Anthropologist Ward Goodenough ably bridged the gap between traditional ethnology and studies of cultural change. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1919, he was educated at Cornell and Yale Universities and taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1945-49 before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed professor of anthropology in 1962 and became University Professor Emeritus in 1989. Dr. Goodenough's interests include cultural and linguistic anthropology; social organization; anthropology of law; culture theory; and semantics. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Oceania, from Micronesia to New Guinea, and he has served as a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (1958), as president of the American Ethnological Association (1962) and the Society for Applied Anthropology (1963), and as editor of The American Anthropologist (1966-70). His publications include Property, Kin and Community of Truk (1951), Native Astronomy in the Central Carolinas (1953) and Cooperation in Change (1963). Along with his anthropological work, Dr. Goodenough also wrote poetry and composed music. He died on June 9, 2013 in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

The Ward H. Goodenough Papers (1938-2012) contain professional correspondence from his faculty work at the University of Pennsylvania, reserach notes on Micronesian languages and culture, particularly the island of Chuuk (Truk), and published and unpublished works by Goodenough and others on kinship studies and linguistic anthropology. Includes extensive documents on professional organizations and editing boards on which he served. Of particular note, the unpublished materials on a Trukese-English dictionary and Proto-Micronesian languages.

The papers 102 boxes; 51 lin. ft. are divided into nine series: Series I. Correspondence, 1947-2012, 23 boxes, 11.5 lin. ft.; Series II. Organizations, Conferences, and Committees, 1947-2005, 14 boxes, 7 lin. ft.; Series III. University of Pennsylvania, 1946-2003, 5 boxes, 2.5 lin. ft.; Series IV. Works by Goodenough, 1938-2005, 17 boxes, 8.5 lin. ft.; Series V. Reviews by Goodenough, 1950-2002, 2 boxes, 1 lin. ft.; Series VI. Works by Others, 1943-2010, 26 boxes, 13 lin. ft.; Series VII. Printed Materials, 13 boxes, 6.5 lin. ft.; Series VIII. Graphics, 1 box, 0.5 lin. ft.; Series IX. Oversize, 1 box, 0.5 lin. ft.

Physical description

51 linear feet.

Provenance

Presented by Ward Goodenough, 2002-2007.

Related material

APS possesses the papers of a few of Ward Goodenough's colleagues in the department of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. See also the papers of Dell Hymes (Mss.Ms.Coll.55), Ruben Reina (Mss.Ms.Coll.67), and Anthony Wallace (Mss.Ms.Coll.64).

• American Anthropological Association
• American Philosophical Society
• Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
• Institute on Religion in an Age of Science
• National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Pennsylvania-Department of Anthropology
• University of Pennsylvania. University Museum

• Chuuk (Micronesia)
• Truk (Micronesia)

• Caughey, John L.
• Chowning, Ann
• Goodenough, Ward Hunt
• Hage, Per
• Hymes, Dell H.
• Keesing, Roger M.
• Marshall, Mac
• Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978
• Meigs, Anna
• Murdock, George Peter, 1897-1985
• Sanday, Peggy Reeves
• Smith, DeVerne Reed
• Wallace, Anthony F. C., 1923-2015

• Anthropology -- Fieldwork -- Case studies.
• Anthropology -- Fieldwork -- Methodology.
• Anthropology -- Methodology.
• Anthropology -- Micronesia.
• Anthropology -- Papua New Guinea.
• Anthropology -- Research
• Kinship -- Micronesia.
• Linguistic theory
• Linguistics.
• Truk language