American Museum of Natural History

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Peter M. Whiteley

Curator

Ph.D., University of New Mexico, 1982 "Third Mesa Hopi Social Structural Dynamics and Sociocultural Change: The View from Bacavi"

RESEARCH

Dr. Whiteley studies the cultures, social structures, social histories, and environmental relations in Native North America from the 17th century to the present. His research focuses on four areas:

Hopi society, culture, and polity in northern Arizona, based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research over the last two decades. Current areas of study include the structural transformation in demography, economy, and society at the third Mesa town of Orayvi (1880-1910), to provide a comprehensive explanation of population, social-structural characteristics, and historical events, in the critical years before and after the Orayvi split of 1906; and the significance of early gift exchange in Hopi relations with the United States.

Cayuga and other Six Nations Iroquois social and political history in northeastern North America and the trans-Mississippi West, based on continuing ethnographic fieldwork and archival research begun in 1999. Dr. Whiteley's current project concerns the transformation of Cayuga society and polity (1750-1930), especially focusing on Cayuga involvement in the War for Independence and its aftermath, associated fissions in the Cayuga social system, and persistence and change in Cayuga identity throughout these processes.

Hupa society and culture in northwestern California, based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research beginning in 1993. Dr. Whiteley's current project examines the structural integration of Hupa polity, especially vis-à-vis existing interpretations in political anthropology of tribal and non-tribal political systems.

Eastern and Western Pueblo intercultural relations and sociopolitical transformations during and after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, informed by ongoing ethno-historic research among the Pueblos, and archival research, with current and recent projects on the destruction of Awat'ovi, a Hopi town, in 1700, as part of a Hopi revitalization movement; the question of cannibalism at Awat'ovi posed by other anthropologists; and the transformation of southern Tiwa society in the late 17th-early 18th century.

Recent Significant Publications

Whiteley, P. 2008. The Orayvi Split: a Hopi Transformation. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 87.

Whiteley, P. 2008. Hopi concepts of landscape and person as indices of biocultural loss. Paper delivered at CBC Symposium, April 3, 2008. Electronic article, http://anthro.amnh.org, American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Whiteley, P. 2008. Commemorating Boas. Paper delivered at Colloquium on Engaged and Public Anthropology, April 1, 2008. Electronic article, http://anthro.amnh.org, American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Whiteley, P. 2007. Foreword. In Marilyn Norcini (editor), Edward P. Dozier: The Paradox of the American Indian Anthropologist. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Cordell, L.S., T.J. Ferguson, E.M. Redmond, C.S. Spencer, D.H. Thomas, and P. Whiteley. 2007. A misrepresentation of Ancestral Pueblo. Anthropology News 48: 3.

Whiteley, P. 2004. Why Anthropology needs more history. Journal of Anthropological Research 60: 487-514.

Whiteley, P. 2004. The Hopi gift economy. Natural History 113: 26-31.

Whiteley, P. 2004. Bartering Pahos with the President. Ethnohistory 51: 359-414.

Whiteley, P. 2003. Do "language rights" serve indigenous interests? Some Hopi and other queries. American Anthropologist 105: 712-722.

Whiteley, P. 2003. Reconnoitering "Pueblo" ethnicity: the 1852 Tesuque Delegation to Washington. Journal of the Southwest 45: 437-518.

Whiteley, P. 2003. Leslie White's Hopi ethnography: of practice and in theory. Journal of Anthropological Research 59: 151-81.

Whiteley, P. 2002. Prehistoric Archaeology and oral history: the scientific importance of dialogue. American Antiquity 67: 405-415.