Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid to the George McClelland Foster Papers, 1934-2005
BANC MSS 2007/103
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Collection Title: George McClelland Foster papers
Date (inclusive): 1934-2005
Collection Number: BANC MSS 2007/103
Creators :
Foster, George M. (George McClelland), 1913-2006
Extent:
Number of containers: 28 cartons, 54 boxes, 1 oversize folder
Linear feet: 53.85
Repository: The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract:
The George McClelland Foster papers (1934-2005) consist of Foster's professional materials, which represent a prodigious career
in anthropology. The collection contains correspondence; consulting files from various agencies concerned with health and
development issues worldwide, such as the Agency for International Development, International Cooperative Administration,
and The World Health Organization. Foster's professional administrative records focus mainly on the American Anthropological
Association around 1970 during his term as President and include the Association's position on the Simon Fraser University
tenure case and professional ethical concerns in Thailand. Also included are numerous reprints and manuscript drafts of Foster's
writings; administration papers from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Anthropology Department during his Chairmanship,
consisting of correspondence and materials mainly relating to the faculty statement on the Ishi controversy; and teaching
course files from various teaching assignments. There are some biographical papers and information. The bulk of the collection
contains extensive research files primarily covering areas on medical anthropology; applied anthropology; the principle of
limited good; hot/cold theory (humoral medicine); field work in the village of Tzintzuntzan, Mexico which includes detailed
census data covering a span from 1945-2000, note cards and bibliographic information filed by subjects, interviews on cassette
tapes; and films on Tzinzuntzan, Popoluca, Oaxaca pottery, and Mexico in general (1940-1944).
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English and Spanish.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head
of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The
Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright
owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], George McClelland Foster Papers, BANC MSS 2007/103, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley.
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
An anthropologist's life in the twentieth century: oral history transcript (BANC MSS 2001/116c).
Slides have been transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Foster, George McClelland, 1913-2006
Anthropologists
Anthropology Fieldwork
Anthropology Research California Berkeley
Applied anthropology
Ethnology Mexico
Indians of Mexico Economic conditions
Medical anthropology
Popoluca Indians Folklore
Traditional medicine Mexico
Tzintzuntzan (Mexico)
Tzintzuntzan (Mexico) Social conditions
Faculty papers
American Anthropological Association
The George McClelland Foster Papers were given to The Bancroft Library from Jeremy Foster on June, 12, 2007.
No additions are expected.
Arranged to the folder level.
Processed by Janice Otani in 2012.
George McClelland Foster was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on October 9, 1913. He studied at Northwestern University with
Melville Herskouits (B.S. 1941) and at the University of California, Berkeley, with Robert H. Lowie and Alfred L. Kroeber
(Ph.D. 1946). He married Mary LeCron, a linguist anthropologist and research collaborator throughout his career. During the
1940s and 1950s, Foster held various teaching positions as well as contract consulting jobs in Latin America and Asia. His
work in Mexico led to his ethnographic research in the Tarascan village of Tzintzuntzan that would continue for half a century.
In 1953, Foster returned to Berkeley as a professor of anthropology where he mentored numerous graduate students and strongly
supported the Department of Anthropology and its Museum and Library, which was named in honor of George and Mary LeCron Foster.
He retired in 1979, but continued to travel, do research, and publish. During his long career, he was elected to the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as President of the American Anthropological
Association (1970). He received many awards including the Berkeley Citation and the Malinowski Award. Foster authored nearly
300 publications including books on theory, method and ethnography, such as
Empire's Children (1948),
Culture and Conquest (1960), and
Tzintzuntzan: Mexican Peasants in a Changing World (1967). He is recognized as the founder of medical anthropology, for his contributions on peasant societies, and his long-term
field research documenting societal change. He died at the age of 92 in 2006.
Scope and Content of Collection
The George McClelland Foster papers (1934-2005) consist of Foster's professional materials, which represent a prodigious career
in anthropology. The collection contains correspondence; consulting files from various agencies concerned with health and
development issues worldwide, such as the Agency for International Development, International Cooperative Administration,
and The World Health Organization. Foster's professional administrative records focus mainly on the American Anthropological
Association around 1970 during his term as President and include the Association's position on the Simon Fraser University
tenure case and professional ethical concerns in Thailand. Also included are numerous reprints and manuscript drafts of Foster's
writings; administration papers from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Anthropology Department during his Chairmanship,
consisting of correspondence and materials mainly relating to the faculty statement on the Ishi controversy; and teaching
course files from various teaching assignments. There are some biographical papers and information. The bulk of the collection
contains extensive research files primarily covering areas on medical anthropology; applied anthropology; the principle of
limited good; hot/cold theory (humoral medicine); field work in the village of Tzintzuntzan, Mexico which includes detailed
census data covering a span from 1945-2000, note cards and bibliographic information filed by subjects, interviews on cassette
tapes; and films on Tzinzuntzan, Popoluca, Oaxaca pottery, and Mexico in general (1940-1944).