here he produced a grammar of the language and a study of religion (Figure 7.1). Mason and Boas also did surface reconnaissance and some surface collection of artifacts around Mexico City as early as 1911 and continuing through 1913 (Satterthwaite 1968, 3; 1969, 873). Mason recounts this effort in his article on Franz Boas as an archaeologist: My main work as delegate from the University of Pennsylvania was linguistic and ethnological, with the Tepecano Indians of Jalisco.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Although this research was published, whether it could be still characterized as a sin for this archaeological ancestor would depend on his relationship with the people he studied; did he do so with their fully informed consent? Again, working with Boas in part, Mason remained focused largely on cultural anthropology, and was part of a Puerto Rican survey project from 1914 to 1915, where he collected local folklore (Satterthwaite 1968, 3; 1969, 872).…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Mason became an assistant curator at the Field Museum in Chicago in 1917 (Satterthwaite 1968, 3). On behalf of the Field Museum, he led an expedition in 1922 to study the ancient Tairona culture of the Santa Marta region of Columbia (see Figure 7.1), which was little known at the time.…”
Section: Biographical Sketchmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In 1925, Mason briefly became a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, around which time his interests shifted from folklore and linguistics largely to archaeology—partly because of the nature of this and subsequent curatorial positions (Butler 1969, 267; Satterthwaite 1968, 3). Less than a year later, he was offered a curatorship at the Penn Museum, which he accepted beginning on January 1, 1926.…”
During the 1930s, J. Alden Mason was a curator at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. He was best known during this time for his work at the site of Piedras Negras in northwestern Guatemala. Yet, the 1930s excavations at Piedras Negras were not published until 2005. This delayed publication prevented other scholars from building on this work. Also, during the 1930s, Mason led lesser‐known excavations around the Philadelphia area with federal work relief funding. No field records exist for these investigations, the whereabouts of artifacts are unknown, and only a single short article was ever published on the scant archaeological findings. Exactly what archaeology was done and where through these New Deal investigations is unknown and may be unknowable. Mason struggled with the overly bureaucratic nature of New Deal archaeology, and this might help explain his lack of due diligence with archiving his records, or with completing a properly detailed report. Today's archaeologists deal with similar constraints. But we are also ethically bound to publish our results in a reasonable time frame, rather than hoard our data the way a dragon hoards a mountain of gold. If we fail to meet these ethical principles, we really are little more than well‐educated looters.
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