Cushing, Frank Hamilton

Created: 2024-Sep-15

Bio: (1857-1900) American anthropologist. Cushing started to deal with anthropology very early and already in 1875 he became the curator of the archaeological exhibition at Cornell University. After a short period of study at Cornell University, at the suggestion of the director of the Smithsonian Institute, he became the curator of the ethnological department at that institute. In 1879, Cushing became part of an expedition that did ethnological research on the Zuni Pueblo Indians. Although the expedition lasted only three months, he stayed with the Zuni for years, learned their language, and fully integrated into their society. He was even accepted in 1881 into the secret warrior society "Society of the Bow". The following year, he led several Zuni members around America, applying what he called the "reciprocal method", that is, exposing research subjects to the researcher's culture. After leaving the Zuni tribe in 1884, Cushing began working at the Bureau of American Ethnology.

Cushing is considered to be one of the first professional ethnologists, because he was among the first to apply the ethnological method of participant observation and because of his ability to "think like an Indian". He coined the term "chiefdom" to explain the socio-political complexities of the Indians he studied. Several of his articles published in 1881 served as the basis for the article "On Certain Primitive Forms of Classification" written by Durkheim and Moss. Cushing is the author of a series of important articles published for the journal of the Bureau of American Anthropology, which were published posthumously in 1979 in the book "Zuni".