Reina, Ruben E.

Dr. Ruben E. Reina, born in Argentina in 1924, received his B.A. at the University of Michigan and his M.A. at Michigan State University. He was awarded his Ph.D. by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of North Carolina and served as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill from 1952 until 1954. His first appointment was as an Instructor of Anthropology and Sociology at Women's College at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Reina followed this teaching experience with an Assistant Professorship in Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico for the academic year 1956-1957 and then assumed an Assistant Professorship in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania.

During his tenure as Assistant Professor, Dr. Reina was also Assistant Curator, American Section, at the Penn Museum and Chairman of the Undergraduate Program in Anthropology at the University. He became a Professor in the Anthropology Department in 1967 and assumed the position of Curator of Latin American Ethnology, American Section of the Penn Museum.

Dr. Reina's fieldwork began while he was an undergraduate with work in the Guatemalan Highlands, Mexico, and a mountain community in North Carolina. Subsequent trips took him to Puerto Rico; Peten, Guatemala; British Honduras; the Yucatan; Argentina; Spain; Brazil; British Guiana; Turkey; Iran(Hasanlu expedition); and Antigua, Zunil, and Coban, Guatemala. Dr. Reina also did extensive ethnohistoric research at the Archivas de Indios in Seville Spain.

The Antigua Guatemala expeditions were conducted in 1969 and 1970. The expeditions visited the sites of Las Capuchinas, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Farington, La Colonia, El Manchen, Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Centro de la Iglesia, and others, producing artifacts, photographs, and extensive information about pottery creation, production and marketing in the area. Dr. Reina explored the pottery works of the Monteil family, a pottery making dynasty in Antigua.

Reina began publishing his work in 1954. His books include, The Law of the Saints: A Pokomam Pueblo and Its Community Culture, published by Bobbs-Merrill and, with Robert M. Hill, III, The Traditional Pottery of Guatemala, published by the University of Texas Press. Dr. Reina has received numerous grants to continue his research, most notably from the DiNella Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Reina was named Curator Emeritus of Ethnology in the American Section of the Penn Museum in 1990, following 34 years as a Curator and Professor. He directed several exhibitions for the Museum including, The Gift of Birds: Featherwork of Native South American Peoples, in 1991. This exhibition explored "featherwork as a medium through which to examine the aesthetic, religious, and social values of the native South American peoples."

During his retirement, Dr. Reina accepted a post as Acting Curator for the North American Collections from 1993 to 1994.

Dr. Reina is also an artist, working in oils, watercolor, acrylic, and ink media. His work has been shown at the Darlington Fine Arts Center.

From the guide to the Antigua, Guatemala expedition records, Bulk, 1969-1970, 1968-1973, (University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives)