Melville Jacobs facts for kids
Melville Jacobs (born July 3, 1902 – died July 31, 1971) was an American anthropologist. Anthropologists study human societies and cultures. Jacobs was famous for his detailed work with different cultures in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
He was born in New York City. After studying with a well-known anthropologist named Franz Boas, Jacobs joined the University of Washington in 1928. He worked there until he passed away in 1971. Early in his career, from 1928 to 1936, he collected a lot of information about languages. These included Sahaptin, Molale, Kalapuya, Clackamas, Tillamook, Alsea, Upper Umpqua, Galice, and Chinook Jargon.
Melville Jacobs was married to Elizabeth Jacobs (anthropologist), who was also an anthropologist.
Preserving Cultures and Languages
Melville Jacobs left money to create the Jacobs Research Fund. This fund helps support new research about people and cultures in the Pacific Northwest. His notes and recordings, which include a lot of original language material, are kept at the University of Washington in the Jacobs Archive. This information has been very important for studying languages that no longer have speakers today.
In 2019, a special collection of his work was chosen by the Library of Congress. It was added to the National Recording Registry. This means the collection, called "Melville Jacobs Collection of Native Americans of the American Northwest (1929-1939)," is considered very important for its cultural, historical, or artistic value.
His Published Works
Melville Jacobs wrote many books and articles about his research. Here are some of his important works:
- A Sketch of Northern Sahaptin Grammar (1931)
- Notes on the Structure of Chinook Jargon (1932)
- Northwest Sahaptin Texts, I (1934)
- Texts in Chinook Jargon (1936)
- Northwest Sahaptin Texts, II (1937)
- Coos Narrative and Ethnologic Texts (1939)
- Coos Myth Texts (1940)
- Historic Perspectives in Indian Languages of Oregon and Washington (1941)
- Kalapuya Texts (1945)
- Outline of Anthropology (1947)
- General Anthropology; A Brief Survey of Physical, Cultural, and Social Anthropology (1952)
- Clackamas Chinook Texts (1959)
- The People are Coming Soon; Analyses of Clackamas Chinook Myths and Tales (1960)
- Pattern in Cultural Anthropology (1964)
- The Anthropologist Looks at Myth (1966)
