T. Harry
Williams Center for Oral History Collection
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Robert C. West 4700.0903
IDENTIFICATION: Professor of
Geography
INTERVIEWER: Katherine
Anderson
PROJECT: LSU History
DATE(S): 28 September
1992; 2 October 1992; 5 October 1992
FOCUS DATES: 1948-1998
ABSTRACT:
Tape 1287
studies under Carl Sauer at Berkeley;
formality of Alfred Kroeber; intellectual exchange between Sauer and Kroeber at
Berkeley; difference between cultural geography and cultural anthropology; West
arrives at LSU in 1948; interest in ethnogeography; studies Tarascan Indians in
Mexico; obtains external grants to conduct fieldwork; initially teaches
physical geography course; teaches Latin America, Middle America, and South
America regional courses; establishes a history of geography seminar; Bob Fuson
first graduate student to study under West; reaction to quantitative revolution in geography; interest in
agricultural techniques of pre-industrial age.
Tape 1288
recalls last fieldwork in South America;
delivers paper at International Botanical meeting in Sydney, Australia; studies
mangroves in South America; retires in 1980; interest in descriptive
geomorphology; completes a book on the geography of French and Spanish surnames
in Louisiana; considers himself a
generalist; discussion of amaranth in Mexico; use of flowers for non-aesthetic
purposes in Mexico; theorizes over population of pre-conquest Americas.
Tape 1289
studies agricultural practices in Central
America; interest in vegetation emerges from mining studies; bases maps on
aerial photographs; instructs students in the field in South America; avoids
geographical conferences; discusses difficulty of travel in Mexico and Central
America; relates field methods; teaches joint seminar at University of
Wisconsin in 1966; students study land system in Mexico; contacts with Barney
Nietschmann; works with the Wisconsin botanist Hugh Iltus in Mexico; describes
process of observing and taking field notes; wife helps him with fieldwork.
Tapes: 1287; 1288; 1289 TOTAL
PLAYING TIME: 3 hours
# of CASSETTES: 3
#
PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 127
RESTRICTIONS: cannot be
quoted or cited without permission of interviewer for six years
NOTE: Session 4 is inaudible and was not transcribed