James "Jim" Griffith papers

James S. “Big Jim” Griffith (1935-2021) was born in Santa Barbara, California to a wealthy family of Welsh heritage. While a child, he was bedridden for two years, and during this time became fascinated with culture and understanding those around him. After a brief stint at an Ivy League college, where he found himself fighting for the ‘underdogs’ of the school, Griffith decided a change in scenery would be to his advantage. He came to the University of Arizona in 1955, where he studied under anthropologist Emil Haury (amongst others). Here, he earned the nickname “Big Jim” not only because of his 6 foot 7 ich stature, but because he had big ideas about anthropology in the southwest.

Griffith completed his BA in 1961, and continued his anthropological investigations during his master’s program. His MA thesis in Art History was written on the Pascola masks of the Mayo people of Sinaloa, Mexico (1967). During this time, Jim traveled to Sinaloa several times and gathered an abundance of field notes, research files, photographs, and other materials related to Pascola masks. After finishing his Master’s, Jim moved to California and took a teaching position. While in California in 1962, Jim met a young woman named Loma, and the two soon became inseparable. The couple wed and Loma moved back to Tucson with Jim in 1963, Jim having applied to a PhD program at the University of Arizona.

Jim received his PhD in cultural anthropology and art history at the University of Arizona in 1973. “Jim wrote his dissertation on the iconic ceremonial masks of the Yoemem (Yaqui) and Yoremem (Mayo) peoples of southern Sonora and northern Sinaloa. He went on to write about an astonishing range of other subjects—O’odham chapels, Native and Mexicano folk arts, the sacred spaces of all peoples in the Pimería Alta” (Tom Sheridan, 2022).

In 1974, Jim co-founded with Tucson Meet Yourself Festival (TMY) with Loma. Inspired by a folklore gathering they attended in Texas, the duo worked out of their home to set up the first several festivals. Griffith’s goal was to create an environment where people could share and participate in the making of culture. Ever the anthropologist, Griffith could be seen with a field notebook in his pocket at many events. He was also fondly remembered as a claw-hammer style banjo player and graced the TMY stage several times.

Upon completion of his PhD, Jim began teaching at the University of Arizona and became the Director of the Southwest Folklore Center at the University of Arizona (1976-1998). He continued teaching folklore courses after his 1998 retirement.

In 1996, Griffith was asked to curate a borderlands exhibit. The finished product was the “La Cadena Que No Se Corta: The Unbroken Chain” at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The exhibit focused on traditional arts of Tucson’s Mexican-American community and was widely viewed by the Tucson community.

Jim was also a member of several professional organizations, including the Southwestern Mission Research Center (SMRC), American Folklore Society (AFS), and Southwest Folklife Alliance. For several years, he also hosted Southern Arizona Traditions, a television segment from KUAT’s Arizona Illustrated. He was also a columnist for BorderLore (2016-2020), a publication distributed by the Southwest Folklife Alliance.

“Big Jim” passed away December 18, 2021 in Tucson. He is survived by his wife of over 60 years, Loma, and their two children, Kelly and David, and their grandchildren Emile and Arwen.

For further reading, please see the

Southwest Folklife Alliance’s page for James S. Griffith.