William N. Fenton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William N. Fenton (December 15, 1908 - 17 June 2005) was a US scholar and writer known for his extensive studies of Iroquois history and culture. He started his studies of the Iroquois in the 1930s and published a number of significant works over following decades with his final work published in 2002. During his career, Fenton was director of the New York State Museum and a professor of anthropology at the State University of New York.

Contents

[edit] Early career (1908-1955)

Fenton was born William Nelson Fenton in New Rochelle, New York, in 1908. The Fenton family had had interactions with the Seneca people since the 1860s. He grew up in the west of New York State and attended the University of Rochester graduating in 1931 and received a doctorate from Yale University in 1937. In the 1930s, he lived among the Seneca in the 1930s in western New York, becoming fluent in the Iroquois language. He was adopted into the Seneca Hawk clan (the same lineage into which Lewis Henry Morgan had been adopted) on January 26, 1934.

He soon made his mark on the field becoming known as a leader of Iroquois studies. Fenton issued a number of position papers during the 1940s and 1950s outlining problems and issues relating to the Iroquois that required further studies. He encouraged other students of the Iroqouis to meet and discuss issues of concern in the field notably in meetings at Red House in New York. Fenton focussed attention on such issues as diversity in culture and connections between northern and southern tribes.

In his work as an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology, he drew attention to the substantial historic and ethnographic sources. He undertook substantial studies of Iroquois music and dance during the 1930s and 1940s while working at the Smithsonian.

[edit] Later career (1956-2005)

Dr Fenton reached the position of senior ethnologist at the Smithsonian Institution in the 1950's before he left to work at the New York State Museum at Albany. He reached the position of director and built an extensive collection of Iroquois materials. Fenton was criticised by some tribes for not returning artefacts as he regarded museums as necessary safeguards for cultural heritage. He was also criticised by some tribal leaders for revealing sacred rituals.

Fenton left the New York State Museum to become Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York in Albany, retiring from that position in 1979. He remained active in studies of the Iroquois publishing The Great Law and the Longhouse: a political history of the Iroquois in 1998 when he was nearly 90.

He died on June 17, 2005 in Cooperstown, New York, at the age of 96, on the way to the hospital.

[edit] Publications

Fenton wrote extensively on Iroquois ethnology, historiography, the history of anthropology, and museum anthropology for several decades. Some of his works include:

 Fenton, William N.,(2007) Iroquois Journey - An Anthropologist Remembers, ISBN 13: 978-0-8032-2021-8;    University of Nebraska Press

[edit] References

Languages