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Leavitt (Stephen) Collection
MSS 0027  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Restrictions
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biography
  • Publication Rights
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Digital Content

  • Descriptive Summary

    Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
    9500 Gilman Drive
    La Jolla 92093-0175
    Title: Stephen Leavitt Collection
    Creator: Leavitt, Stephen C., 1959-
    Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0027
    Physical Description: 4.0 Linear feet (5 archives boxes and 11 card file boxes)
    Date (inclusive): 1984 - 1989
    Abstract: Ethnographic fieldnotes, audio cassette recordings (1984-1986), and slides created by Stephen Leavitt, American anthropologist and researcher in Melanesian culture. Included are fieldnotes, tape recorded interviews, interview transcripts, census materials, and Arapesh language materials related to the ethnography of the Bumbita Arapesh people of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
    Languages: English .

    Restrictions

    The collection may only be used with the written permission of Stephen Leavitt. Original sound recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available for researchers.

    Acquisition Information

    Acquired 1993.

    Preferred Citation

    Stephen Leavitt Collection, MSS 27. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

    Biography

    Stephen Christopher Leavitt (1959- ), American anthropologist, graduated with a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1981. He attended the University of California, San Diego, where he earned his doctorate in anthropology in 1989. His dissertation, entitled Cargo, Christ, and Nostalgia for the Dead: Themes of Intimacy and Abandonment in Bumbita Arapesh Social Experience, was based on fieldwork in Papua New Guinea from 1984-1986, for which he received a Fulbright Research Grant. While in the field, Leavitt worked closely with Professor Donald F. Tuzin, whose own work centered on the neighboring Ilahita Arapesh. In 1989, Leavitt received a Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities, which supported his residence at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaii. Since then, he has taught at Washington University (St. Louis) and, currently, at Union College (Schenectady). His work has been published in Ethos; Ethnology; Social Science and Medicine; and The Journal of Psychohistory. Leavitt is married to anthropologist Karen Brison, who also conducted fieldwork in the East Sepik Province with the Gawanga people.

    Publication Rights

    Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The Stephen Leavitt Collection documents ethnographic research conducted among the Bumbita Arapesh people of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, which formed the core of Leavitt's doctoral dissertation in anthropology at UC San Diego.
    Arranged in three series: 1) FIELDNOTES & IMAGES, 2) TRANSCRIPTIONS OF RECORDINGS, and 3) RECORDINGS.

    Digital Content

    Sound recordings from this collection have been digitized. Please request sound recordings directly from the finding aid for access facilitated through the Library's virtual reading room service.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Papua New Guinea -- Social life and customs
    Ethnology -- Papua New Guinea -- East Sepik Province
    Anthropology -- Melanesia
    Anthropology -- Oceania
    Leavitt, Stephen C., 1959- -- Archives