A Guide to the Charles Wagley Papers

Finding aid prepared by Dept. Staff

University of Florida Smathers Libraries - Special and Area Studies Collections

August 2004

Descriptive Summary
	Creator:	Wagley, Charles, 1913-
	Creator:	Galvão, Eduardo Enéas.
	Title:	Charles Wagley Papers
	Dates:	1937-1965
	Abstract:	The Wagley Papers document anthropological field work in the cultures of South America, especially Guatemala and Brazil.
	Extent:	5.2 Linear feet. 12 boxes.
	Identification:	Ms Coll. 002
	Language(s):	English
		Items from this collection have been digitized and are available online in the UF Digital Collections. For more information please see the note below.

Biographical/Historical Note

Charles Wagley was born November 9, 1913 at Clarksville, Texas. He received his doctorate from Columbia University in 1941. He served as Professor of Anthropology, Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. He was a staff member of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs, Brazilian Field Party and held several positions, including directorships, with various programs to the Brazilian-American Public Health Service. He worked with the Guggenheim Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and was the Graduate Research Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. In 1982-1983 he was named the University of Florida's Teacher/Scholar of the Year.

Dr. Wagley spent months living and doing research with the Tapirape and in 1977 published Welcome of Tears; the Tapirape Indians of Central Brazil as a result of his research. Contained in the collection are translations of Herbert Baldus' articles on the Tapirape plus transcripts of the 1941 Seminar on Culture and Personality. This seminar took place at Columbia University and was directed by Abraham Kardiner and Ralph Linten. Dr. Wagley was fresh from studying the Tapirape Indians when he took part in these discussions. During World War II, the United States government and the Brazilian public health agency, SESP, implemented health education programs in the Amazon region. Dr. Wagley supervised the publication of pamphlets and production of slide programs on public health funded by these agencies. The novelist, Dalcidio Jurandir, who collaborated with Dr. Wagley on these programs, had served as secretary to the municipal government of a small riverine community called Gurupa. Jurandir suggested that the educational materials be tried there, and consequently, Dr. Wagley and his team visited Gurupa several times. This was Dr. Wagley's first contact with the region. After the war, when Dr. Wagley was Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology at Columbia, a Brazilian colleague, Eduardo Galvao who had conducted research among the Tentehara Indians of Brazil, became Dr. Wagley's first doctoral student. In 1948, they went to Gurupa for research, accompanied by their wives, Cecilia Toxo Wagley and Clara Galvao. The four spent the months from June to September in the town. Two major works resulted: Amazon Town by Charles Wagley and The Religion of an Amazon Community by Eduardo Galvao. These books were published in Portuguese as Uma Communidade Amazonica and Santos e Visagens.

Scope and Content

This collection contains field notes, maps, drawings, correspondence, publications, and photographs of three research projects undertaken by Dr. Charles Wagley between 1937 and 1965. The earliest research project documented in the collection took place in Guatemala in 1938. Very little is known about this project and the field notes are not sorted.

The bulk of the Tapirape research took place in 1939-1940 although Dr. Wagley also returned in 1953, 1957 and 1965. Field notes for the 1939-40, 1957 and 1965 visits are a part of the collection. Information from both the Tapirape and Gurupa field notebooks has been typed onto cards that are filed by subject and keyed back to the handwritten books. The cards in both project files are arranged alphabetically by English or Portuguese language subject. Within the subject areas the cards are arranged by author (in the case of Gurupa only) and then by notebook number and page. The following is the key to the author designations on the Gurupa cards:

Access or Use Restrictions

Access

The collection is open for research. The user is asked to treat with special care the notebooks and unsorted notes. They are brittle and therefore very fragile.

Administrative Information

Alternate Form of Material

Digital reproductions of items in this collection are available online via the University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC). Please read the Permissions for Use statement for information on copyright, fair use, and use of UFDC digital objects.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Charles Wagley Papers, University Archives, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

Acquisition Information

The Papers were donated to the University Archives by Charles Wagley.

In 2018, 55 photographs of Dr. Wagley's retirement party were brought to University Archives and were added to this collection in 2019.

Selected Subjects and Access Terms

Anthropology.
Brazil -- Gurupá (Pará).
Brazil.
Indians of South America.
photographs
Tapirapé Indians.

For further information, please contact: Special Collections Access Services.

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