For over two decades, and more than any other person, Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons in?uenced the course of ethnological research in the Pueblos of the Southwest. She began her investigations in Zuni in 1915, and until shortly before her death in 1941 she made frequent visits to the living Pueblos, both western and eastern, indefatigably and meticulously collecting comparative data on their social and cere monial life. Her scientific enthusiasm drew many of her colleagues to the area (pre eminently Dr. Franz Boas to the Keres); and her generosity, spiritual no less than financial, permitted many a young student to become an independent — and some times controversial — observer of Pueblo society.