Morris Edward Opler

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Morris E. Opler

Morris Edward Opler (May 3, 1907 – May 13, 1996), American anthropologist and advocate of Japanese American civil rights, was born in Buffalo, New York. He was the brother of Marvin Opler, an anthropologist and social psychiatrist.

Morris Opler's chief anthropological contribution is in the ethnography of Southern Athabaskan peoples, i.e. the Navajo and Apache, such as the Chiricahua, Mescalero, Lipan, and Jicarilla. His classic work is An Apache Life-Way (1941). He worked with Grenville Goodwin, who was also studying social organization among the Western Apache. After Goodwin's early death, Opler edited a volume of his letters from the field and other papers, published in 1973.

Opler earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1933. He taught at Reed College in Portland, Oregon during the 1940s and later taught at Cornell University and the University of Oklahoma.

During World War II, Opler worked as a community analyst at the Manzanar concentration camp, documenting conditions in camp and the daily lives of its Japanese American inmates. Arriving in 1943, he was sympathetic toward the displaced Japanese Americans and frequently butt heads with camp administrators, covering the so-called "Manzanar Riot" and resistance to the unpopular "loyalty questionnaire" and conscription of men from camp.

He also aided the defense of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu in their (unsuccessful) cases challenging the legality of the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast, writing an amicus brief for each case that argued the military necessity cited by Western Defense Command head John L. DeWitt was in fact based "on racial grounds."

Legacy and honors

• The University of Oklahoma established the Morris E. Opler Award in his name, for work in social anthropology by a student.

Bibliography

• Basso, Keith H.; & Opler, Morris E. (Eds.). (1971). Apachean culture history and ethnology. Anthropological papers of the University of Arizona (No. 21). Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
• Castetter, Edward F.; & Opler, Morris E. (1936). The Ethnobiology of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache: The Use of Plants for Foods, Beverages and Narcotics, Ethnobiological studies in the American Southwest, (Vol. 3); Biological series (Vol. 4, No. 5); Bulletin, University of New Mexico, whole, (No. 297). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
• Goodwin, Grenville; & Opler, Morris E. (1973). Grenville Goodwin among the Western Apache: Letters from the Field. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-0417-2.
• Hoijer, Harry; & Opler, Morris E. (1938). Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts. The University of Chicago Publications in Anthropology; Linguistic series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted 1964 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; in 1970 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & in 1980 under H. Hoijer by New York: AMS Press, ISBN 0-404-15783-1).
• Opler, Morris E. (1932). An Analysis of Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache Social Organization in the Light of Their Systems of Relationship. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago)
• Opler, Morris E. (1935). "The Concept of Supernatural Power among the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches", American Anthropologist, 37 (1), 65–70.
• Opler, Morris E. (1936). "The kinship systems of the Southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes", American Anthropologist, 38 (4), 620–633.
• Opler, Morris E. (1937). "An Outline of Chiricahua Apache Social Organization", In F. Egan (Ed.), Social Anthropology of North American Tribes (pp. 173–242). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "A Chiricahua Apache Account of the Geronimo Campaign of 1886", New Mexico Historical Review, October, 13 (4).
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians", Memoirs of the American Folklore Society (No. 31). New York.
• Opler, Morris E. (1938). "The Use of Peyote by the Carrizo and the Lipan Apache", American Anthropologist, 40 (2).
• Opler, Morris E. (1940). Myths and Legends of the Lipan Apache. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society (Vol. 36). New York: American Folklore Society, J. J. Augustin.
• Opler, Morris E. (1941). An Apache Life-way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. (Reprinted 1962 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1965 by New York: Cooper Square Publishers; 1965 by Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & 1994 by Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0-8032-8610-4).
• Opler, Morris E. (1942). "The Identity of the Apache Mansos", American Anthropologist, 44 (1), 725.
• Opler, Morris E. (1942). Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society (No. 37). New York: American Folklore Society.
• Opler, Morris E. (1944). "The Jicarilla Apache Ceremonial Relay Race", American Anthropologist, 46 (1), 75–97.
• Opler, Morris E. (1945). "The Lipan Apache Death Complex and Its Extensions", Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 1 (1), 122–141.
• Opler, Morris E. (1945). "Themes as Dynamic Forces in Culture", American Journal of Sociology, 51 (3), 198–206.
• Opler, Morris E. (1946). The Creative Role of Shamanism in Mescalero Apache Mythology.
• Opler, Morris E. (1946). Childhood and Youth in Jicarilla Apache Society. Los Angeles: The Southwest Museum.
• Opler, Morris E. (1947). Mythology and Folk Belief in the Maintenance of Jicarilla Apache Tribal Endogamy.
• Opler, Morris E. (1959). "Component, assemblage, and theme in cultural integration and differentiation", American Anthropologist, 61 (6), 955–964.
• Opler, Morris E. (1961). Cultural evolution, Southern Athapaskans, and chronology in theory. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 17 (1), 1–20.
• Opler, Morris E. (1962). "Two converging lines of influence in cultural evolutionary theory", American Anthropologist, 64 (3), 524–547.
• Opler, Morris E. (1964). "The human being in culture theory", American Anthropologist, 66 (3), 507–528.
• Opler, Morris E. (1968). "Remuneration to supernaturals and man in Apachean ceremonialism", Ethnology, 7 (4), 356–393.
• Opler, Morris E. (1969). Apache odyssey: A journey between two worlds. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Opler, Morris E. (1969). Western Apache and Kiowa Apache materials relating to ceremonial payment. Ethnology, 8 (1), 122–124.
• Opler, Morris E. (1971). "Pots, Apache, and the Dismal River culture aspect", In K. H. Basso & M. E. Opler (Eds.) (pp. 29–33).
• Opler, Morris E. (1975). "Problems in Apachean cultural history, with special reference to the Lipan Apache", Anthropological Quarterly, 48 (3), 182–192.
• Opler, Morris E. (1975). Applied anthropology and the Apache. Papers in Anthropology, 16 (4), 1–77.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). The Apachean culture pattern and its origins. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 368–392). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). Chiricahua Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 401–418). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (1983). Mescalero Apache. In A. Ortiz (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southwest (Vol. 10, pp. 419–439). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E. (2001). Lipan Apache. In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, pp. 941–952). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Opler, Morris E; & Bittle, William E. (1961). The death practices and eschatology of the Kiowa Apache. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 17 (4), 383–394.
• Opler, Morris E.; & French, David H. (1941). Myths and tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, (Vol. 37). New York: American Folklore Society. (Reprinted in 1969 by New York: Kraus Reprint Co.; in 1970 by New York; in 1976 by Millwood, NY: Kraus Reprint Co.; & in 1994 under M. E. Opler, Morris by Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8602-3).
• Opler, Morris E.; & Hoijer, Harry. (1940). The raid and war-path language of the Chiricahua Apache. American Anthropologist, 42 (4), 617–634.
• Webster, Anthony K. (2000). Morris Edward Opler (1907–1996). American Anthropologist, 102 (2), 328–329.

External links

• Morris Opler
• Guide to the Morris Edward Opler Papers, Cornell University
• A Chiricahua Apache's Account of the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, University of Virginia Library E-Text
• Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
• "A description of a Tonkawa peyote meeting held in 1902", American Ethnography