Frederick Starr
Encyclopedia
Frederick Starr aka Ofuda Hakushi in Japan, was an American
academic, anthropologist
, and "populist educator" born at Auburn, New York
.
(1882) and a doctorate in geology at Lafayette
(1885). While working as a curator of geology at the American Museum of Natural History
(AMNH
), he became interested in anthropology and ethnology; and Frederic Ward Putnam
helped him become appointed as curator of AMNH's ethological collection.
In this period, he became active in the Chautauqua
circuit as a popular professor and, in 1888-89, as registrar
. When William Rainey Harper
, president of the Chautauqua Institution
was named President of the University of Chicago
, he appointed Starr as an assistant professor of anthropology.
Starr was the curator in charge of ethnological
subjects at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York (1889–91), until he accepted a faculty position at the University of Chicago
where he remained for the next 31 years. He was an Assistant professor
(1892–95), and he gained tenure the next year.
In 1905-06 he made a careful study of the pygmy
races of Central Africa
, and made investigations in the Philippine Islands
in 1908, in Japan
in 1909-10, and in Korea
in 1911.
In his collection of articles regarding the Congo Free State
, 'Truth about the Congo Free State', Starr wrote:
This is often cited as an example of the whitewashing campaign King Leopold II fared from 1884 to 1912, also known as the Congo Free State Propaganda War, as floggings with the chicotte were known and documented as an especially cruel form of torture.
Starr happened to be in Japan when the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 struck the main island of Honshū. In the absence of news from the devastated area, speculation about his safety was published in the New York Times. His plans to spend several months researching the vicinity of Mt. Fuji were not specific, nor was the extent of the quake area known. Reports that the area near Mt. Fuji were hard hit led to increased concerns. Worries were allayed when Dr. Starr's name was published amongst the list of survivors which was prepared by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. As chance would have it, Dr. Starr happened to be in Tokyo on September 1, 1923, when the earthquake struck; and he escaped to the relative safety of Zojo-ji
, a famous Buddhist Temple in Tokyo's Shiba
district in what is today Minato
ward. A brief description from a letter to friends in Auburn, New York, was printed in the Times:
Dr. Starr died of bronchial pneumonia at age 74 in Tokyo, August 14, 1933. Services were held at Trinity Cathedral in Tokyo. Amongst those attending was Japanese Premier Makoto Saito
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
academic, anthropologist
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, and "populist educator" born at Auburn, New York
Auburn, New York
Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...
.
Biography
Starr earned an undergraduate degree at the University of RochesterUniversity of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
(1882) and a doctorate in geology at Lafayette
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
(1885). While working as a curator of geology at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
(AMNH
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
), he became interested in anthropology and ethnology; and Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam
Frederic Ward Putnam was an American naturalist and anthropologist.-Biography:...
helped him become appointed as curator of AMNH's ethological collection.
In this period, he became active in the Chautauqua
Chautauqua
Chautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with...
circuit as a popular professor and, in 1888-89, as registrar
Registrar (academic)
In education outside the United Kingdom, a registrar or registrary is an official in an academic institution who handles student records. Typically, a registrar processes registration requests, schedules classes and maintains class lists, enforces the rules for entering or leaving classes, and...
. When William Rainey Harper
William Rainey Harper
William Rainey Harper was one of America's leading academics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Harper helped to organize the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the first President of both institutions.-Early life:Harper was born on July 26, 1856 in New Concord,...
, president of the Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Institution
The Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit adult education center and summer resort located on 750 acres in Chautauqua, New York, 17 miles northwest of Jamestown in the western part of New York State...
was named President of the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, he appointed Starr as an assistant professor of anthropology.
Starr was the curator in charge of ethnological
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
subjects at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York (1889–91), until he accepted a faculty position at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
where he remained for the next 31 years. He was an Assistant professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
(1892–95), and he gained tenure the next year.
In 1905-06 he made a careful study of the pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
races of Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
, and made investigations in the Philippine Islands
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in 1908, in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1909-10, and in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
in 1911.
In his collection of articles regarding the Congo Free State
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Its origins lay in Leopold's attracting scientific, and humanitarian backing for a non-governmental organization, the Association internationale africaine...
, 'Truth about the Congo Free State', Starr wrote:
Many a time... I have seen a man immediately after being flogged, laughing and playing with his companions as if naught had happened. Personally, though I have seen many cases of this form of punishment, I have never seen blood drawn, nor the fainting of the victim."
This is often cited as an example of the whitewashing campaign King Leopold II fared from 1884 to 1912, also known as the Congo Free State Propaganda War, as floggings with the chicotte were known and documented as an especially cruel form of torture.
Starr happened to be in Japan when the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 struck the main island of Honshū. In the absence of news from the devastated area, speculation about his safety was published in the New York Times. His plans to spend several months researching the vicinity of Mt. Fuji were not specific, nor was the extent of the quake area known. Reports that the area near Mt. Fuji were hard hit led to increased concerns. Worries were allayed when Dr. Starr's name was published amongst the list of survivors which was prepared by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. As chance would have it, Dr. Starr happened to be in Tokyo on September 1, 1923, when the earthquake struck; and he escaped to the relative safety of Zojo-ji
Zojo-ji
San'en-zan is a Buddhist temple in the Shiba neighborhood of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is the Great Main Temple of the Chinzai sect of the Shingon school. The main image is of Amida Buddha...
, a famous Buddhist Temple in Tokyo's Shiba
Shiba, Tokyo
Shiba is a district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, located near Hamamatsucho and Tamachi Stations on the Yamanote Line and Mita Station on the Toei Mita Line....
district in what is today Minato
Minato, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. As of 1 March 2008, it had an official population of 217,335 and a population density of 10,865 persons per km². The total area is 20.34 km².Minato hosts 49 embassies...
ward. A brief description from a letter to friends in Auburn, New York, was printed in the Times:
We went to the temple grounds, but at midnight, the priests took us up higher and higher to the innermost temple. Here on the topmost step, I sat till morning, watching the brazen sky beyond the slope meaning ruin to millions."
Dr. Starr died of bronchial pneumonia at age 74 in Tokyo, August 14, 1933. Services were held at Trinity Cathedral in Tokyo. Amongst those attending was Japanese Premier Makoto Saito
Saito Makoto
Viscount was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, two-time Governor-General of Korea from 1919 to 1927 and from 1929 to 1931, and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from May 26, 1932 to July 8, 1934.-Early life:...
.
Honors
- Order of Leopold (Belgium).
- Order of the Crown of ItalyOrder of the Crown of ItalyThe Order of the Crown of Italy was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861...
(Italy). - Order of the Sacred TreasureOrder of the Sacred TreasureThe is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes . It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit...
(Japan).
- University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology, Starr Lectureship.
Selected works
- Catalogue of Collections of Objects Illustrating Mexican FolkloreFolkloreFolklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
(1899) - IndiansIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
of South Mexico (1900) - The Ainu GroupAinu peopleThe , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
of the Saint Louis ExpositionLouisiana Purchase ExpositionThe Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
(1904) - The Truth about the CongoCongo Free StateThe Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Its origins lay in Leopold's attracting scientific, and humanitarian backing for a non-governmental organization, the Association internationale africaine...
(1907) - In Indian MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
(1908) - FilipinoFilipino peopleThe Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
Riddles (1909) - JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Proverbs and Pictures (1910) - LiberiaLiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
(1913) - Mexico and the United States (1914)
- Fujiyama, the Sacred Mountain of Japan. (1924).
External links
- Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History - Objects and Field Notes from Starr Congo Expedition 1905-1906 (section Collections Online, option Collections Highlights).