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Harold Scheffler Papers
MSS 0481
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Title: Harold Scheffler Papers
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0481
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California, 92093-0175
Languages:
English
Physical Description:
7.0 Linear feet
(16 archives boxes, 1 card file box and 7 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1926 - 1981
Abstract: Papers of anthropologist Harold Scheffler, relating to Scheffler's field research on ambilineal descent groups on Choiseul
Island in the Solomon Islands between 1958 and 1961, and to his comparative study of religious revitalization movements, especially
the Christian Fellowship Church, conducted on Rendova Island between 1967 and 1968. Scheffler studied social structure, kinship
and ethnographic semantics among Varisi language speakers on Choiseul Island (1958-1961), among Baniata language speakers
on Rendova Island (1967-1968), and among Simbo islanders (1960). Materials include correspondence with colleagues and students;
manuscripts of journal articles and published works; ethnographic data collected in diaries, field notes, genealogies, photographs,
and sound recordings. Also included are grammars, vocabularies and linguistic materials for the Varisi and Baniata languages
of the Solomon Islands.
Creator:
Scheffler, Harold W.
Original sound recordings are restricted. Researchers may request user copies be produced in advance.
Acquired 1999.
Harold Scheffler Papers, MSS 0481. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Harold Walter Scheffler was born on October 24, 1932, in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Southeast Missouri State College
in 1952 and transferred to the University of Missouri the following year. His studies were interrupted by military service
with the United States Army, 1954-1955, after which he returned to the University of Missouri and received a B.A. degree in
anthropology and sociology in 1956.
Scheffler then went on to the University of Chicago for graduate work in anthropology, receiving an M.A. in 1957. He continued
in the doctoral program at Chicago and, with the assistance of a Carnegie Corporation Tri-Institutional Pacific Program grant
(1958-1960) and a Fulbright grant (1960-1961), conducted eighteen months of fieldwork (1958-1961) on the island of Choiseul
in what was then called the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in
1963, having submitted a dissertation entitled "Kindred and Kin Groups in Choiseul Island Social Structure" (later published
in 1965 as
Choiseul Island Social Structure).
Scheffler studied social structure and kinship on Choiseul Island between November 1958 and April 1961. He spent most of his
time in the village of Voza in the Tepazaka District, but also lived on the opposite side of the island in Ogo village in
the Varisi District and made trips to Simbo Island. Scheffler learned and conducted this research in the Varisi language.
After returning from Choiseul, Scheffler taught at the University of Connecticut (1961-1962) and Bryn Mawr College (1962-1963).
He joined the Yale University faculty in 1963, and has remained there throughout his career.
Post-doctoral fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation enabled him to return to the Solomon Islands. Between
1967 and 1968, Scheffler conducted research on the island of Rendova as the principal investigator in a study entitled "Revitalization
Movements in the British Solomons," which compared religious movements in three locations. This project examined the separatist
Christian Fellowship Church on New Georgia Island (fieldwork conducted by Frances Hine Harwood), the South Seas Evangelical
Mission in the Langalanga Lagoon area of Malaita (fieldwork conducted by Matthew Cooper) and the participation of people on
Rendova Island in revitalization movements (fieldwork conducted by Scheffler).
Scope and Content of Collection
Papers of anthropologist Harold Scheffler, relating to Scheffler's field research on ambilineal descent groups on Choiseul
Island in the Solomon Islands between 1958 and 1961, and to his comparative study of religious revitalization movements, especially
the Christian Fellowship Church, conducted on Rendova Island between 1967 and 1968. Scheffler studied social structure, kinship
and ethnographic semantics among Varisi language speakers on Choiseul Island (1958-1961), among Baniata language speakers
on Rendova Island (1967-1968), and among Simbo islanders (1960). Materials include correspondence with colleagues and students;
manuscripts of journal articles and published works; ethnographic data collected in diaries, field notes, genealogies, photographs,
and sound recordings. Also included are grammars, vocabularies and linguistic materials for the Varisi and Baniata languages
of the Solomon Islands.
Arranged in eight series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS BY SCHEFFLER, 3) CHOISEUL ISLAND FIELDWORK, 4) RENDOVA ISLAND FIELDWORK,
5) MISCELLANEOUS FIELDWORK, 6) WRITINGS OF OTHERS, 7) PHOTOGRAPHS and 8) SOUND RECORDINGS.
Selected materials from this collection have been digitized and can be viewed through links in the container list, or by clicking
the link below.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Deacon, Bernard, 1903-1927 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc
Scheffler, Harold W. -- Archives
Choiseul (Solomon Islands) -- Pictorial works
Christianity -- Solomon Islands
Ethnology -- Solomon Islands
Land tenure -- Solomon Islands -- Choiseul
Malekula (Vanuatu)
Oceania
Rendova (Solomon Islands) -- Pictorial works
Social change -- Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
Solomon Islands -- Languages
Solomon Islands -- Pictorial works
Solomon Islands -- Religious life and customs
Solomon Islands -- Social conditions
Solomon Islands -- Social life and customs