Call Number:

WC017

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

Central American Indian languages

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Alfonso Ortiz Collection of Native American Oral Literature, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1959-1965 (inclusive)

Creator:

Órtiz, Alfonso, 1939-1997

Form:

Audiotapes -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists of phonotapes of approximately fifty-five hours duration made primarily at San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, by anthropologist Alfonso Ortiz to help preserve the language and the culture, and to perpetuate the oral tradition, of the Tewa-speaking Pueblo.

Alfonso Ortiz was born in San Juan Pueblo in New Mexico. Fluent in Tewa, Ortiz studied sociology at the University of New Mexico and anthropology at the University of Chicago, earning his Ph.D. in 1967. Ortiz's anthropological work was concerned primarily with the history and culture of the American Indians of the southwest.

The collection consists of ten phonotapes of approximately fifty-five hours duration made primarily at San Juan Pueblo, New Mexico, by Ortiz to help preserve the language and the culture and to perpetuate the oral tradition of the Indian tribe. The tapes contain myths, folktales, prayers, speeches, chants including dance songs, the Mattachines song series, the butterfly ceremony, and the ceremony of man, and discussions with tribal elders about ritual initiations and religious societies of the Tewa-speaking Pueblo.