History ETDs

Publication Date

11-15-1999

Abstract

In the late 1920s, the University of New Mexico employed a number of astute and diligent academics including Edward Franklin Castetter, who continued with the university until his death in 1978. The purpose of this thesis is to reconstruct the memories and contributions of Castetter, with an emphasis on the world of science and ethnobotany in the American West during the twentieth century. Castetter was born in Pennsylvania in 1896, and in 1928 he assumed a teaching position in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico. He is portrayed as a naturalist, pioneer scientist, westerner, and educator. The scope of Castetter's investigations included Native American cultures located in the Southwest particularly Pima, Papago, and Yuman cultures. He was a pioneer researcher of the Indians' subsistence patterns and agricultural performance, emphasizing their agriculture as conditioned by their environmental and cultural setting. The research includes several areas of considerable significance: the migration of scientists to the Southwest during the early year of the twentieth century; the "rediscovery" of a man whose contributions have been overlooked in the history of the region; the emergence of a new scientific discipline, ethnobotany, which Castetter nourished and advanced; and development of a mechanism through which the cultures of the Southwest affected and promoted regional studies in botanical science.

Level of Degree

Masters

Degree Name

History

Department Name

History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Jake Wilton Spidle

Second Committee Member

Timothy K. Lowrey

Third Committee Member

Timothy Moy

Fourth Committee Member

Paul Andrew Hutton

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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