Frederica de Laguna

Frederica ("Freddy") Annis Lopez de Leo de Laguna (October 3, 1906 – October 6, 2004) was an American ethnologist, anthropologist, and archaeologist, as well as the author of two detective novels and a history-oriented book for young readers. She was from 1966 to 1967 president of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). She was elected in 1969 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and in 1975 a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Quotes

• There are a number of ways in which archeology may relate to ethnology, but in any given area it may not be possible to trace such connections fully. Ideally, of course, the archeology of a people should enable the anthropologist to trace the record of the culture back into the stages temporally prior to those which can be explored through ethnological techniques or historical records. Admittedly the archeological data, even under conditions of maximum preservation and most skillful excavation, will never give the complete outline of a culture. At best the picture would be equivalent to that which the ethnologist might see if he visited a village from which the inhabitants had precipitately fled, abandoning all their possessions. But such a complete inventory of material items, in associations reflecting technological processes, economic activities, social organization and other nonmaterial aspects of life, is something to which the archeologist may aspire in vain.
  • The Story of a Tlingit Community: A Problem in the Relationship Between Archeological, Ethnological, and Historical Methods. Volume 172 of Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology), Issue 250 of House Document. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1960. p. 1.  (254 pages)

The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska (1934)

• While in Prince William Sound we made four camping trips with skiff and outboard motor, visiting Alaganik on the Copper River and sites in the Sound from Hinchinbrook Island to Gravina Bay. The Kittiwake gave us several lifts, and in August the Chugach took us for a ten-day cruise around the Sound, stopping at Tatitlik, Valdez, Chenega, and other villages where we had an opportunity to talk to the natives, and also touching at a few of the ancient village sites on our route.
  • The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska. Anniversary Collection. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2017. p. 8. ISBN 9781512815474.  (230 pages; 1st edition 1934; with a chapter by Bruno Oetteking)

• Cook Inlet is a drowned river valley in a plain of partly indurated sands and clays of Eocene age, known as the Kenai formation.
  • p. 11

Voyage to Greenland (1977)

• I saw several dogskins hung up to dry. On account of the scarcity of caribou and polar bears, the Greenlanders have to use dogskins for their winter furs. The dogs have fine thick fur, but nothing to compare with that of bears and caribou.
  • Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation Into Anthropology. Waveband Press. 1995. p. 53. ISBN 9780881338546.  (265 pages; 1st edition 1977 published by Norton & Company)

• The ground was thawed to a depth of thirty centimeters. For the rough work of clearing the ground the men used spades and a pickaxe, but as soon as the real excavation began Mathiassen produced the geological spades with little blades, which were better for the more delicate work.
  • p. 119

About Frederica de Laguna

• I always found Freddie the quintessential Boasian, when I was a student and I still do and I said that in my flagship obituary of her. She does not like Franz Boas. She does not state her conclusion but leaves the reader to draw the point. <...> And she resented throughout her life the fact that she was never elected to the American Philosophical Society.
  • Regna Darnell

External links

• Fitzhugh, William W., Frederica de Laguna 1906-2004. Biographical Memoirs. Washington, D.C: National Academy of Sciences. 2013.