Analysis of the George H. Pepper Collections

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This grant permits Dr. Reyman to study and prepare for publication notes, and cultural and archaeological materials included in the Geroge H. Pepper collection. George Pepper died in 1924 after an anthropological career which spanned almost thirty years. He conducted extremely important archaeological excavations at Pueblo Bonito, a large prehistoric site in New Mexico and at other sites in the U.S. Southwest. As part of his ethnographic work, he conducted studies among the Pueblo and Navaho peoples and collected a wide range of artifacts. His notes include detailed descriptions of manufacturing processes and native terminology. However he published relatively little of this data and his notes and artifacts are scattered across a number of U.S. institutions. Dr. Reyman has studied much of these materials and transcribed Dr. Pepper's notes. This grant permits him to complete this task. He will focus on the one remaining collection which he has not examined. This is stored at the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University. This will allow him to 1: complete an inventory and analysis of Pueblo and Navajo ethnographic materials; 2: integrate this information with previously collected data to produce a comprehensive catalogue of Pepper's archaeological and ethnographic collections and; 3: use recently discovered unpublished archaeological materials from Chaco Canyon to publish a revised report on Pueblo Bonito and a new synthesis of Chacoan prehistory. This research is important because it will provide scholars with access to primary ethnographic and archaeological data no longer obtainable through fieldwork. As the costs involved in field research increase and as it becomes more difficult to work with traditional peoples, material such as Pepper's gains in importance. It is essential that it be catalogued and described before it is lost.