Jesse Walter Fewkes

Jesse Walter Fewkes
Jesse Walter Fewkes, ca 1919
Born	(1850-11-14)November 14, 1850 Newton, Massachusetts
Died	1930
Fields	Anthropology, Archaeology, Zoology
Alma mater	Harvard University

Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer and naturalist.

Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and initially trained as a zoologist at Harvard University. He later turned to ethnological studies of the native tribes in the American Southwest.

In 1889, with the resignation of noted ethnologist Frank Hamilton Cushing, Fewkes became leader of the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, named for its patron Mary Hemenway. While with this project, Fewkes documented the existing lifestyle and rituals of the Zuni and Hopi tribes.

Fewkes was the first man to use a phonograph to record indigenous people for study. He tested its use among the Passamaquoddy in Maine, before traveling to the Southwest to make his recordings of the Zuni (1890) and Hopi (1891). Benjamin Ives Gilman used these recordings to show that they used musical intervals unlike those in the Western tempered scale. In addition to the recordings, he wrote historically valuable descriptions of the music and musical practice.

Fewkes surveyed the ruins of a number of cultures in the American Southwest, and wrote many well received articles and books. He supervised the excavation of the Casa Grande ruins in southern Arizona, a Hohokam site, and the Mesa Verde ruins in southern Colorado, an Ancient Pueblo site. He particularly focused on the variants and styles of prehistoric Southwest Indian pottery, producing a number of volumes with carefully drawn illustrations. His work on the Mimbres and Sikyátki pottery styles eventually led to the reproduction of many of these traditional forms and images. The Hopi potter Nampeyo became his friend and reproduced the newly documented traditional designs in her own work.