Matilda Coxe Stevenson

Background

Matilda was born on May 12, 1849 in San Augustine, Texas, United States, the daughter of Alexander H. and Maria Matilda (Coxe) Evans. Her parents moved in her infancy to Washington, District of Columbia.

Education

She was educated in Miss Anable's school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Career

After her marriage she accompanied her husband on various expeditions into the Southwest and early became interested in the Zuni Indians, who were more accessible, less modified, and more amenable to study than most.

Her first work resulted in a paper almost unique in American studies, "The Religious Life of the Zuni Child" (1883-84, 1887). In 1888 she published an important paper on "Zuni Religions".

Working among the Sia Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande at an opportune time for ethnological studies, she produced some years later a paper, "The Sia", the closest study of a Rio Grande Pueblo. One of her especially noteworthy discoveries was the existence of a Snake Society and ceremonial among the Sia.

The Sia paper, full of social and material culture-elements, was a forerunner of her encyclopedic study of the Zuni, "The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies".

As the result of later studies dealing with phases of Zuni material culture she produced "Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians", her last major work.

She found time to write several less important articles, which appeared in the American Anthropologist at various dates, on more general aspects of the Pueblo Indian subject. Following her laborious work at Zuni, she continued studies among the Rio Grande Pueblo Indians from 1904 to 1910, concentrating her attention especially on the Tewa and the difficult Taos Indians.

In this her experience with the Zuni and other tribes cleared away obstacles. Among her papers on these Indians were "Strange Rites of the Tewa Indians" and "The Sun and Ice People among the Tewa Indians of New Mexico". She made numerous collections of objects of material culture from the Pueblo Indians, being deputized to collect such objects for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1903. The scientific investigations carried on in anthropology at the time were not based on the more comprehensive and accurate methods of the modern school, but the necessity of careful observation and record was clearly recognized.

From 1904 to 1915 she lived near the San Ildefonso Pueblo in Sante Fe county, New Mexico; her health failed in the latter year, and she died shortly after returning east.

Achievements

• Matilda Coxe Evans Stevenson helped found and became first president of the Women’s Anthropological Society of America. In March 1888 her important paper on “Zuñi Religions” appeared in Science, her work rests on abundant and careful data, and, seen in perspective, it places her in a secure position in ethnological science. Since the Indians have changed greatly in the intervening years, her work has unique value. She was one of the founders of the Woman's Anthropological Society of Washington, and a member of a number of scientific societies. She also contributed to American Anthropologist and other journals, and her subjects later included the Taos and Tewa Indians as well.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Sia (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Sia The cosmogony and myths of the Sia ...)

  • and the (Classic Reprint)

    (That the readers of this paper may understand the means a...)

  • The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, And Ceremonies FACSIMILE

    (High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: :Stevenson, Matilda ...)

  • The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child The fi...)

  • The Religious Life of the Zuei Child

    (The Religious Life of the Zue?i Child is presented here i...)

  • The Zuñi Indians;: Extract from the twenty-third annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Landmarks in anthropology)

    (Twenty third annual report Bureau of American Ethnology. ...)

  • The Religious Life Of The Zuñi Child, Volume 5

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Religious Life of the Zuñi Child

    (The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are en...)

  • The Zuni Indians and Their Uses of Plants

    (STEVENSON, M. C.: THE ZUÑI INDIANS AND THEIR USES OF PLAN...)

Personality

Her fortitude in carrying out the work necessary for this study is almost unexampled among ethnologists, and her success in winning the confidence of the Indians was a triumph of character. The Zuni, who loved her and called her "Mother, " realized that a record of their civilization should be made, and expedited her work in every way, permitting her to observe the most secret ceremonies.

Connections

Her marriage, April 18, 1872, to James Stevenson of the United States Geological Survey, led to the beginning of her career as an ethnologist.

Father:

Alexander H. Evans

Mother:

Maria Matilda (Coxe) Evans

Spouse:

James Stevenson

associate:

Edward B. Tylor

References

• Matilda Coxe Stevenson: Pioneering Anthropologist