MS 2004-07 David Efron Gesture Research
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: NAA MS 2004-07
name: label: Creator
content: Efron, David, 1904-
label: Creator
content: Van Veen, Stuyvesant
place: label: Place
content: New York (N.Y.)
topic: label: Topic
content: Gesture
label: Topic
content: Anthropological linguistics
label: Topic
content: Immigrants
label: Topic
content: Language and languages -- Documentation
creator: label: Creator
content: Efron, David, 1904-
label: Creator
content: Van Veen, Stuyvesant
culture: label: Culture
content: Italians -- United States
label: Culture
content: Jews, Lithuanian
setName: label: See more items in
content: MS 2004-07 David Efron Gesture Research
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: A student of Franz Boas, David Efron conducted his gesture study to examine differences in the gestural repertoire of different neighboring immigrant communities, as well as the effect of assimilation on the range of gestures used by their first generation descendants. Efron's demonstration of the cultural basis of gestural style challenged Nazi "scientific" claims that gestural style was racially inherited. The results of his research were published as Gesture and Environment (King's Crown Press, 1941), republished as Gesture, Race and Culture (Mouton, 1972).
label: Biographical / Historical
content: Efron collaborated on his gesture research with Stuyvesant Van Veen (1910-1988), a New York City artist who studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students league and worked with the muralist Thomas Hart Benton. Van Veen is also known in anthropological circles for the illustrations he produced for Franz Boas' research on Kwakiutl dances.
label: Biographical / Historical
content: Efron's was perhaps the first ethnographic research to combine meticulous participant observation and artistic collaboration with the analysis of everyday social behavior recorded on motion picture film.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.2 Linear feet (1 box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: bulk circa 1930-1940
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: This collection was donated to the archives by Paul Ekman.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.MS2004-07
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This collection contains fieldnotes, drawings and illustrations from Efron's research on gesture language among Sicilian and Lithuanian Jewish immigrants on the lower east side of New York City. The several hundred original captioned illustrations in the collection were created by Stuyvesant Van Veen. The collection also includes a 115-page Bibliography of Gesture and Posture, which Efron apparently never published, and one item on Native American gesture language from 1890.
relatedmaterial: label: Other Archival Materials
content: Stuyvesant Van Veen's papers are maintained by the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, which also has a 1981 interview with Van Veen in which the artist discusses his work with Boas.