68 AiNNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



and Latin America. Dr. Gordon R. Willey, on loan from the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, was Acting Director for the remainder of the 

 year. Miss Lois C. Northcott, formerly secretary to the Director, 

 became administrative assistant in November 1949. 



Upon the recommendation of the Director, Dr. Jos6 M. Cruxent, 

 Director of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, Caracas, Venezuela, 

 visited the United States on a Department of State grant-in-aid. He 

 remained during August and September, traveling within this country 

 to various museums and universities. 



In February, Dr. Willey began an extended tour of Institute field 

 posts and, en route, visited other La tin- American countries to renew 

 professonal contacts and to discuss scientific and local academic 

 problems with Latin-American colleagues. Mexico City, Guatemala 

 City, Panamd, Bogotd, Quito, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao 

 Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Caracas were included on this trip. 



Brazil. — Drs. Donald Pierson, sociologist, and Kalervo Oberg, 

 social anthropologist, continued their research and teaching activities 

 in cooperation with the Escola Livre de Sociologia e Politica in Sao 

 Paulo. Dr. Pierson, after a 2-months' consultation in the United 

 States, assumed duties in the Escola Livre de Sociologia e Politica as 

 dean of the graduate section. In connection with these duties he 

 trained graduate students in problems of academic administration. 

 In addition he taught courses in sociology and social anthropology, 

 supervised masters theses in social anthropology, and was engaged in 

 writing and preparing manuscripts in social anthropology and soci- 

 ology. In April Dr. Pierson represented the Smithsonian Institution 

 at Brazil's National Indian Week celebrations in Rio de Janeho. 

 at the request of the Brazilian Embassy. During May and June, 

 Dr. Pierson, accompanied by graduate students, undertook an in- 

 tensive social anthropological survey of the large and important Sao 

 Francisco River Valley. This field work was sponsored by the 

 federal government of Brazil as well as by the Institute of Social 

 Anthropology. A survey report is anticipated that will be of par- 

 ticular interest for the Brazilian Government's economic development 

 plans for the Sao Francisco Valley. 



Dr. Kalervo Oberg, accompanied by a student assistant, spent the 

 months of July and August in the northwestern Mato Grosso among 

 the Nambicuara, Iranxe, and other Indian groups. These tribes, 

 some of the most primitive in the world, lead a completely isolated 

 life, and there is very little scientific literature on them. He returned 

 to Sao Paulo late in August and resumed teaching, devoting his re- 

 search time to the preparation of a manuscript on the Mato Grosso 

 field work. Dr. Oberg delivered the address at the Escola Livre de 



