Scope and Contents note

Photographs assembled circa 1942-1948, probably as part of the Strategic Index of Latin America, and relating to people and scenery in Latin America. They depict transportation, irrigation, agriculture and industry (including rubber production), cities and villages, and archeological finds. The prints are arranged geographically into the following locations: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, British Guiana, British Honduras, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Leeward Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, and Windward Islands. The photographs were copied from published sources (originals circa 1850s-1940s) and are individually labeled with source information and original captions.

Biographical/Historical note

George Peter Murdock (1897-1985) was an anthropologist of comparative ethnology. Educated at Yale, he received a BA in History (1919) and PhD in Sociology (1925). He taught sociology and anthropology at the University of Maryland for two years before returning to Yale in 1928 as an assistant professor of physical anthropology. In 1931, Murdock was granted a joint appointment with Yale's newly formed anthropology department, in which he served as department chair (1938-1960) and full professor (1939-1960). During his time at Yale, Murdock embarked on his most notable project, the Cross Cultural Survey in 1937. Positioned within the Institute of Human Relations, the CCS was a catalog of anthropological data, indexed according to Murdock's Outline of Cultural Materials (1938) to enable quick reference of cultures and analyses of a unified theory of behavior. During the Second World War, the Strategic Index of Latin America, an auxiliary arm of the CCS, was created to focus on Latin American cultural questions and strategic decision making. After the war, the CCS was reorganized by a consortium of universities as the Human Relations Area Files, with Murdock at the head. Murdock left Yale in 1960 and served as Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh until 1973.

Location of Other Archival Materials

The National Anthropological Archives also holds Murdock's Pacific Survey File.

Location of Other Archival Materials

Correspondence with Murdock held in the National Anthropological Archives in MS 7027, MS 4821, American Ethnological Society records, Handbook of South American Indians Records, and collections of personal papers.

Contained in

Numbered manuscripts 1850s-1980s (some earlier)