Timothy Asch papers
name: label: Creator
content: Asch, Timothy, 1932-1994
label: Correspondent
content: Albert, Bruce
label: Correspondent
content: Andrews, Scott
label: Correspondent
content: Balikci, Asen, 1929-
label: Correspondent
content: Beidelman, Tom
label: Correspondent
content: Bermudez, Beatrice
label: Correspondent
content: Brigard, Emilie de
label: Correspondent
content: Cardozo, Jesus
label: Correspondent
content: Carpenter, Edmund, 1922-2011
label: Correspondent
content: Chagnon, Napoleon A., 1938-
label: Correspondent
content: Connor, Linda
label: Correspondent
content: Fox, James
label: Correspondent
content: Freeman, Derek
label: Correspondent
content: Harrison-Pepper, Sally
label: Correspondent
content: Heider, Karl
label: Correspondent
content: Homiak, John P. (John Paul), 1947-
label: Correspondent
content: Jules-Rosette, Benneta
label: Correspondent
content: Kamerling, Lenny
label: Correspondent
content: Lewis, Doug
label: Correspondent
content: Lizot, Jacques
label: Correspondent
content: Loizos, Peter
label: Correspondent
content: Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978
label: Correspondent
content: Mello, James F., 1936-
label: Correspondent
content: Middleton, John
label: Correspondent
content: Piault, Collette
label: Correspondent
content: Preloran, Jorge, 1933-2009
label: Correspondent
content: Rouch, Jean
label: Correspondent
content: Ruby, Jay
label: Correspondent
content: Smith, Patrice
label: Correspondent
content: Storas, Frode
label: Correspondent
content: Tax, Sol, 1907-1995
label: Correspondent
content: Wayang, Mark
label: Correspondent
content: Wayang, Mary
label: Correspondent
content: Young, Tao
place: label: Place
content: Venezuela
topic: label: Topic
content: Anthropology
label: Topic
content: Film -- theory
label: Topic
content: Language and languages -- Documentation
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated to the National Anthropological Archives by Patsy Asch in 1996.
creator: label: Creator
content: Asch, Timothy, 1932-1994
setName: label: See more items in
content: Timothy Asch papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Timothy Asch was an anthropologist and ethnographic film maker who devoted his professional life to using film as a recording and teaching medium. His papers cover the period from 1966 until his premature death in 1994 and reflect his active career in the field. A large portion of the files relates to his work among the Yanomami people of Venezuela and to his concern with bias in film making.
bioghist: label: Biographical note
content: Asch studied photography at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. While serving in the United States Army in Japan from 1951-55 he spent his off-duty hours photographing rice production and household activities in remote Japanese villages. After his military service, he enrolled in Columbia University graduating in 1959 with an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. After graduation, he went to work at the Peabody Museum at Harvard as an assistant editor to John Marshall on the Kung Bushmen film project. In 1964, he received a Masters Degree in Anthropology from Boston University where he studied in the African Studies Progam and read Anthropology with T.O. Beidelman at Harvard. In 1968, Asch and Marshall founded Documentary Educational Resources, a film distribution company. Anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon approached Asch in 1968 to film among the Yanomammmi people of Venezuela. This collaboration led to a major project resulting in over thirty films.

Chronology

1950-1951 -- California School of Fine Arts and Apprenticeships with photographers Minor White, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams

1953-1954 -- Military Service in Korea

1959 -- B.S. in Anthropology Columbia University

1959-1962  -- Ethnographic film consultant, Harvard University's Peabody Museum

1964  -- M.A. in Anthropology Harvard University

1965-1966  -- Curriculum Consultant, Ethnographic studies and the Bushmen Social Studies Curriculum Project (initially Educational Services, Inc., later called Educational Development Center)

1966-1968  -- Lecturer in Anthropology and Theater Arts, Brandeis University

1966-1968  -- Anthropology Curriculum and Media Consultant to the Newton Public Schools

1967-1994  -- Co-Founder and Director of Documentary Educational Resources, Watertown, Massachusetts, a non-profit curriculum development corporation distributing educational media

1968-1970  -- Visiting Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, New York University

1969-1973  -- Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University

1973-1979  -- Research Fellow in Ethnographic film, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

1974-1976  -- Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University

1975  -- Research Cinematographer, National Anthropological Film Center, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

1976-1981  -- Senior Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Advanced Studies, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

1982  -- Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

1983-1994  -- Director, Center for Visual Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 62 Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1947-1995
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: National Anthropological Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NAA.1996-16
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Manuscripts
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into the following 13 series:

Series 1) Correspondence (1953-1994)

Series 2) College and graduate School (1955-1965)

Series 3) Teaching materials (1964-1993)

Series 4) Film projects (1964-1991)

Series 5) Articles and reviews (1972-1994)

Series 6) Alpha-Subject (1955-1989)

Series 7) Conferences, film festivals, and film organizations (1963-1993)

Series 8) Grants (1962-1993)

Series 9) Other people's work (1952-1995)

Series 10) Personal and family (1951-1994)

Series 11) Photographs (1947-1991)

Series 12) Sound recordings (bulk 1960s-1970s)

Series 13) Note slips, rolodexes, and business cards (1987, undated)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Jill Fri, Ann Hunt, and Yu-Ra Jung in Fall 2004. Encoded by Rihoko Ueno, 2011 December. Revised and encoded by Katherine Madison, 2018 June.
bibliography: label: Selected Filmography
content: 1963. Dodoth Moring (Uganda). John and Lorna Marshall

1969. The Feast. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1971. Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1973. Magical Death. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1975. A Father Washes His Children. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1975. A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1975. New Tribes Mission. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1975. The Ax Fight. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1976. Tapir Distribution. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1976. The Yanomamo Myth of Naro. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1976. Jaguar: A Yanomamo Twin-Cycle Myth. Napoleon Chagnon (Southern Venezuela)

1977. The Sons of Haji Omar (Afghanistan). Asen Balikci and David Newman

1979. A Balinese Trance Séance. Patsy Asch and Linda Connor

1980. Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance Observed. Patsy Asch and Linda Connor 

1983. The Medium is the Masseuse: A Balinese Healer. Patsy Asch and Linda Connor 

1983. Jero Tapakan: Stories from the Life of a Balinese Healer. Patsy Asch and Linda Connor 

1991. Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali. Patsy Asch and Linda Connor 

1993. Patsy Asch and Douglas Lewis in Tana Ai, Flores in Eastern Indonesia
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 1953-1994
label: Genre/Form
content: Manuscripts
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 1947-1991
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of Timothy Asch document his career as an anthropologist, educator,
photographer and filmmaker through correspondence, photographs, research files
(articles and notes), and teaching materials (course information and lecture notes). The
files relating to Asch's film projects include articles, field notes, and reviews. The major
correspondents in this collection are Patsy Asch, Tom Beidelman, Napoleon Chagnon,
James Fox, Robert Gardner, Douglas Lewis, Peter Loizos, David & Olga Sapir, and
Minor White.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Human Studies Film Archives holds 93,000 feet (43 hours) of original film footage and the accompanying sound as well as the edited films from the 1968 and 1971 film projects by Timothy Asch and Napoleon Chagnon documenting the Yanomamo Indians of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil (between the Negro and Upper Orinoco rivers).