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Finding aid of the Joseph M. Carrier Papers
Coll2007-001
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Title: Joseph M. Carrier papers
Dates: 1908-2002
Bulk Dates: (bulk
1970-1990)
Collection number: Coll2007-001
Creator:
Carrier, Joseph M., 1927-
Collection Size: 22 archive boxes
9.3 linear feet
Repository:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 9007
Abstract: Correspondence, surveys, questionnaires,
interviews, research notes, journal reviews, conference materials, and
published reference materials documenting Carrier's anthropological field
research, particularly in the years 1970-1990, on homosexual behaviors of men
of Spanish and Indian ancestry in Mexico and of Hispanic and Vietnamese males
in Southern California and his work with the Orange County Health Agency AIDS
Community Education Project (ACEP).
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection: English and Spanish
The collection is open to researchers when ONE National Gay &
Lesbian Archives is open, and at other times by appointment. Access to some
documents containing personal identifiable information may be restricted. For
further information, contact the Archives staff.
Researchers wishing to publish material must obtain permission in
writing from ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, as physical owner and as
holder of the copyright to the materials.
Box #, folder #, Joseph M. Carrier papers, Coll2007-001, ONE National
Gay & Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Gift of Joseph M. Carrier, June 22, 2006.
Collection processed by Michael C. Oliveira,
January 17, 2007.
Processing this collection has been funded
by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
Joseph Michel Carrier, Jr., was born on December 23, 1927, in Miami,
Florida. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1945, but was still in boot camp
when World War II ended, and was discharged early. After earning a BA in
Geography from the University of Miami in 1950, he was recalled by the Marines
for fourteen months and completed his tour as a sergeant. In 1952, he received
an MA in Economics from Purdue University. The following year Carrier traveled
on a Fulbright Scholarship to India, where he researched the economic effects
of energy resource distribution in the northeastern region of the country. In
1954, he taught geography at the University of Miami. He then relocated to
California where, after a brief stint at North American Aviation, he joined the
Rand Corporation, for whom he worked from 1956 to 1968 as a research analyst on
various projects. In 1968, upon returning to the United States after performing
field research as a counterinsurgency specialist in Vietnam, Carrier was told
of his pending dismissal for "economic reasons." In fact, his fellow employees
in Saigon had reported a suspected homosexual affair with a Vietnamese Air
Force officer to his superior in the Santa Monica office. At the time Rand
considered homosexuals a security risk and subject to dismissal; however
Carrier negotiated his departure from the company without admitting to the
affair. His resignation provided Carrier the opportunity to return to school to
study anthropology. Professor Duane Metzger of the University of California at
Irvine was open to the concept of a graduate student researching male
homosexuality, but advised Carrier to avoid mentioning homosexuality when
applying to the graduate program. The UC Irvine program allowed one off-campus
expert to serve on graduate advisory committees. Carrier sought out Evelyn
Hooker, a UCLA professor and research authority on homosexuality. At Metzger's
suggestion Carrier focused on homosexual behaviors in Mexico. He obtained a
National Institute of Health two-year pre-doctoral fellowship and from the
autumn of 1969 to the spring of 1971, conducted research in Guadalajara,
observing and interviewing urban Mexican mestizos men who had sex with men.
This was the first doctoral-level anthropological field research focused on
homosexual behaviors. He received his Ph.D. the following year.
With no prospects for a position in sex research, Carrier briefly served
as a staff officer at the National Academy of Science, where he researched the
effects of herbicides utilized by American military forces in South Vietnam.
From 1973 to 1987, he worked part-time as an evaluator of experimental law
enforcement programs in the state of California. The part-time nature of this
work allowed Carrier to continue his research, and extend the scope of
fieldwork into the Mexican states he passed through on his drive from
California to Guadalajara. The rise of the AIDS epidemic underscored the
importance of Carrier's work, as his research on Mexican men who have sex with
men provided public health officials with insights on this previously
undocumented world. In the fall of 1987, Carrier joined the Orange County
Health Agency AIDS Community Education Project (ACEP) to develop effective
HIV/AIDS educational materials for the men of Mexican origin in Orange County.
In a county biographical sketch published in 1991 he is described as the health
agency's Chief Social Scientist. He retired in 1992. In his final year with
ACEP, Carrier conducted an ethnographic study of the sexual behaviors of men of
Vietnamese origin in Orange County. He continues to study men of Mexican and
Vietnamese origins in order to develop a greater understanding of their sexual
behaviors that will allow service providers to create and implement more
effective HIV/AIDS educational programs. In 1995, the culmination of more than
twenty-five years of his research,
De Los Otros: Intimacy
and Homosexuality among Mexican Men
was published.
Sources:
Joseph M. Carrier Papers, Coll2007-001, ONE National Gay & Lesbian
Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Carrier, Joseph M.
De los otros intimacy and homosexuality among
Mexican men
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1995),
ix-xxii.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Joseph M. Carrier papers comprise correspondence, surveys,
questionnaires, interviews, research notes, journal reviews, conference
materials, and published reference materials documenting Carrier's
anthropological field research on homosexual behaviors in Mexico and Southern
California and his work with the Orange County Health Agency AIDS Community
Education Project (ACEP). Materials date from 1908 to 2002, with the bulk from
1970 to 1990.
The collection is organized into five series: 1) Correspondence, 2)
Writings, 3) Research, 4) Professional Activities, and 5) Reference Materials.
The Correspondence Series comprises letters related to his research and
professional activities. The Writings Series consists of materials relating to
Carrier's published works, including his book,
De Los
Otros: Intimacy and Homosexuality among Mexican Men
, and journal
articles and reviews. The Research Series comprises Carrier's original field
research materials, including interviews, questionnaires, notes, and analysis
of collected data, relating to the sexual behaviors of Mexican men in Mexico
and Latinos and Vietnamese in Southern California. The Professional Activities
Series documents Carrier's activities as peer reviewer, in particular for the
Journal of Sex Research and the University of
Chicago Press; as a member of the National Institutes of Health Mental Health
AIDS Research Review Committee; as editor of the Anthropology Research Group on
Homosexuality Newsletter (1979-1980); and as a speaker at national conferences.
The Reference Materials Series comprises the bulk of the collection. The
materials include copies of book chapters and journal articles, as well as
typescripts, in particular on HIV/AIDS among Hispanics, ethnicity, gender,
homosexuality, and Vietnamese sexuality. The papers also include materials
acquired by Carrier during the late 1980s and early 1990s as a member of the
Mental Health AIDS Research Review Committee (MHAZ) which reviewed grant
proposals submitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Division of
Research for review by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, Mental Health Administration
(ADAMHA) as well as miscellaneous reference materials from the Orange County
Health Agency ACEP program. The materials also include newspaper and magazine
clippings relating primarily to AIDS, gays, and Mexico, and brochures relating
to AIDS/SIDA, and to Carrier's 2001 trip to Thailand.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects
Anthropology--Research--Gay men
Anthropology--Research--Mexico--Guadalajara
Anthropology--Research--Sex behavior--Male
Carrier, Joseph, 1927-
Homosexuality--Mexico--Guadalajara
Gay men--Sexual
behavior--Mexico--Guadalajara
Gay men, Hispanic--Sexual
behavior--California
Gay men, Vietnamese--Sexual
behavior--California
Gay liberation
movement--Mexico--Guadalajara
Sexual behavior
surveys--Mexico--Guadalajara