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Library > Special & Area Studies Collections > University Archives > Finding Aids



A Guide to the Charles Wagley Papers

Finding aid prepared by Dept. Staff

University of Florida Smathers Libraries - Special and Area Studies Collections
August 2004


Descriptive Summary
Provenance: Wagley, Charles
Title: Charles Wagley Papers
Dates: 1937-1965
Abstract: The Wagley Papers document anthropological field work in the cultures of South America, especially Guatemala and Brazil.
Extent: 5.2 linear ft. 12 Boxes
Identification: MS 2

Biographical/Historical Note

Charles Wagley was born November 9, 1913 at Clarksville, Texas. He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1941. He served as Professor of Anthropology, Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. He was a staff member of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs, Brazilian Field Party and held several positions, including directorships, with various programs to the Brazilian-American Public Health Service. He worked with the Guggenheim Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and was the Graduate Research Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. In 1982-1983 he was named the University of Florida's Teacher/Scholar of the Year.

Dr. Wagley spent months living and doing research with the Tapirape and in 1977 published Welcome of Tears; the Tapirape Indians of Central Brazil as a result of his research. Contained in the collection are translations of Herbert Baldus' articles on the Tapirape plus transcripts of the 1941 Seminar on Culture and Personality. This seminar took place at Columbia University and was directed by Abraham Kardiner and Ralph Linten. Dr. Wagley was fresh from studying the Tapirape Indians when he took part in these discussions. During World War II, the United States government and the Brazilian public health agency, SESP, implemented health education programs in the Amazon region. Dr. Wagley supervised the publication of pamphlets and production of slide programs on public health funded by these agencies. The novelist, Dalcidio Jurandir, who collaborated with Dr. Wagley on these programs, had served as secretary to the municipal government of a small riverine community called Gurupa. Jurandir suggested that the educational materials be tried there, and consequently, Dr. Wagley and his team visited Gurupa several times. This was Dr. Wagley's first contact with the region. After the war, when Dr. Wagley was Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia, a Brazilian colleague, Eduardo Galvao who had conducted research among the Tentehara Indians of Brazil, became Dr. Wagley's first doctoral student. In 1948, they went to Gurupa for research, accompanied by their wives, Cecilia Toxo Wagley and Clara Galvao. The four spent the months from June to September in the town. Two major works resulted: Amazon Town by Charles Wagley and The Religion of an Amazon Community by Eduardo Galvao. These books were published in Portuguese as Uma Communidade Amazonica and Santos e Visagens.

Scope and Content

This collection contains field notes, maps, drawings, correspondence, publications, and photographs of three research projects undertaken by Dr. Charles Wagley between 1937 and 1965. The Gurupa research project field notes are available in 16mm microfilm. Please see the case file for the guide created for these materials. The earliest research project documented in the collection took place in Guatemala in 1938. Very little is known about this project and the field notes are not sorted.

The bulk of the Tapirape research took place in 1939-1940 although Dr. Wagley also returned in 1953, 1957 and 1965. Field notes for the 1939-40, 1957 and 1965 visits are a part of the collection. Information from both the Tapirape and Gurupa field notebooks has been typed onto cards that are filed by subject and keyed back to the handwritten books. The cards in both project files are arranged alphabetically by english or portuguese language subject. Within the subject areas the cards are arranged by author (in the case of Gurupa only) and then by notebook number and page. The following is the key to the author designations on the Gurupa cards:

Charles Wagley (CW)

Cecilia Wagley (C)

Clara Galvao (CL)

Eduardo Galvao (G)

Access or Use Restrictions

Access

Collection is open for research.

Usage Restrictions

The user is asked to treat with special care the notebooks and unsorted notes. They are brittle and therefore very fragile. It is recommended that the microfilm be used when consulting the Gurupa project files.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Charles Wagley Papers, University Archives, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Acquisition Information

The Papers were donated to the University Archives by Charles Wagley.

General Project Files

Box Folder
1 1 Correspondence, 1958, 1962
2 Health Report, Fortaleza, Brazil, April 25, 1944
3 "The Maya and the Aztecs"
4 The Meaning of Poverty
5 Manuscript "A Tapirape Comes of Age"


Guatemala Project Files

Box Folder
1 6 Census Material, 1937
7 Correspondence, 1938, 1947
8-10 Field Notes
11 La Farge, Oliver, Notes


Gurupa Project Files

Box Folder
1 12 Correspondence, 1948-1949
13 Field Notes, unsorted, n.d.
14 Field Notes, Agriculture (land, ownership, beliefs), Section 1, 1948
15 Field Notes, Biographies, Section 2, 1948
16 Field Notes, Children--Feeding and Care, Section 3, 1948
17 Field Notes, Church, Brotherhood Festivals, Section 4, 1948
Box Folder
2 1 Field Notes, Community - Zones of Influence, Section 5, 1948
2 Field Notes, Courtship, Marriage, Adultery, Section 6, 1948
3 Field Notes, Death/Burial, Section 7, 1948
4 Field Notes, Demography/Statistics, Section 8, 1948
5 Field Notes, Dolphins, Section 9, 1948
6 Field Notes, Economy/Cost of Living, Section 10, 1948
7 Field Notes, Extractive Industry, Section 11, 1948
8 Field Notes, Fertility/Mortality, Section 12, 1948
9 Field Notes, Festivals, Profane, Section 13, 1948
10 Field Notes, Folklore - Stories, Section 14, 1948
11 Field Notes, General, Section 15, 1948
12 Field Notes, History, Section 16, 1948
13 Field Notes, Hunting/Fishing, Section 17, 1948
14 Field Notes, Livestock, Section 18, 1948
15 Field Notes, Manioc Flour Preparation/Diet and Recipes, Section 19, 1948
16 Field Notes, Menstration, Section 20, 1948
17 Field Notes, Panema/Karowara, Section 21, 1948
18 Field Notes, Police (fights and crimes), Section 22, 1948
19 Field Notes, Politics, Section 23, 1948
20 Field Notes, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Section 24, 1948
21 Field Notes, Prejudice (class-color sayings), Section 25, 1948
22 Field Notes, Racial Groups (Jews, Blacks), Section 26, 1948
23 Field Notes, Remedies/Folk Medicine, Section 27, 1948
24 Field Notes, Schools, Section 28, 1948
25 Field Notes, Sex (masturbation, intercourse, homosexuality), Section 29, 1948
26 Field Notes, Shamans, Section 30, 1948
27 Field Notes, Supernatural Beings, Section 31, 1948
Box Folder
3 1 Field Notes, Virginity/Prostitutes, Section 32, 1948
2 Field Notes, Witchcraft, Section 32, 1948
3-19 Notebooks, Volumes 1-10, 1948
Box Folder
4 1-4 Notebooks, Volumes 11-13, 1948
5 Publications, 1946, 1948
6-9 Questionnaires, 1948


Tapirape Project Files

Box Folder
4 10-11 Baldus, Herbert Dr., Articles
Box Folder
5 1 Drawings - Body Paint by Antenor Leitas de Carralho
2 Drawings - Children, 1965
3 Drawings - Welcome of Tears
4 Field Notes - A, 1939-1940
5 Field Notes - B, C, 1939-1940
6 Field Notes - D, E, F, G, 1939-1940
7 Field Notes - H, I, J, 1939-1940
8 Field Notes - K, L, 1939-1940
9 Field Notes - M, N, O, 1939-1940
Box Folder
6 1 Field Notes - P, 1939-1940
2 Field Notes - Q, R, S, 1939-1940
3 Field Notes - T, U, V, 1939-1940
4 Field Notes - W, X, Y, Z, 1939-1940
5-11 Notebooks, Volumes 1-7, 1939-1940
Box Folder
7 1-2 Notebooks, Volumes 8-9, 1939-1940
3-4 Notebooks, Appendum AB, 1939-1940
5 Notebook, Volume 1, 1957
6-8 Notebook, Volumes 1-3, 1965
9 Photographs
10 Photographs, Welcome of Tears
11-15 Seminar on Culture Personality, Columbia University, April 17-May 15, 1941
16 Miscellaneous Field Notes, Drafts, Reprints, Food Taboo Charts


Other Materials

Box Folder
8 Photographic Negatives, mostly images of Tapirape, Numbers 1-600
Box Folder
9 Audio Cassettes, 2, recordings of Tapirape Indians
Photographic Contact Prints, Numbers 1-600
Box Folder
10 Photographic Negatives with corresponding contact prints, numbers 653-1020
Box Folder
11 "INDIOS E CABOCLOS": A Memoir with Charles Wagley, video cassette.
Looking Through the Kaleidoscope: Essays in Honor of Charles Wagley, publication.
Indios e Caboclos: Charles Wagley's Amazon Portrait, pamphlet.
Other photographs and miscellaneous materials on Tapirape.
Miscellaneous.
1-7 Prints (Negative Numbers 1-199)
Box Folder
12 8-16 Prints (Negative Numbers 201-466)
17 Prints (Negative Numbers 528-28-734)
18 Prints: Tapirape, 1960 and 1965
19 Prints: Tenetehara Shamans
20 Prints: Other Indian Groups
21 Prints: Unidentified, n.d.
22 Prints: Tapirape, Tampitawa Village, 1939-1940


Selected Subjects and Access Points
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog:
Subject Terms:
Anthropology--United States--History
Galvao, Eduardo Eneas
Gurupa (Para, Brazil)--Photographs
Indians of South America--Brazil
Tapirape Indians
Tapirape Indians--Photographs

For further information, please contact: Special Collections Access Services.

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