Ethnohistory

Michael W. Hesson

Ethnohistory refers in general terms to the study of the history of a social group from an anthropological perspective. Frequently, this involves using a variety of sources, such as oral history, missionary documents, and travel accounts, to reconstruct the social history of the marginalized peoples who tend to form the subject matter of most anthropological accounts. Historians and anthropologists generally undertake ethnohistorical analysis, and the results are published not just in the journal Ethnohistory but also in a wide variety of other scholarly publications. Ethnohistorical research is often used in the legal system, particularly in cases regarding Native American property claims. From its origins, ethnohistory has been an interdisciplinary endeavor. Anthropology and history are the primary contributors, both methodologically and theoretically, to the development of the field. From the perspective of history as a discipline, the interest of the Annales School in reconstructing social institutions, broadly speaking, prefigured the interest ...

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