Dr. John Early Faculty Papers Collection

John D. Early is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Early joined the faculty of the Anthropology Department in 1969. He was chair of the department for several years and retired in 1993. His educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Master of Arts in Social Philosophy from St. Louis University, a Master of Arts in Theology from Woodstock College (a Jesuit Seminary), a Master of Arts in Sociology from Fordham University, and a PhD in Anthropology-Sociology from Harvard University (1965). Dr. Early began his career as a Jesuit priest, although he resigned from the priesthood in 1969. As a member of the Harvard-Chiapas Research Project, he went to Zinacantán to study Maya worldview and its Catholic elements. Later, his interest turned to demographic research as a planning basis for the literacy, cooperative and health programs in which he was involved among the Maya in Guatemala. It was also intended to bring to national and international attention to the severe malnutrition and high mortality among the Maya primarily as a result of social injustice. This interest then turned into full time research on the evolution of human population dynamics: for hunter-gathering groups as exemplified by the Agta in the Philippines, for tribal groups as exemplified by the Yanomami in Brazil, for peasants by the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala. After publishing four books on population dynamics, he returned to his original interest in his two latest books—religious worldviews and their moral implications for the implementation of social justice. Dr. Early is a prolific writer who turned much of his research into journal articles and books. He has had over 25 works published, including such well-received books as: The Demographic Structure and Evolution of a Peasant System: The Guatemalan Population (1982); The Population Dynamics of a Philippine Rain Forest People: The San Ildefonso Agta (1998); The Xilixana Yanomami of the Amazon (2000) and Maya and Catholic Cultures in Crisis (2012). Three of his books have been translated into Spanish for wider international circulation. Dr. Early advises researchers to begin their research with his introduction to the collection which can be found on the flash drive in Box 35, Item 1.