Collection Manuscript/Mixed Material Rhoda Métraux papers,

Title

• Rhoda Métraux papers,

Summary

• Correspondence, lectures, interview transcripts, writings, reports, proposals, field diaries, field notes and notebooks, questionnaires, statistical analyses, projective testing materials, artwork and drawings, maps, photographs, and other papers relating to Métraux's career as an anthropologist and her professional and personal relationship with anthropologist Margaret Mead. Documents her fieldwork in Haiti, Montserrat, and in Papua New Guinea among the Iatmul of Tambunam village in the Middle Sepic River region where Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead had conducted fieldwork in 1938. Includes copies of Bateson-Mead 1938 field records with annotations by Métraux. Also includes material pertaining to her explorations into the ethnology of Caribbean peasant cultures; the complexities of cultural imagery; relevance of cultural patterning for psychotherapy; uses of projective testing; the study of national character including those of China, France, Germany, and the United States; material from her work during World War II with the Office of Strategic Services on German civilian morale; data and notes on the psychosocial and medical stress of Chinese immigrants living in New York in the 1950s; her postwar work with the Research in Contemporary Cultures project at Columbia University in the 1950s; and her longtime association with the American Museum of Natural History. Projects documented include the Image of the Scientist survey conducted by Mead and Métraux. The files include elementary school essays and drawings and responses to interviews and questionnaires by high school and college students and adults in the United States and Canada providing the popular reaction to the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in October 1957. Other projects include the Allopsychic Orientation project (circa 1959) in which the two investigated differing perceptions of space, time, and the unknown; and the Cultural Structure of Imagery project (1965) in which Métraux explored the cultural differences in communication evident in body motion, music, and speech. Subjects also include adoption, higher education, clerical and lay attitudes toward race, Mexican food habits, outdoor recreation, popular attitudes toward science, and regional planning.
• Individuals and organizations represented include Theodora Mead Abel, Gregory Bateson, Jane Belo, Ruth Benedict, Edith Cobb, Luther S. Cressman, Kenneth P. Emory, Reo Fortune, Max Gluckman, Geoffrey Gorer, M. Inez Hilger, Margaret Lowenfeld, William E. Mitchell; family members Annamarie Bubendey Epple, Alfred Métraux, Daniel Alfred Metraux, and Guy S. Métraux; and the Institute for Intercultural Studies. Includes material pertaining to the child rearing of her son Daniel Alfred Metraux.

Names

• Métraux, Rhoda, 1914-2003

Headings

• -  Abel, Theodora Mead,--1899-1998
• -  Bateson, Gregory,--1904-1980
• -  Belo, Jane,--1904-1968
• -  Benedict, Ruth,--1887-1948
• -  Cobb, Edith,--1895-1977
• -  Cressman, Luther S.,--1897-1994
• -  Emory, Kenneth P.,--1897-1992
• -  Epple, Annamarie Bubendey
• -  Fortune, Reo,--1903-1979
• -  Gluckman, Max,--1911-1975
• -  Gorer, Geoffrey,--1905-1985
• -  Hilger, M. Inez--(Mary Inez),--1891-1977
• -  Lowenfeld, Margaret,--1890-1973
• -  Mead, Margaret,--1901-1978
• -  Métraux, Alfred,--1902-1963
• -  Metraux, Daniel Alfred
• -  Métraux, Guy S.--(Guy Serge)
• -  Mitchell, William E
• -  United States.--Office of Strategic Services
• -  American Museum of Natural History
• -  Institute for Intercultural Studies
• -  Research in Contemporary Cultures
• -  Adoption
• -  Anthropological linguistics
• -  Anthropology
• -  Anthropology--Research--Haiti
• -  Anthropology--Research--Montserrat
• -  Anthropology--Research--Papua New Guinea
• -  Astronautics--Social aspects--Canada
• -  Astronautics--Social aspects--United States
• -  Astronautics--Soviet Union
• -  Body language
• -  Child rearing
• -  Chinese--New York (State)--New York
• -  Education, Higher
• -  Ethnology
• -  Ethnology--Caribbean Area
• -  Ethnology--Haiti
• -  Ethnology--Montserrat
• -  Ethnology--Papua New Guinea
• -  Ethnology--Sepik River Valley (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea)
• -  Food habits--Mexico
• -  Iatmul (Papua New Guinean people)
• -  Imagery (Psychology)
• -  Immigrants--New York (State)
• -  Music and anthropology
• -  National characteristics, American
• -  National characteristics, Chinese
• -  National characteristics, French
• -  National characteristics, German
• -  Outdoor recreation
• -  Patterning therapy
• -  Peasants--Caribbean Area
• -  Perception
• -  Projective techniques
• -  Race relations
• -  Race relations--Religious aspects
• -  Regional planning
• -  Science--Social aspects--Canada
• -  Science--Social aspects--United States
• -  Scientists
• -  Space perception
• -  Space race
• -  Sputnik satellites
• -  Time perception
• -  World War, 1939-1945--Germany--Psychological aspects
• -  Caribbean Area--Social life and customs
• -  Haiti--Social life and customs
• -  Montserrat--Social life and customs
• -  Papua New Guinea--Social life and customs
• -  New York (N.Y.)--Emigration and immigration--Psychological aspects

Notes

• -  Arranged in two parts composed of twelve series.
• -  Part I arranged in five series. Series 1: General Correspondence, 1933-1980; Series 2: Subject File, 1905-1980; Series 3: Projects, 1936-1971; Series 4: Lectures and Writings, 1938-1980; and Series 5: Oversize, 1938-1969.
• -  Part II arranged in seven series. Series 1: General Correspondence, 1922-1994; Series 2: Subject File, 1894-1994; Series 3: Projects, 1837-1985; Series 4: Writings File, 1932-1993; Series 5: Personal File, 1935-1997; Series 6: Classified, 1943-1944; and Series 7: Oversize, 1938-1974.
• -  Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number or digital ID number, Rhoda Métraux Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• -  Gift, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux and her son Daniel Alfred Metraux, 1980-2005.
• -  Related collection: Margaret Mead papers and South Pacific Ethnographic Archives. Available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
• -  Audio recordings and films transferred to Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.
• -  Anthropologist and author; born Rhoda Bubendey.
• -  Collection material in English.
• -  Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms008041
• -  Items transferred from the Margaret Mead Papers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division in 1996.

Medium

• 90,000 items.
• 802 digital files (2.2 MB).
• 223 containers plus 21 oversize and 1 classified.
• 101 linear feet.

Repository

• Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA dcu http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.home

Library of Congress Control Number

• mm95083228

Access Advisory

• Open to research; other restrictions apply. Contact the Manuscript Reading Room for further information.
• Classified, in part.
• Digital content in the Rhoda Métraux papers available in the Manuscript Reading Room and onsite at the Library of Congress via a Stacks terminal at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms008041stacks.mss83228 Contact the Manuscript Reading Room in advance regarding access.

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/mm95083228

Additional Metadata Formats

• MARCXML Record
• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record