Paul Bohannan papers, 1949-1982

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Summary

Creators:
Bohannan, Paul
Abstract:
Collection includes the records, field notes and recordings, academic publications, teaching notes, photographs, and materials related to research case studies of American cultural and social anthropologist and USC Dean of Social Sciences and Communications Paul Bohannan (1920-2007).
Extent:
59.02 Linear Feet 54 boxes
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], Paul Bohannan papers, Collection no. 0378, University Archives, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

Collection includes the records, field notes and recordings, academic publications, teaching notes, photographs, and materials related to research case studies of American cultural and social anthropologist and USC Dean of Social Sciences and Communications Paul Bohannan (1920-2007).

Files and field notebooks of Bohannan's time spent with the Tiv people of Nigeria and Cameroon from 1949-1953 are present. Conference related materials, research files, ¼ inch recordings of interviews and lectures, manuscript and book drafts, and a metal card file box with bibliographic information are all represented in the collection.

Biographical / historical:

Paul Bohannan (1920-2007) was an American social and cultural anthropologist known for his ethnographic work among the Tiv people of Nigeria and Cameroon, and his study on the nature of divorce in the western world seen through the lens of Tiv cultural practices.

In 1947 he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with his bachelor's degree in German from the University of Arizona. He attended Queen's College, Oxford, thereafter as a Rhodes scholar, receiving a Bachelor of Science in anthropology in 1949 and his PhD in anthropology in 1951. He spent time in Africa observing the Tiv people during 1949-1953. Bohannan was lecturer in social anthropology at Oxford University until 1956, he then taught at Princeton University and Northwestern University, where he focused on African ethnography and helped to build the anthropology department's study of economic anthropology. He then taught at UC Santa Barbara before joining USC. Bohannan served as dean of social sciences and communications at USC from 1984-1987.

Bohannan's major works include The Tiv: An African People From 1949 to 1953 (Ethnografics Press, 2000) co-authored with USC associate professor Gary Seaman, We, the Alien: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Waveland Press, 1992), How Culture Works (Free Press, 1994), Justice and Judgment Among the Tiv (Waveland Press, 1989), Africa & Africans (Natural History Press, 1973) and African Homicide and Suicide (Holiday House, 1972).

Acquisition information:
Gift of Paul Bohannan, October 1988.
Processing information:

Collection is partially processed.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Advance notice required for access.

Terms of access:

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder# or item name], Paul Bohannan papers, Collection no. 0378, University Archives, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189, US
Contact:
(213) 740-5900
specol@usc.edu
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