Virginia Drew Watson (17 June 1918 – 7 December 2007) was an American cultural anthropologist who conducted fieldwork among the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowás people of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil and the Tairora and Gadsup tribes in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Watson also conducted archaeological research, analyzing 25,000 artifacts excavated by J. David Cole and publishing her findings with Cole in Prehistory of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea.
Early life and education
Virginia Drew Watson was born in Tomah, Wisconsin on June 17, 1918 to Frances Henry and Eunice (née Williams) Drew. Watson began conducting fieldwork in the central and southwestern United States in 1939, and in 1940 Watson earned a Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Watson went on to obtain an M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1943. Her Master's thesis was titled, “An Analysis of Cooperative Labor in Middle America." Earlier in her graduate studies, in 1941, Watson prepared a paper on the social organization of Tomah, Wisconsin for an Anthropology 330 course at the University of Chicago. Also, while a graduate student in 1942, Watson served as a part-time Lecturer at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Watson married James Bennett Watson in 1943. James Watson received his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1941, along with his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology in 1945 and 1948. Virginia and James Watson had two children, James Bennett Watson and Anne Thaxter Watson. In his doctoral dissertation titled "Cayuá Culture Change: A Study in Acculturation and Methodology", James Watson thanks his wife who "has given generously of her time at every stage of research and writing and of her first-hand knowledge of the Taquapiri group."
Fieldwork among the Guaranti-Kaiowá
In 1943, Watson and her husband traveled to Brazil where she conducted ethnographic research among the indigenous Guaranti-Kaiowá people of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The Guaranti-Kaiowá people were identified by the name “Cayua” in her research, which is a name used by the Europeans to identify the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá people but is not used today.
Her husband, James Watson, served as an assistant professor at the Escala Livre de Sociologia e Politica in São Paulo from 1944 to 1945, while Watson worked as a clerk in the Cultural Relations Department at the American Consulate General in São Paulo, Brazil. When returning from the field, Virginia and James Watson stopped at an archaeological site in the Ciudad Real del Guayra to conduct research, leading to Watson's publication, “Ciudad Real: A Guaraní-Spanish Site on the Alto Parana River,” in 1947.
Anthropological research career
After Virginia and James Watson returned from Brazil, they moved to Oklahoma University in Norman, Oklahoma for one year where Virginia Watson supervised archaeological students in sorting and organizing the university collection and supervising students in the field. Watson wrote a report on archaeological reconnaissance in the Canton Reservoir area for the Blaine and Dewey counties in Oklahoma in 1947 as well as another report on the Wister Reservoir in the same year.
Virginia Watson conducted research at Washington University in St. Louis but was only listed as faculty at the university for one year in the Art and Archaeology department because she had not yet obtained her Ph.D. while working there in the late 1940s. While working in the Art and Archaeology Department, Watson analyzed eight copper Southeastern Ceremonial Cult embossed plates, called the “Wulfing Plates.” These copper plates were excavated in 1907 and purchased by J. Max Wulfing for donation to Washington University in St. Louis.
Watson published her research in 1950 in an article titled, “The Wulfing Plates – Products of Prehistoric Americans.” John L. Cotter from the National Park Service describes this publication as “the first detailed study of the Wulfing plates” including studies of the plate contents. Watson included ethno-historical data with early missionary reports. Cotter noted that “Mrs. Watson’s painstaking analysis and well-developed comparative summary represent a substantial contribution to research on ceremonial trait influences reaching the United States area from Meso-America" [9]. When Watson published this research, she was associated with the Sociology-Anthropology Department at Washington University although not listed as a faculty member of the department.