Carobeth Tucker was born on July 20, 1895 in Coleman, Texas. Carobeth’s
father was James Harvey, an editor, and her mother was Emma Tucker. Carobeth
had seven children between two marriages. On August 5, 1983, in San Diego,
Carobeth died of heart failure at the age of 88.
Carobeth had very little formal education in her life. Carobeth was not
introduced to linguistics until 1915 when she enrolled in a summer school
linguistic course. This was her first meeting of the man she would end
up marrying, John Harrington. Harrington primarily focused on recording the language of
Native Americans of the Western United States.
In 1916, when Carobeth was 21, she married John Peabody Harrington. Carobeth
worked with Harrington for some years. She helped gather ethnological
and linguistic data on the Indians of the Southwest and California. Carobeth
claimed that she was at first scared of the Indians because of preconceived
notions. She believed that Indians acted as they were portrayed in films
in that Indians were savages that would kill anyone. Carobeth traveled
everywhere with her husband; looking for Indian groups that were settled
onto reservations. Harrington became so immersed in his work that he did
not care about anything else, not even his wife.
Carobeth’s collection of work includes the most extensive collection of
Chemehuevi myths recorded. People are able to see the complete collection
of Carobeth’s work at the University of California. The collection includes
field notes, tapes, and many other things that Carobeth has done. Even though
Carobeth’s first book was not published until she was 80, she always thought
of herself as a writer. The books that she wrote are Encounter with an Angry
God (1975), The Chemehuevis (1976), Limbo (1979), Mirror
and Pattern: George Laird’s World of Chemehuevi Mythology (1982). She also
conducted a workshop called The Gestalt of the Myth, in April of 1982. This workshop was at the Southwestern Anthropological Association conference.
References:
Perry, Julia. Carobeth Tucker Laird Encounter with an Angry God : Recollections of My Life with John Peabody Harrington.
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/389/perry.html 2 March 2004.
Gale. “Carobeth Laird.” Contemporary Authors Online. (2002). Infotrac.
U of Minnesota Mankato Lib., Mankato. 23 Feb. 2004 <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com>
.
Written by: Nora Abbas