Guide to the James A. Fox papers SC1516

Eilene Lueck

Department of Special Collections and University Archives

July 2023

Green Library

557 Escondido Mall

Stanford 94305-6064

specialcollections@stanford.edu

URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Language of Material: English

Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Title: James A. Fox papers

Identifier/Call Number: SC1516

Physical Description: 24 Linear Feet

Date (inclusive): 1933-2010

Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open for research use. Audio-visual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

Biographical / Historical

James A. Fox (1944-2019) was an associate professor of anthropology at Stanford University, specializing in historical linguistics and the indigenous languages of Central America. Fox was born in Spokane, Washington, and grew up in Hardin, Montana. Fox earned his Bachelor of Arts in German from Brigham Young University in 1969. He got a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1970. He earned another master's and his doctorate in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1974 and in 1978.

At Stanford, Fox has led nearly six dozen trips to locations around the world, including Guatemala, Easter Island and Norway, through the Stanford Alumni Association's Travel Study Program. He received the 2016 Richard W. Lyman Award, which recognizes faculty for their "extraordinary service" to the alumni association programs.

Among Fox's achievements are his decipherments of ancient Mayan written texts, which became the first pre-Columbian records that scholars could read and understand. He also conducted extensive linguistic fieldwork in Guatemala and Mexico, including a study of Ayapa Zoque, a nearly extinct language spoken by a handful of people in the state of Tabasco in Mexico.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], James A. Fox papers (SC1516). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Scope and Contents

The contents of this collection include course materials, lecture notes, research files, publications, and audiovisisual media relating to Fox's work on Pre-Colombian Central and South American languages. A signifcant portion of the materials, including flash cards and audio recordings, are primarily related to spoken Quiche and Quichua.

Conditions Governing Use

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Anthropological linguistics

Linguistics.

Anthropology -- Study and teaching.

Mayan languages

Stanford University. School of Humanities and Sciences

Papers, 2019-260

Box 1

Course materials for: Anthro 1; Anthro 4; Anthro 72 (1981-1982); Anthro 1A (1991-1993); Anthro 277; Anthro 178; Linguistics 255. Also includes lecture notes for Anthro 1A, transparent overlays for lectures, handouts and other course materials for ANSI 278 and ANSI 5, and Anthro 8 (CIV Culture, Ideas, and Values course). 1981-1993

Box 2

Lecture notes and problem sets for various courses, Anthro 17, 18, 21, 71, 73a, 77-79 on Quechua, 103, 175; folders on Quiche

Box 3

A Stanford Alumni Association Travel/Study Program: Yucatan, Mayan, Norwegian Coast, North Cape College, Guatemala, Walking Tour in Norway, Olmec Heartland, Scandinavia, Belize, Montana by Private Rail, Northern Spain Walking Tour, Arctic College, Spain & Portugal, Lands of the Maya, Think Again New York, Ultimate Maya, Extremadura Walk, Mesoamerica A.D. 700, seminar folders 1988-2010

Box 4

Jim Fox, Margaret Fox, and Sharman Fox course materials, records, itineraries and other materials relating to study abroad in Mexico, Guatemala/Maya, Inca Trail, Yucatan, Cancun, Indian Ocean, Hopi/Navajo land, Viking College, Mesoamerica, Spain, Portugal, Norwegian Coast, Sierra Camp, Suitcase Seminar study abroad 1978-2007

Box 5

Newsletters, publications, Journal of the Gorilla Foundation issues, study abroad in Scandinavia materials, South American Indian Languages Project questionnaire, correspondence, photocopied publications on Latin American topics, tickets and brochures, Mayan verse book, student work, Latin American newspaper clippings, research documentation, Carrier Pidgen newsletter, The Nahua Newsletter issues, The Pari Journal issues, Mayan Linguistics Newsletter, Forum on Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing, Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Classical Nahuatl documentation, photocopies of books, Maya? language lexicon 1985-2007

Box 6

Chorti vocabulary, Chorti to Spanish dictionary manuscript, Chorti to English dictionary manuscript p. 443-773 plus bibliography, photocopies of materials on the Chorti language by Charles Wisdom manuscript no. 29

Box 6a

Language curriculum Francis Joseph Shea, photocopies of Spoken Quiche (Maya) by Wick & Cochojil-Gonzalez manuscript and published version, linguistics colloquia, language and sex folder, Spoken (Yucatec) Maya manuscript photocopy by Blair and Vermont-Salas, Codices Maya 1933 photocopy, Maya name glyph photocopies, photocopies of vase and sarcophagus glyphs 1965-1967

Box 7

Baptism naming photocopies with notes; copies of papers from the microfilm collection of manuscripts on Middle American Anthropology 1933-1946

Box 8

Tikal temple lintel glyphs; Chichen Itza temple lintel glyphs; class lectures Anthro. 178; Monjas glyphs; notes on Atitl

Box 9

Quiche Flashcards, box 1 (5 folders); box 2 (4 folders)

Box 10

Audiovisual media: Floppy disks Millennium version 1.20; family snapshots [slides]; Ayapa 1-3 field data backup on floppies; unidentified micro cassettes; 1 microfilm thesis; 88 mini cassettes (Quiche (Mayan), lessons, Quichua lessons, Ayaypa vocabulary, Nahuatl, lecture tapes, interviews, folk music, folk tales, audio journal entries) 1964-2001

Box 11

Audiovisual media: Two "Quiche Transcription" 5" reels (Tape #1, Tape #6); one reel "New Guinea Pidgin;" seventeen "Spoken Quiche" reels ( Lesson 1, L. 3 and 4, L. 4, L.5, 6A, L 6B, 7A, 7B, 13.1 and 14.1, 14.2 and 14.3, 14.4 and 15.1, 15.2 and 15.2, 16 pt.1, 16 pt 2, 16 pt 3, 17 pt 2, 17 pt. 3); forty-one 5" reels labeled "Quechua," (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 4C, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B, 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A, 10B, 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B, 13B, 17B, 18A, 18B, 19A, 20B, 21A, 21B, 22A, 22B, 23A, 23B, 24A, 24B, 25A, 25B)

Box 12

Audiovisual media: Nineteen 5" Quechua reels (13A, 14A, 14B, 15A, 15B, 16A, 16B, 17A, 19B, 20A, 26A, 26B, 27A, 27B, 28A, 28B, 29A, 29B, 30); Four 5" Quiche reels (8A, 8B, L. 1 and 2A, L. 2 and 3); three 5" reels labeled Chontal; three Yucatec Maya reels (3, 4, and 5) and 1 reel labeled "Yucatec lesson 3B"; one reel labeled "Uspantec -- September 1972"; one labeled "Orlando Catzin"; one labeled "J. Fox Turkish Tape 1"; 1 reel labelled "West Greenlandic"; 1 labelled "Mexico 1975 -- Music"; 7 family reels ("Hugh as little kid," "Pat - songs," "Peery 1," "Peery 2," "Hunter - My life in Chemistry," "Dad and Pat," "Dad and Pat jokes"

Box 13

Audiovisual media: Thirty-four microfilm: Radin - Huave-English Dictionary (21 reels); Redfield Guatemala (1 reel); Tax, S. - Towns of L. Atihan (1 reel); Film Rensch, Calvin Ross - Comparative Otomanguean Phonology (1 reel); Rensch - Otomanguean (1 reel); Fisher - Proto-Yucatec (1 reel); Attinasi - Chol Mayan Word (1 reel); Kiakhta (1 reel); Furbee - Tojolabal Grammar (1 reel); Hopkins - The Chuj Language (1 reel); George A. Collier Anthropology (3 reels); unlabeled (1 reel) 1974

Box 14

Audiovisual media: Twenty-two cassette tapes labeled "Ayapa, James A. Fox." (1-21; 23 and 24); fifteen other cassette tapes: "Norway interviews," "Quene Adriente Jim Fox 321-2749," Palenque, J-Fox 8/11/01," "Excerpts for Church," Byron Hunter - Life in Chemistry/Family Christmas Message (1989)," "Hugh Fox - A Walkthrough the Baylands, Jim Fox as voice," "Lisa Lee," "Intercultural Conversation Anth 278," "Whistle," "Fox Oil Co mtgs," "Dick Peery," Fernando Poot on Xcomil," "Musica Indigena de Guatemala," "Nova - The Multiplicity of languages," "Truman Kierke"; 1 Briefband Tape Letter from James A. Fox"; 5 Iomega ZIP 250MB discs, one labeled "DATA, Lingo, Ayapa"; 1 Magnetonband tape labeled "Belize Creole English"; 37 minidiscs, mostly number by Fox (MD25 - 7/25/01, Ayapa, Manuel Segovia Jimenez," "MD26 - 7/26/01, Ayapa," "MD27 - 7/30/01 Ayapa MSJ" "MD28 - 7/30/01 - Ayapa, MSJ," "MD29 - 7/31/01 #1," "MD30 - 7/31/01 #2," "MD31 7/31/01 #3 and 8/01/01," "MD32 Ayapa 8/6/01 - 8/07/01," "MD33 8/7/01 #2," "MD 33 8/7/01 #2,"8/08/01," "MD 35 8/9/01 #1," "MD 36 8/9/2001 #2," "MD 37 8/10/01 #1," "MD38 8/13/01 Ayapa MSJ and 8/14/01," MD 39 8/14/01 Ayapa MSJ," "MD 40 8/15/01", "MD 41 7/1/04 Ayapa, Manuel Segovia Jimenez," "MD 42 7/3/04 #1," "MD 43 7/3/04 #2," "MD 7/5/04 #1," "MD 45 7/5/04 #2," "MD 46 7/6/04," "MD 47 7/7/04 #1," "MD48 7/7/04 #2," "MD 49, 7/9/04," "MD 50 7/10/04," "MD 51 7/12/04," "MD 52 7/13/04," "MD 53 7/14/04," "MD 54 7/16/04," two labeled "Charlotte 1/3/05," "Aug 10 91," "Amanda, other little girls canyon wren #7," "Nahuala," "1 blank."