Roland B. Dixon

Roland Burrage Dixon (born November 6, 1875 – died December 19, 1934) was an American cultural anthropologist, best remembered for his work at Harvard, where he organized one of the world’s most comprehensive anthropological libraries.

Life

Roland Dixon was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, into the family of Louis Seaver Dixon and Ellen Burrage. He studied first at Hopkinson School and then Harvard, graduating in 1897. Upon graduation he was appointed an Assistant in Anthropology at the Peabody Museum, participating in a field study and excavations of burial mounds in Madisonville, Ohio. After obtaining his Master’s Degree in 1898, he joined American Museum of Natural History staff, with whom he participated in famous Jesup North Pacific Expedition and Huntington Expedition to California. In 1899 he started his study of Native Indians in California, with which he earned his Ph.D. in 1900. His thesis, on the language of California’s Maidu Indians, was later published in Franz Boas’ Handbook of American Indian Languages.

In 1902 Dixon became a member of the Faculty at Harvard University, serving as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology from 1906 to 1915, and a full-time professor from 1915. At the same time he served as a librarian at Peabody Museum (1904-1934), a secretary (1909-1934), and Curator of Ethnology (1912-1934). During his directorship the library grew to one of the most comprehensive anthropological libraries in the country.

Dixon conducted numerous expeditions and field studies. Beside his expeditions in the United States and Mexico, Dixon traveled to New Zealand, Australia, Himalayas, Malaysia, Philippines and Japan, where he performed numerous cultural studies. His work in Asia is what Dixon remains the most famous for. His first major publication from 1916 Oceanic Mythology was among the first to describe cultures of Oceania. It became an important sourcebook for all subsequent studies of Polynesia.

In 1928 Dixon published his probably most known book - The Building of Cultures. In it he discusses the problems of cultural diffusion and the influence of environment on cultural traits. By noticing similarities in cultural traits around the world, Dixon wanted to trace migration of people and ideas, as they spread across the globe. In his other publications Dixon dealt with the problems of linguistics, primitive art, folk-lore and religion.

Beside ethnographical work Dixon was limitedly interested in politics. In 1918 he became a member of the House Commission which collected reports on the political conditions in Central Asia. Dixon spent few years with the Commission, negotiating piece in Asia. He however remained faithful to research and teaching, He died in 1934, just few hours after giving a lecture at Harvard.

Work

Dixon studied migrations of peoples through diffusion of ideas, as found in various material objects. In his book The Building of Cultures he presents his study of numerous objects, found in various cultures around the world, that were similar on certain traits. Through those similarities Dixon was able to determine how certain ideas migrated around the globe.

The same idea Dixon applied in his book The Racial History of Mankind to the migration of peoples and races. Through tracing several physical traits throughout the world, Dixon made a map of racial migrations of early hominids. Although his technique met some criticism, he was able to show by using scientific data, that American Indians are of Mongolian origins. In addition, Dixon was the first anthropologist who followed three different anthropometrical traits at once, unlike others who charted racial history by following only a single trait.

In addition, Dixon remains known for his ethnographical work among California Indians and in Oceania. His 1905 book Northern Maidu was one of the first modern works on any native people of California. Although he was not trained in philology, Dixon studied their language and was able to grasp the fundamental features of it correctly and with utmost precision. He published more than twenty other papers on California peoples in the period from 1915 to 1928. Dixon’s studies of the peoples of Oceania are among the most detailed ones, approaching studied problem always from numerous angles. His knowledge of geography, history, folk-lore, archeology and linguistics was vast, enabling him to understand peoples of Oceania better than any contemporary anthropologists. The studies Dixon published on Oceania were used as source material long after his death.

Legacy

Roland Dixon remains famous for his contribution to the development of Harvard’s anthropological department, which under his guidance became the leading centre for the training of anthropologists in the United States. Dixon organized Harvard’s anthropological library, making it one of the world’s most comprehensive and functional anthropological libraries in the world. His studies on Oceania’s cultures were pioneering and have served as important source of information for all consequent cultural studies of the region. His work on California Indians remains among the most fundamental in the area.

Dixon’s personality however prevented him from becoming an extremely famous scholar or attracting any greater number of followers. He was rather withdrawn and introvert man who preferred solitude and rarely made social contacts. For that reason he didn’t have many supporters, and his ideas were slowly pushed aside or disregarded by later anthropologists.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Boaz, Franz. 1911. Handbook Of The American Indian Language (2 Volumes). Reprint Services Corp. ISBN 0781240409

• Carleton, S. & Andrews, J.M. (Eds.) 1943. Studies in the Anthropology of Oceania and Asia. Peabody Museum, Harvard University Press

Bibliography

• Dixon, Roland B. 1899 The Color-Symbolism of the Cardinal Points. Journal of American Folk-lore, 12, 10-16.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1902. Maidu Myths. The Huntington California Expedition. Bulletin, American Museum of Natural History, 17, 33-118.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1905. The Shasta-Achomawi. A New Linguistic Stock, with Four New Dialects. American Anthropologist, 7, 213-17.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1906. California Folk-Lore: Water Monsters in Northern California. Journal of American Folk-Lore, 19, 323

• Dixon, Roland B. 1909. The Mythology of the Central and Eastern Algonkins. Journal of American Folk-Lore, 22, 1-9.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1911. Maidu. An Illustrative Sketch (Handbook of American Indian Languages, Part I). Bulletin, Bureau of American Ethnology, 40, 679-734.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1916. The Distribution of the Methods of Fire-Making. American Anthropologist, 18, 445-46)

• Dixon, Roland B. 1920. A New Theory of Polynesian Origins. Proceedings, American Philosophical Society, 59, 261-67.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1922. Review of Clark Wissler, “The American Indian”. American Anthropologist, 24, 373-76.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1923. The Racial History of Man. New York: Charles Scribners Sons

• Dixon, Roland B. 1928. The Building of Cultures. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0404159176

• Dixon, Roland B. 1929. The Peopling of the Pacific. Philippine Magazine, 26, 197 & 244-47.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1930. Recent Archaeological Discoveries in the Philippines and their Bearing on the Prehistory of Eastern Asia. Proceedings, American Philosophical Society, 69, 225-29.

• Dixon, Roland B. 1973. Maidu Texts (American Ethnological Society Publications No 40). Ams Press Inc. ISBN 0404581544

• Dixon, Roland B. 1982. The Buildings of Cultures. Scribner. ISBN 0404159176

• Dixon, Roland B. & Kroeber, A.L. 1903. The Native Languages of California. American Anthropologist, 5, 1-26.

• Dixon, Roland B. & Swanton, John R. 1914. Primitive American History. American Anthropologist, 16, 376-412.

External links

• Roland Dixon – Biography with bibliography

• Roland Dixon’s biography – Short biography

• Maidu Texts – Full text

• Oceanic Mythology – Full text

• Achomawi and Atsugewi Tales – Full text