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Brandeis University Archives holds the faculty papers of Robert Manners, Brandeis Professor of Anthropology from 1952 to 1979, and is happy to announce that the collection has now been processed and is available to researchers.
Robert Manners was born
in 1914 in New York City and studied at Columbia University, earning a PhD in
Anthropology in 1949 after a stint as an Army captain during the war. During
his PhD studies, Manners conducted fieldwork in Puerto Rico with several other
graduate students under the direction of his advisor and “intellectual mentor,”
Julian Steward, focusing on tobacco farming in the rural community of
Barranquitas. Manners, along with a large number of fellow graduate students
and established anthropologists, undertook extensive studies in the Puerto
Rican population from 1947-1949; this research culminated in The People of Puerto Rico (Steward et
al., 1956).
A Manners class at Brandeis, 1972
Manners kept impeccable
records from this study, providing weekly reports for the period of April 1948
to September 1948, including local newspaper clippings, signs, and other
documentation. With a great deal of documentation from his early studies, the
collection provides a fascinating glimpse into his early career. Working mainly
on the family structures of the various social classes of the small communities,
Manners shows a special affinity for
comparing the traditional observation of
fieldwork with carefully analyzed government reports. The aims of the project
were to examine and explain the political, economic, social, and familial
structures of the “agrarian stratified society” in which they were working. The
researchers tested a large number of theories, giving a sense of the broad
scale and depth of the program. Seeking a generalized explanation of the rigid,
insular society of Puerto Rico, the team, led by Steward, spread a wide net,
looking beyond economics—Manners’s focus—into the very fabric of Puerto Rican
society. The fieldwork crossed over two years, and included discussions on such
topics as agriculture, household structures, Puerto Rican sex life, and the economy
and politics of Puerto Rico; the collection also includes photographs
supporting research into many of these subjects.
As evidenced in this
collection and his later fieldwork, Manners maintained a long interest in the
field of insular studies, providing the research for his dissertation. Perhaps
it is not surprising then that he was involved, at least by association, with a
movement to support an independent Puerto Rico following the shootings in
Congress in March of 1954 by Puerto Rican Nationalists. A letter from A. J.
Muste, noted early-twentieth-century pacifist, implored Manners to become
involved with the Puerto Rican Independence movement. The relationship between
Manners and Reverend Muste is unclear, and the letter was not addressed
specifically to Manners. Regardless of the intention of the letter, Manners’s active
participant in this controversial subject is unlikely, as he seems to have
shown little interest in the subject beyond a personal inquiry.
To read this letter and other documents from this Puerto
Rican Project, as well as Manners’s course materials, lecture notes,
correspondence, drafts, field notes, and relevant photographs, please access
the finding aid here. To view this collection and others like it, contact ascdepartment@brandeis.edu or call 781-736-4686 to make an appointment.
description by Ben Schmidt, Archives &
Special Collections Student Assistant and undergraduate student in History.
