Eliza McFeely

I've never studied anthropology, and in fact, have felt suspect of it since my undergraduate education, during the height of identity politics at a left-leaning university. I have tended to dismiss this discipline as a deeply flawed and "unsaveable" area of study, due to my own vague understandings of its racist foundations.

So this is one of the first anthropology books I have ever read, albeit one that turns the lens on the subject itself, rather than on an ethnic or cultural group (other than caucasian Americans, perhaps). It's a good one to start with. McFeely writes the stories of three late 19th century anthropologists: Matilda Stevenson, Frank Hamilton Cushing, and Stewart Culin; they are linked through their competition to be the first (or most thorough) white person to get "on the inside" of the Zuni people and culture of New Mexico.

McFeely's topic here is what those early anthropologists' findings say about the broader American culture at that time, rather than about the Zuni themselves. It is well-written and balanced, acknowledging the protagonists' failures and innovations without blanket judgments in either direction. She ends the book by reminding readers that although she has foregrounded the role of the researchers in this book, that the Zuni are not simply a backdrop for caucasians' own intellectual or cultural realizations, pointing towards more recent works on Zuni for those who wish to understand more.… (mehr)