Frank Hamilton Cushing

Frank Hamilton Cushing
Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857–1900) was an American anthropologist and ethnologist known for his pioneering work with the Zuni people of New Mexico. Cushing spent five years living among the Zuni, becoming the first anthropologist to fully immerse himself in the daily life of a Native American community. His groundbreaking work is detailed in "Zuni Fetishes" and "Zuni Folk Tales," where he documented the Zuni's spiritual and material culture. Cushing's innovative methods helped shape the practice of participant observation in anthropology.

Author's Books:


HABITATIONS AFFECTED BY ENVIRONMENT. It is conceded that the peculiarities of a culture-status are due chiefly to the necessities encountered during its development. In this sense the Pueblo phase of life was, like the Egyptian, the product of a desert environment. Given that a tribe or stock of people is weak, they will be encroached upon by neighboring stronger tribes, and driven to new surroundings... more...

ZUÑI PHILOSOPHY. The Á-shi-wi, or Zuñis, suppose the sun, moon, and stars, the sky, earth, and sea, in all their phenomena and elements; and all inanimate objects, as well as plants, animals, and men, to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated life, in which the degrees of relationship seem to be determined largely, if not wholly, by the degrees of resemblance. In this system of... more...