Virginia Heyer Young papers
name: label: Creator
content: Young, Virginia Heyer
place: label: Place
content: St. Vincent
label: Place
content: Georgia
label: Place
content: New York City
topic: label: Topic
content: Women anthropologists
creator: label: Creator
content: Young, Virginia Heyer
culture: label: Culture
content: African Americans
label: Culture
content: Chinese Americans
label: Culture
content: Hungarian Americans
label: Culture
content: West Indians
setName: label: See more items in
content: Virginia Heyer Young papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Virginia Heyer Young's papers document her research among African-American and Chinese-American communities in the United States as well as her field work in St. Vincent in the Caribbean.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Virginia Heyer Young was born April 28, 1926 in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in Tarrytown, New York.

Young received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1946 and her PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1953. At Columbia, she studied under Ruth Benedict. Young became part of Benedict's and Margaret Mead's project on minority and immigrant groups in the US, entitled "Research in Contemporary Cultures."

In the 1940s and 1950s, Young studied politican organization and intergenerational structures in New York's Chinatown, and in the 1970s she researched socialization in African American groups in Georgia and in Harlem.

In the 1980s she studied the relationship of individuals to the polity among Afro-Caribbean people on the island of St. Vincent in the British Caribbean, resulting in a book, Becoming West Indian: Culture, Self, and Nation in St. Vincent, published in 1993 by the Smithsonian Institution Press.

In 2005, she published an analysis of Benedict's work entitled Ruth Benedict: Beyond Relativity, Beyond Pattern. 

Virginia Heyer Young died at home in Albemarle County, Virginia on September 11, 2014.

Chronology

1926 April 28 -- Born in Vancouver, British Columbia

1946 -- A.B. Sarah Lawrence College

1947-1950 -- Research Assistant, Columbia (Research in Contemporary Cultures Project, Chinese Culture Group)

1951 -- Fieldwork in Chinatown, New York

1952-1954 -- Research Associate, George Washington University

1953 -- Ph.D. Columbia University (Anthropology)

1955-1956 -- Research Associate, Cornell (Yorkville Community Mental Health Research Project)

1955-1956 -- Fieldwork with Hungarian-born Immigrants in New York

1957-1963 -- "Unemployed during child-raising" (her CV).

1961-1963 -- Fieldwork with African-American communities in Georgia, USA

1963-1964 -- Instructor in Anthropology, Fairleigh Dickinson University

1964-1975 -- Faculty, Finch College, NY

1969 -- Fieldwork in Harlem, New York

1972 -- Fieldwork in Windward Valley, St. Vincent, West Indies

1977-1978 -- Research Associate, Columbia (Program on Gender Roles and Social Change)

1978-1995 -- Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Virginia

1984, 1986 -- Fieldwork in Windward Valley, St. Vincent, West Indies

2002-2003 -- Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Virginia

2014, September 11 -- Died in Albemarle County, Virginia
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.24 Linear feet (3 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1946-1998
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.2010-14
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The Virginia Heyer Young papers are divided into 4 series:

Series 1: Chinese and Hungarians in New York City, 1949-1955

Series 2: African-Americans in Georgia, 1961-1963

Series 3: St. Vincent, West Indies, 1972-1986

Series 4: Ruth Benedict's Lectures, 1946-1948 and 1990s
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: File order and titles have been maintained when possible. Loose photos were arranged by rough date and theme.

Processed and encoded by Celia Emmelhainz, October 2022.
bibliography: label: Selected Bibliography
content: 1953. "Patterns of Social Organization in New York City's Chinatown." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University. 

1953. "Relations Between Men and Women in Chinese Stories." In The Study of Culture at a Distance, edited by Margaret Mead and Rhoda Metraux, 221-234. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

1970. "Family and Childhood in a Southern Negro Community." American Anthropologist 72: 269-288. 

1974. "A Black American Socialization Pattern," American Ethnologist 1: 405-413. 

1990. "Household Structure in a West Indian Society," Social and Economic Studies, 39(3): 147-179. 

1993. Becoming West Indian: Culture, Self and Nation in St. Vincent. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

2005. Ruth Benedict: Beyond Relativity, Beyond Pattern. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

2006. "Benedict and Mead at Columbia: A Student Looks Back." In Living Legacies at Columbia, edited by William Theodore de Bary. New York: Columbia University Press.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Virginia Heyer Young papers document her research among minority communities in the United States (including African-Americans in Georgia and Chinese-Americans in New York), as well as interviews, journals, and logs from her field work in St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. 


Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.