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Thomas Buckley Papers Curriculum Vitae

Thomas Buckley, Ph.D.
2010

Back to the Thomas Buckley Papers

  • 1982  Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago.  Dissertation: "Yurok realities in the 19th and 20th Centuries."  Committee: Raymond D. Fogelson (Chair), Paul Friedrich, Michael Silverstein, Anne S. Straus.  Funding:  Fellowship, Danforth Foundation; grants-in-aid, Whatcom Museum Foundation.
  • 1977  A.M., Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago.  Thesis: Structure and meaning in Yurok world view.
  • 1975  A.B., Harvard University.  Major: Fine Arts, specialization in Asian art history.

Academic and Administrative Positions Held

  • 2003-pres.  Principle Consultant, Pole Star Cultural Services
  • 2003  Adjunct Lecturer in Religion, Bowdoin College
  • 2001  Early retirement, University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB)
  • 1997  Graduate Director, American Studies Program, UMB
  • 1995-2001  Associate Professor, Anthropology and American Studies, UMB
  • 1993  Visiting instructor, Boston University Medical School (psychiatry)
  • 1992-95  Chair, Department of Anthropology, UMB
  • 1991  Visiting instructor, Native American Studies, Humboldt State University
  • 1988-2001  Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Anthropology, UMB
  • 1986-88  Director, Linguistics Program, UMB
  • 1985  Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies and the Residential College, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
  • 1982-88  Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, UMB
  • 1980-82  Instructor, Department of Anthropology, UMB
  • 1979-80 Lecturer in Technical Writing, Department of English, The Pennsylvania State University
  • 1978  Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

Field Research

  • 1976  Archaeological reconnaisance, Anasazi sites, Utah.  Participant observation, Native American Church, New Mexico
  • 1976-2003  Long term intermittent ethnographic and linguistic field work, Yurok Indians, northwestern California:
    • 1976, language, narrative, politics, men's esoteric training;
    • 1978, above, plus women's personal ritual practices, curative practices;
    • 1981-84, death and dying, inheritance;
    • 1988-89, narrative, world renewal;
    • 1990-91, plus curing;
    • 1991, politics, world renewal;
    • 1994, conflict and resolution;
    • 2000, effects of federal acknowledgement and casino development;
    • 2003, Christian churches in native NW Calif.
  • 1993-pres.  Participant observation, North Atlantic Basin: maritime masculinities

Major Library and Archival Research

  • 1985  Anthropology of menstruation
  • 1986-89  History of Boasian anthropology
  • 2002-pres.  History and ethnography of seafaring in the North Atlantic Basin
  • 2005-pres.  Early colonial history of Mid-coast Maine

Grants and Awards

  • 1976-77  Departmental scholarship, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago
  • 1976, 78, 88  Research grants, Jacobs Research Funds, Whatcom Museum Foundation
  • 1977-81  Graduate Fellowship, The Danforth Foundation
  • 1980-99  Travel grants, College of Arts and Sciences, UMB
  • 1981  NIH biomedical research block grant participant
  • 1982, '84  Faculty Development research support grants, UMB
  • 1988  Healey Endowment Grant, UMB; Research grant, Phillips Fund, American Philosophical Society
  • 1997  Public Service Endowment Grant, UMB

Books

  • 1988  Buckley, Thomas, and Gottlieb, Alma, eds.  Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation.  Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.  (Choice Outstanding Book in Anthropology 1989; Council on Anthropology and Reproduction Most Enduring Edited Collection Prize 2002.)
  • 2002  Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990.  Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.  (Honorable mention, Victor Turner Prize, Society for Humanism and Anthropology, 2003.)

Scholarly Articles and Book Chapters

  • 1980  "Monsters and the quest for balance in native northwestern California."  In, Halpin, Marjorie, and Ames, Michael, eds., Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence.  Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.  Pp. 152-71.
  • 1982  "Menstruation and the power of Yurok women:  Methods in cultural reconstruction."  American Ethnologist 9(1):  47-60.
  • 1984  "Yurok speech registers and ontology."  Language in Society 13(4):  467-88.
  • 1986  Lexical transcription and archaeological interpretation: "A rock feature complex from northwestern California."  American Antiquity 51(3):  617-18.
  • 1987  "North American Religions:  California and the inter-mountain region."  In, Eliade, Mircea, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 10.  New York:  Macmillan.  Pp. 505-13.
  • 1987  "Dialogue and shared authority:  Informants as critics."  Central Issues in Anthropology 7(1):  13-23.
  • 1988  In Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation (above): "A critical appraisal of theories of menstrual symbolism" (with Alma Gottlieb, pp. 1-50); "Menstrual images, meanings, and values; The sociology of menstrual meanings; Exploratory directions: Menses, culture, and time" (section introductions, with Alma Gottlieb, pp. 51-53, 113-15, 183-85); "Menstruation and the power of Yurok women" (rewrite of 1982 article, pp. 187-209).
  • 1989  "The articulation of gender symmetry in Yuchi Indian culture." Semiotica 74(3-4): 289-311.
  • 1989  "California and the intermountain region."  In, Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed., Native American Religions:  North America. New York: Macmillan.  Pp. 75-88.  (Reprint of 1987 encyclopedia article.)
  • 1989  "Kroeber's theory of culture areas and the ethnology of northwest California." Anthropological Quarterly 61(2):  15-26.
  • 1989  "Suffering in the cultural construction of others:  Robert Spott and A. L. Kroeber." American Indian Quarterly 13(4):  437-45.
  • 1991  Kroeber, Alfred L.  In, Winters, Christopher, gen. ed., International Dictionary of Anthropologists, compiled by Library-Anthropology Resource Group.  New York: Garland Publishing.  Pp. 364-67.
  • 1992  Yurok doctors and the concept of "shamanism."  In, Bean, Lowell J., ed., California Indian Shamanism.  Menlo Park, CA:  Ballena Press.
  • 1994  "Yurok."  In, Davis, Mary B., ed, Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia.  New York: Garland.  Pp. 719-21.  With the Yurok Transition Team.
  • 1995  "Hamatsa, Indian Shaker Church, Prophet dance, totem, totem pole."  Harper's Dictionary of Religions.  San Francisco:  Harper & Row.
  • 1995  Buckley, Thomas, and Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley.  Response to E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley, "Crisis of conscience, riddle of identity: Making space for a cognitive approach to religious phenomena."  Journal of the American Academy of Religion LXI(201-23), 1993: 343-52.
  • 1996  "The pitiful history of little events: The epistemological and moral contexts of Kroeber's Californian ethnology, 1900-1915."  In, Stocking, George W., Jr., ed., History of Anthropology, Vol. 8: Volkengeist as Method and Ethics:  Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition.  Madison:  University of Wisconsin Press.  Pp. 257-297.
  • 1997  "The Shaker Church in Native northwestern California."  Native American Culture and Research Journal 21(1):  1-14.
  • 1999  "Comment."  Current Anthropology Forum on Anthropology in Public.  Current Anthropology 40 (2):  201-203.
  • 2000  "Renewal as Discourse and Discourse as Renewal in Native Northwestern California."  In, Sullivan, Lawrence, ed.  Native Religions and Cultures of North America.  New York: Compendium Books.  Pp. 33-52.
  • 2000  "Il rinnovamento come discorso e il discorso come rinnovamento tra i nativi della California nordoccidentale."  In, Sullivan, Lawrence E., ed., Culture e Religioni degli Indiani d'America.  Tratto di Anthropologia del Sacro 7.  Milano:  Editoriale Jaca Book SpA.  Pp. 163-180.  [Italian translation of 2000 book chapter, above.]
  • 2000  "The Shaker Church and the Indian Way in Native Northwestern California."  In Irwin, Lee, ed. American Indian Spirituality:  A Critical Reader.  University of Nebraska Press. Pp. 256-269.  [Reprint of 1997 journal article.]
  • 2001  "Adopting outsiders on the lower Klamath River."  In Sergei Kan, ed., Strangers and Kin:  Adoptions and Namings of Anthropologists by Native Americans , University of Nebraska Press.  Pp. 159-74.
  • 2006  "Native authorship in northwestern California."  In, Kan, Sergei A., and Strong, Pauline T., eds.  New Perspectives on Native North America: Culture, History, and Representations.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • 2007  "Introduction," in DuBois, Cora, The 1870 Ghost Dance.  Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.  Pp. ix-xix. 

Journalism and Literature

  • 1979  Doing your thinking: Aspects of traditional Yurok education.  Parabola 4(4): 28-37.
  • 1979  Myth and prophecy.  Parabola 6(1): 87-90.
  • 1979  Religion and realpolitik:  American Indian sacred lands.  Anthropology Resource Center Newsletter 5(4): 1.
  • 1982  Primitive art.  The Mass Media 23: 21
  • 1983  Stopping the GO-Road.  The Global Reporter 1(3): 16.
  • 1984  Living in the distance.  Parabola 9(3): 64-79.
  • 1985  Anger.  Parabola 10(4): 5-6.
  • 1985  Nothing special.  Parabola 10(1): 96.
  • 1987  Yurok houses.  News from Native California 1(3): 10-11.
  • 1988  World renewal.  Parabola 13(2): 82-91.
  • 1988  Doing your thinking.  In, Dooling, D. M., and Jordan-Smith,Paul, eds., I Become Part of It: Sacred Dimensions in Native Amerlcan Life.  New York: Parabola Books.  Pp. 36-56.  (Reprint of 1979 essay.)
  • 1989  World renewal.  Onaway 46: 36-39, 42.  (Reprint of 1988 essay.)
  • 1991  The one who flies all around the world.  Parabola 16(1): 4-9.
  • 1991  Fixing the world.  In, Holder, Jon, ed., Gary Snyder: Dimensions of a Life. San Francisco:  Sierra Club Books.  Pp. 411-15.
  • 1993  "Poem on my 55th Birthday" and "South Miami" (two poems).  Mangrove 5(1): 128-30.
  • 2001  "Why did you" (poem), in Mary Zoll, ed., Ricky.  W. Newton, Mass:  privately printed.
  • 2003  "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Norman Mailer" (poem).  The 365 Project.
  • 2003  Dancing with Davey, A Sailor's Tale.  Newport News, Virginia: MariahBooks.com. (poetry chapbook).
  • 2009  "Doing your thinking" (1979) and "World renewal" (1988)  Two essays reprinted in Hogan, Linda, ed., The Inner Journey: Views from Native Traditions."  Sandpoint, ID: Morning Light Press.

Book Reviews

  • 1981  The Ohlone Way and The Way We Lived: California Indian Reminiscences, Stories and Songs, by Malcolm Margolin.  (Two books.).  Parabola 7(3): 120-24.
  • 1981  The paradox of conquest: The influence of Native Americans (review essay.) Parabola 7(3): 90-96.
  • 1983  Chilula: People from the Ancient Redwoods, by Robert G. Lake, Jr.  Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 10(1): 400-403.
  • 1984  Belief and Worship in Native North America, by Åke Hultkranz.  Ethnohistory 31(2): 139-41.
  • 1984  Our Home Forever: A Hupa Tribal History, by Byron Nelson, Jr.  American Indian Quarterly 8(2): 129-130.
  • 1984  The Sacred Path: Spells, Prayers & Power Songs of the American Indians, John Bierhorst, ed.  Parabola 9(2): 123-24.
  • 1985  The Unborn: The Life and Teaching of Zen Master Bankei, Norman Waddell, ed., and The Mind of Clover, by Robert Aitken.  Parabola 10(2): 90-94.
  • 1986  Being straight with the medicine.  (Review essay.)  Parabola 11(1): 92-99.
  • 1986  Hultkranz and Vecsey's replies: A rejoinder.  Ethnohistory 33(1): 87-88.
  • 1988 Material Culture of the Chumash Interaction Sphere, Vol. IV:  Ceremonial Paraphernalia, Games, and Amusements, by Travis Hudson and Thomas C. Blackburn.  Ethnohistory 35(1): 85-87.
  • 1989  From the Land of the Totem Poles:  The Northwest Coast Indian Art Collection at the American Museum of Natural History, by Aldona Jonaitis.  Parabola 13(4): 112-16.
  • 1989  Native American Religious Action: A Performance Approach to Religion, and Mother Earth:  An American Story, by Sam D. Gill. (Two books.)  History of Religions 28(4): 355-59.
  • 1989  The Book of Balance and Harmony, translated and with an introduction by Thomas Cleary.  Parabola 14(4): 102-08.
  • 1992  Anikadel:  An Achumawi History of the Universe.  C. Hart Merriam, trans. and ed.  Native American Culture and Research Journal 16(3):186-190.
  • 1993  To The American Indian, by Lucy Thompson.  Ethnohistory 40(3):
  • 1994  History of Anthropology, Vol. 7: Colonial Situations:  Essays on the Contextualization of Ethnographic Knowledge.  George W. Stocking, Jr., ed.  Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 30: 53-56.
  • 1998  The Heiltsuks, by Michael Harkin.  American Ethnologist 25 (3): 252-53.
  • 2003  Religion and Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspective, ed. by Stephen Ellingson and  M.Christian Green.  Journal of Anthropological Research 59: 413-15.
  • 2004  Ishi in Three Centuries, Karl Kroeber and Clifton Kroeber, eds.  Ethnohistory 51(3): 653-65.
  • 2005  Rolling in Ditches with Shamans, by Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz.  Ethnohistory 52/4:791-92.
  • in press  Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity Among the Indians of Northwestern California, by Sean O'Neill.  Anthropological Linguistics [journal publication delayed].

Courses Taught

  • Boston University Medical School:  Psychiatry in Cross-cultural Perspective (graduate)
  • Bowdoin College: American Indian Spirituality
  • Humboldt State University:  Native American Philosophy
  • Pennsylvania State University:  Technical Writing
  • University of Massachusetts, Boston:  Anthropology of Educational Administration (graduate); Anthropology of Religion; Community, Gender and Self; Culture and Human Behavior; Cultural Theory (graduate); Ethnography and Literature; Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Language and Culture; Men in America; Myth in Cultural Context; Native Americans: Contemporary Issues; New England Indian Cultures and History; North American Indians
  • The University of Chicago: World View
  • University of North Carolina, Greensboro: Introduction to Religious Studies; Non-Western Influences on Western Cultures

Recognition for Teaching

  • 1984  Fellow, Society for Values in Higher Education
  • 1987  Ford Foundation Teaching Fellow
  • 1992  Invited participant, Ford Foundation Seminar on the Improvement of Teaching
  • 1998  Seminar Leader, Center for the Improvement of Teaching, UMB

Selected External Service

  • 1976  Paid consultant, USDA Forest Service (Yurok Indian religion and land use)
  • 1978  Expert Witness, Bureau of Indian Affairs Court (Yurok and Hupa Indian religion and fishing practices); Paid ethnographic consultant, Theodoratus Cultural Research, Inc.  (Yurok Indian religion and land use)
  • 1981  Paid consultant, Bucknell University Committee on General Education
  • 1982-89  Consulting Editor, Parabola
  • 1983  Qualified as Expert Witness, 9th District Federal Court (Yurok Indian sacred sites)
  • 1985  Consultant pro bono, Western North Carolina Alliance (Cherokee Indian religion)
  • 1989-90  Member, Nominations Committee, American Society for Ethnohistory
  • 1990  Consultant pro bono, Yurok Transition Team (reservation history)
  • 1993  Consultant pro bono, Save Mount Shasta (Native northern Californian sacred sites)
  • 1994  Paid consultant, review of baccalaureate program in Anthropology, SUNY Brockport
  • 1994- pres.  Paid consultant, Independent Producers Services (film)
  • 1995  Paid Consultant, Thornton W. Burgess Society (cultural geography of Cape Cod)
  • 2003  Consultant pro bono, The Frank W. Benson Museum (art museum planning, Salem, Mass.)
  • 2004-pres.  Consultant pro bono, The Virginia Project/Maine's first Ship (ethnohistory, Phippsburg, Maine)

Unpublished Consulting Reports

  • 1976  The High Country: A summary of new data relating to the significance of certain properties in the belief systems of northwestern California Indians.  In, Leisz, D., ed., DES: Gasquet-Orleans Road, Chimney Rock Section, Six Rivers National Forest.  San Francisco: USDA Forest Service.  Appendix M.  Duplicated.
  • 1982  Reply to Miller.  FES: Chimney Rock Section, Six Rivers National Forest.  San Francisco: USDA Forest Service. Appendix H.  Duplicated.
  • 1990  American Sign Language at UMass/Boston: Review and recommendations.  CAS Senate Academic Affairs Committee.  Duplicated.
  • 1994  Comment in response to Federal Register Announcement 59(168), 8/31/94: National Park Service, Mt. Shasta Historic District:  Determination of Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places.  Duplicated.
  • 2003  Frank W. Benson Museum: Planning Document 1.  Duplicated.

Selected Papers

  • 1978    Sacred sites as commodities: Federal definition of "cultural resources."  Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), Los Angeles, CA.  (Invited.)
  • 1979    Menstruation and the power of women in northwestern California.  AAA, Cincinnati, OH.
  • 1980    Yurok definitions of the human being.  AAA, Washington, DC.  (Invited.)
  • 1981    Methods in cultural reconstruction: Semantic shifting in Yurok.  Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Anthropological Association, Saratoga Springs, NY.  (Invited.)
  • 1982    Lessons at home: Reflexivity and location of the interpreter.  AAA, Washington, DC.
  • 1983    Temporal metaphor in a Yurok ritual.  Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society, Cleveland, OH.
  • 1984    The objectification of culture and cultural survival in northwestern California.  Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society, Pacific Grove, CA.  (Invited.)
  • 1985    "Kroeber was a German": Informants as critics in native North America.  Annual Meeting of the Central States Anthropological Society, Louisville, KY.
  • 1985    On the informant as teacher.  AAA, Washington, DC.
  • 1987    Suffering as a feature in the construction of others.  AAA, Chicago, IL.  (Invited.)
  • 1988    A. L. Kroeber's theory of culture areas.  California Indian Conference, Berkeley, CA.  (Invited.)
  • 1989    World Renewal as discourse.  AAA, Washington, DC.  (Invited.)
  • 1990    Healing in Native northwestern California.  Annual Meeting, Northeastern Anthropological Association (NEAA), Burlington, VT.
  • 1990    Yurok Indian equivalents of Christian theology.  Annual Meeting, American Society for Ethnohistory, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  (Invited.)
  • 1992    Visual representations of the Yurok Indian Jump Dance.  Plenary session, NEAA, Bridgewater, MA.
  • 1995    Shamanism and suffering.  California Indian Conference, Los Angeles
  • 1995    Inlaws and outlaws: Adoption in Yurok Indian society.  AAA, Washington, DC.  (Invited.)
  • 1996    "Ethno-ethnohistory" revisited: Native American authors in northwestern California.  AAA, San Francisco.  (Invited.)
  • 1997    Love, rage and grief in salvage ethnography.  Annual Meeting, American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE), Mexico City.  (Invited.)
  • 1999    Writing "The Yurok Book."  AAA, Chicago.  (Invited.)
  • 2003    Seamen's Lives in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  ASE, Los Angeles.
  • 2005    Blue wave.  AAA, Washington, DC.  (Invited.)

Selected Invited Lectures

  • 1977    Monsters and the quest for balance in Native northwestern California.  University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
  • 1978    Yurok salmon fishing as a whole-system.  Farallones Institute, Los Altos, CA.
  • 1979    Explanation and understanding in the anthropological study of religion.  The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.
  • 1980    American Indian thought.  Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA.
  • 1980    Sacred geography and cross-cultural communication.  Bucknell University.
  • 1980    Speech registers in Yurok:  Semantic shifting as metaphysical exegesis.  Reed College, Portland, OR.
  • 1981    Yurok Indian prayer places.  American Museum of Natural History, New York.
  • 1983    Yurok women and the progress of cultural anthropology.  University of Wisconsin, Madison.
  • 1984    Blood magic:  A critical appraisal of theories of menstrual symbolism.  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
  • 1984    Religion and the moral context of anthropological understanding.  University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
  • 1984    Yurok speech registers and ontology.  University of Texas, Austin.
  • 1985    "Self" and "person" reconsidered:  The Yurok case.  University of Illinois, Urbana.
  • 1986    Intellectual work as practice.  Callipeplon Society, Muir Beach, CA.
  • 1988    Informants as anthropologists' critics.  International Summer Institute for Structural and Semiotic Studies.  University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
  • 1989    The anthropology of suffering.  Callipeplon Society.
  • 1989    World renewal as discourse.  Brandeis University, Waltham, MA.
  • 1990    The Shaker church and the Indian Way in northwestern California.  Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
  • 1990    Yurok Indian "high doctors."  California State University at Hayward.
  • 1991    Shamanism and the problem of suffering.  Major Association, Oslo, Norway.
  • 1992    Native American self-representation in art.  Clayton State College, Clayton, GA.
  • 1993    Alfred Kroeber and the representation of California Indians:  Kroeber's ethnology, 1900-1915.  Dartmouth College.
  • 1993    Four lectures on shamanism.  Gaustad Sykehus, Oslo, Norway.
  • 1994    Almost whose ancestors?  Ishi, Alfred Kroeber, Theodora Kroeber and the Representation of California Indians.  The Oakland Museum, Oakland, Calif.
  • 1997    "The sacred" in NAGPRA protocols.  University of Chicago.
  • 2003    Self and "others" in ethnographic fieldwork.  Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA.
  • 2005    Lives aren't simply given.  Dartmouth College.
  • 2006    Wabanaki culture and history.  Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME.
  • 2007    Wabanaki and English histories, 1492-1606.  Maine Maritime Museum.
  • 2008    Mixed crews and seamen's lives in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Maine Maritime Museum.