R.J. Inall (until Nov.}. J.C. Abrahams, M.A.(Melb.), (until gan.). J. Wilson. E. Olgay. B. Key. J. Wheatley. R. Motshagen (June-November)
H. Leach
Research Assistants (Prehistory)
Research Officers (Prehistory)
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Mrs D. Gregory, B.A. w. Mumford (from Nov.).
H. Polach, jointly with Geophysics. R. L. Lampert. W.R. Ambrose.
In the course of the year research in social anthropology, prehistoric archaeology and linguistics was undertaken over an unusually broad regional frout. Staff members and doctoral scholars worked at field stations in the continent of Aust~alia, mainland New Guinea, New Britain and other islands of Melanesia, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Samoa, Portuguese Timar, Sabah (Borneo), Thailand and India. Some of the work was carried to a point which promises that the product will be of highly constructive importance .
In aboriginal Australia further study was made from new theoretical standpoints of two subje.::ts of central significance -traditional aboriginal religion and disputed aspects of the kinship systems ar:.d social organization of Arnhem Lanc1. The study of political and social development in New Guine3 was further advanced. In ? rehistory, there were importunt discoveriea. It was established by c:{c:tvationc at Grc~n Gully at Keilor in Victoria, where the oldest hurr.an skeletu.l rem:tins in Australia were found recently, that human occupation is older Lltill. At Ingaladdi, in the Northern Territory, tracc 3 of the oldest art in Austr~lia wer e found in layers older than 6,000 y~ars. A new search began in Portuguese Timor for ~vidence~ b ~ring on th~ prehistoric settlement of Australia. In Linguistics, t::here were. scme ·very •.-;orthwhile advances. The distribution and rela.t:..unship of languages in New Guinea were further clari:'.:ieu, a new f~ily of languages was discovered, touch was made with sc:::c almost unkncwn tribes, and some undescribed languages were recorded. In aboriginal Australia six littl~-known aboriginal lci.ngt:ages •vGra reco:..:-ded.
f- rofessor Stanner, the Head of the Department, was appointed Acting Directo~ of the School for a period of eight months, and ·was re-elected to the University Council by the professors of the In~titute. Professor Barnes returned from study leave in July via Austria and India. Dr Freeman was absent throughout the year on fieldwork in Western Samoa. Dr Wijeyewardene returned in August from a year's fieldwork in North Thailand, and Dr Sinha in November from ten months' in India. Dr Reay spent five weeks and Dr Chowning six months, in New Guinea on fieldwork.
~our meTbers of the Department (Dr Wurm, Dr Reay, Dr Chowning and Mr Mulvaney) attended the llth Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo. Two new members of the academic staff took up their appointments - Dr Diane Barwick (Research Fellow) in March, and Dr A.L. Epstein (Professorial Fellow) in April. Mr w.c. Groves's appointment as Visiting Fellow came to an end in January. Dr Paula Brown resigned in January to take up an appointment with the University of New York at Stony Brook. Dr E.F. Aguas resigned from her post as Research Fellow (Australian Institute of Aboriginal Stud i .8n). Dr D. c. Laycock was appointed Fellow in Linguistics.
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More intensive work by a reduced staff was done on the Department's ethnographic bibliography of New Guinea (1963 being the cut-off year). The first phase of the project is now within sight of completion with early publication in view.
In November an inter-University conference was held under the chairmanship of Professor Stanner to plan an inter-disciplinary study of the 1968 elections in New Guinea.
Staff and Student Research Programme
Anthropology and Sociology
Professor Stanner gave the Presidential Address to the Canberra Sociological Society, completed for publication a paper 'Durkheim and ~boriginal religion', and continued work towards the publication of his Murinbata researches and biographical articles on Fison and Howitt. Professor Barnes, while on study leave gave lectures and seminar papers in the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, Bergen and Oslo and the London School of Economics. He attended several symposia arranged by the Royal Anthropological Institute on recent developments in anthropology, and a conference at Burg Wartenstein, arranged by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, on local politics. He worked on a book provisionally entitled 'Orientations in kinship'. He also wrote a monograph entitled 'Inquest on the Murngin' which is being published by the Royal Anthropological Institute, and a paper on networks to be published in a volume on local politics next year. He did some preliminary work on a book embodying his field research in Bremnes in 1952-53 and 1966. He made arrangements for a revised edition of his outof-print book 'Politics in a Changing Society'. Dr Derek Freeman arrived at Sa'anapu on the south coast of Upolu, Western Samoa, on 1 January to resume researches undertaken in the region in 1940-43 and 1946. Throughout the year he conducted predominantly observational research into the bas~s of Samoan social behaviour. Dr Epstein began work on a book dealing with his research in the Gazelle Peninsula (New Britain) in 1960-61, and in addition completed three papers - 'Urbanization and social change in Africa', 'Power, politics, and leadership : some Central African and Melanesian contrasts', and 'The ranking of occupations on the Gazelle Peninsula'. Dr Reay visited New Guinea in October-November to continue her longterm study of political development in New Guinea, and read a paper 'The nature of proscriptive marriage systems' at the Tokyo Congress. Dr Chowning completed a field study of religion and social organization among the Sengseng, and began a preliminary study of the Kombe, of New Britain. At the Tokyo Congress she read two papers 'Acculturation between tribal groups in Papua-New Guinea• and 'The languages of West New Britain'. She is revising for publication a monograph on the traditional social organization of the New Britain Lakalai. Dr Wijeyewardene, on returning from the field began to prepare the results of several year~ work on kinship, land tenure and aspects of religion among the northern Thai. Dr Sinha worked in Chota Nagpur, Bihar, India, to complete the data for his book 'The Banari intertribal market', which is to be published in 1967, and made extensive investigations in the same
4. 30/1967
region into problems of economic development and cultural change with special reference to innovations connected with indigenous markets, community development projects, cooperatives and resettlement schemes. He visited the National Institute of Community Development at Hyderabad, addressed a seminar at Ranchi on social change, and took part in a seminar on community and economic development at Utkal University, Bhubneshwar. He contributed to forthcoming publications two papers 1 Re3ettlement and applied anthropology' and 'Planned cultural change : some implications in applied anthropology'. Dr Barwick acted as the academic supervisor of the New Guinea Ethnographic Bibliography, and continued work towards the completion of her study of government policy towards and administration of the Victorian aborigines from 1837 to the present day. She attended a seminar on problems of aboriginal employment, wages and training sponsored by the Centre ior Research into Aboriginal Affairs at Monash University, and at the invitation of the Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board gave evidence before the Board's Lake Tyers Planning and Action Committee. Dr Rooksby continued work on his forthcoming book 'Caste, politics and bureaucracy in Kerala'.
Two students (Mr G. Francillon and Mr T. Hara) completed their courses during the year and were given extensions of time to submit their theses. Miss o. van Rijswijck continued to write her thesis on 'Bakoiudu : resettlement and social change among the Kuni of Papua'. Mr M. Rimoldi and Mr I.S. Chauhan returned after a year's fieldwork respectively in Buka and Fiji. Mr w. Shapiro completed ten months' work in Western A~nhem Land. In the second half of the year three new stude nts left for the field after several months' preparation in Canberra - Mr M.W. Young (for Goodenough Island, Papua), Mr L.B. Steadman (for Lake Kopiago, New Guinea), and Mr A.w. Rew (for Port Moresby).
Archaeology
Mr Golson, who served as advisory editor of Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Australia, worked throughout the year on the preparation for publication of archaeological material from New Zealand, in association with Mr W.R. Ambrose, Research Officer in the department. He made two short visits to see students in the field - in April to New Caledonia to Mr C.D. Smart's sites near Noumea, in company with Mr C.A. Key, and in August to New Britain to Mr J.R. Specht. The visit to New Britain was combined with participation in a rescue excavation on the site of old cultivations under peat swamp near Mount Hagen, now being developed as tea plantations. Work on the site, which may be of importance for the history of agriculture in the New Guinea Highlands, was done in cooperation with Miss Jocelyn Wheeler, a student of pollen analysis in the Department of Geography of this School. Mr W.R. Ambrose arranged for on-the-spot treatment of excavated wooden agricultural implements. The excavations were under the direction of Mr R.J. Lampert, Research Officer in the department. During the year Mr Lampert was in New Guinea on a six month reconnaissance of archaeological sites as a prelude to increased archaeological commitment in the New Guinea field. Mr H.A. Polach, Research Officer in the deparment, who has been seconded to the Department of Geophysics and Geochemistry for the establishment of the radiocarbon dating laboratory, brought
• s. 30/1967
his equipment into operation during the year and produced the first date-list for publication in the journal Radiocarbon. In November Miss w.r. Mumford joined the department as archaeological draughtsman.
At ·the end of the year there were 9 students in the department, 8 Ph.D. and 1 M.Ao Of these, Mr J.I. Poulsen returned to Denmark to take up an appointment at the University of Aarhus and complete the writing up of his thesis. A second M.A. student completed her course during the year and one Ph.D. candidate withdrew. All members of the department participated in the work of the Canberra Archaeological Society.
Mr Mulvaney served on the Council and Executive Committee of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, and was appointed to the Standing Committee of the Far Eastern Prehistory Association. At the Pacific Science Congress he contributed a paper and read papers on behalf of Mr Golson and Mr Poulsen. He made brief visits to Portuguese Timor and Port Essington in connection with doctoral scholars' researches. He continued his personal research work at Keilor, Victoria and at Ingaladdi, Willeroo Station, in the Northern Territoryo At Green Gully, Keilor, in association with Mr J. Bowler, of the School's Department of Geography, he carried out excavations on the site of the recent discovery of the oldest human skeletal remains so far found in Australia. The dig produced evidence of more ancient human occupation. He prepared for publication a report on the excavation, for which Carbon 14 dates are being obtained. His excavations at Ingaladdi, which were started in 1963, are now completed. They have yielded a vast collection of retouched artefacts, the largest yet discovered in Australia. The analysis of the finds, which includes many important prehistoric types, has started. Their sequence of appearance on the site, together with related Carbon 14 dates, should throw a revealing light on some ancient horizons of Australian occupation. In layers known to be older than 6,000 years several rocks were found which bore linear engravings, bird tracks and other markings - the oldest art to have been dated in Austra~ia. Related geomorphological investigations are being made by Mr Key, Research Fellow in Environmental Archaeology, who took up his duties in January, and spent much of the year familiarising himself with the work of the department. In February he spent a week with Mr Mulvaney at the Keilor site. In May he accompanied Mr Golson to New Caledonia where he examined the work done by Mr C.D. Smarto In July he dug with Mr Mulvaney at Ingaladdi. In October he visited wewak and continued on to watom Island where he put down a series of auger holes to determine former beach levels for Mr Specht. At the department he set up a small laboratory for soil testing and minor chemical determinations. The mineralogical composition of stone artefacts and pottery can now be determined on the department's new petrological microscope. A large and varied collection of microscope slides of different kinds of pottery is being built up. The composition of ancient pottery from Watom, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and several different types from New Guinea is being studied. The pottery ancient and modern from New Guinea appears to be particularly useful for the study of population shifts in the Territory and a start has been made with a collection from the North Coast and Port Moresby.
• 6. 30/1967
Linguistics
Dr S.A. Wurm continued work on several research interests -the linguistic problems of New Guinea and the trade languages of New Guinea, in particular Pidgin; inter-disciplinary approaches to migrations within New Guinea; the study of linguistic field techniques in particular in Australia; and the assessment and analysis of materials collected by him in 1965 in Papuan languages spoken in the Eastern Solomon Islands. From the end of May till the end of July, he was on fieldwork in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, spending five weeks in the Western District and four in the Highlands, in particular the Eastern Highlands District. In the Western District, he discovered a hitherto undescribed language family located in the eastern part of the Trans Fly, and also carried out studies in the Southern Kiwai dialects. At the same time he assisted Dr c. Voorhoeve in the initial stages of linguistic survey work in the Upper Strickland and Nomad River areas where they succeeded in establishing, for the first time, contact with almost unknown tribes in the area between the Upper Strickland and Mount Bosavi. In August-September Dr Wurm attended the llth Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo where he presented papers on languages of the Eastern Solomons and on problems connected with Pidgin in New Guinea. In October he undertook a short field trip to Northern N.s.w. and South-eastern Queensland to collect additional materials in languages previously studied by him. Dr Laycock continued the assessment of the material, collected by Thurnwald over thirty years ago, in the languages of Southern Bougainville Island. Late in October 1966, he proceeded to the field in that area to make a first-hand study of the linguistic problems of the region. After a few months' preparation, Dr Voorhoeve proceeded to the field in the Western District of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in May 1966. After spending some time in the Balimo area, he went to the Upper Strickland and Nomad River area to study the entirely unknown linguistic situation in that area. He succeeded in establishing that all the languages are relatively closely interrelated, forming a single family. It appears that the family is related to the widespread Ok language family established by A. and P. Healey as a result of work under the auspices of the A.N.U. This important discovery leads to a further simplification of the linguistic picture of New Guinea which had already been considerably simplified as a result of earlier work carried out by linguists attached to the A.N.U. Dr Aguas carried out fieldwork in Northeastern Queensland, especially Palm Island Aboriginal Reserve, in March-April 1966. As a result of this work she collected ample materials in six hitherto little-known Aboriginal languages. The materials have been written up for publication.
Four publications, including one of book-size, were made by the Linguistic Circle of Canberra. A number of manuscripts were completed for publication in the series, of which Dr Wurm is editor and Dr Laycock one of the associate editors.
Work by scholars in Linguistics was very productive. Nguyen Dang Liem in the course of writing his thesis established a novel theory which on application to English, Vietnamese and Melanesian languages proved to be sound and well suited for a new
30/1967
type of language description. He successfully submitted the thesis. He also wrote several articles and more extensive studies for publication. His book on English gra.rrmar, described according to his new theory, received praise from leading American linguists. Miss A. Tran continued to work with the help of electronic equipment on the phonetic problems of Vietnamese, and began to write her thesis on the subject. Preliminary results seem to indicate that it will be a valuable contribution to a hitherto unsolved phonetic problem of South-east Asian languages. In July Mr D. Tryon returned briefly to the Loyalty Islands before writing the final version of his thesis, which was completed for submission early in 1967. His work constitutes the first extensive description of Melanesian la~guages from the point of view of some modern linguistic theorie3. In addition he also prepared large dictionaries in two of the languag0s. Mr J. Prentice returned from fieldwork in SabQh (Borneo) in February. He had carried out extensive research into one of the dialects of the Murut language which has hitherto been almost cc~pletely unstudied. He has been assessing his materials and writing a descriptive statement of this dialect. Mr D. Dellinger worked in Rorthern Thciland, from March to the end of May, studying the language of the Akha hill-tribe near Chiengrai. The language, which is relate<l to Burmese, had never been studied. He brought back considerable material on phonology and grammar. During the second half of 1966 he worked on the material in preparation for a second field trip in 1967. Mr T. Dutton went to the Central District of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea early in 1966 to carry out a thorough study of the Papuan languages in the area behind Port Moresby, between the Kemp Welsh River in the east, near Vanapata River in the west, and the OWen Stanley ranges and the sea in the north and south. He established that the entire area was occupied by a family of very closely interrelated languages which overlap into the Northern District. The Managalasi languages around Mount Lamington near Popondetta are also related to this family. Mr Dutton collected extensive materials in all languages of this family and is preparing in the field to write a descriptive and comparative statement. Fr. J. Z'Graggen began his Ph.D. studies in Febru~ry and spent the greater part of the year writing up materials which he had previously collected in languages spoken in coastal and near-coastal areas in the Madang District of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Early in December he went to the field to collect further materials on the languages already in part studied, and on other languages in the same region. Mr J. Harris spent from January till the end of July in the Gulf District of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea continuing his studies of dialects of Northern Kiwai, in which he had collected extensive materials. Miss J. Kinslow, who had been taken seriously ill during her first field trip to Arnhem Land in 1965, recovered sufficiently to make a second visit in the first third of 1966. She succeeded in collecting further valuable materials in languages belonging to the Mayali Norfolk languages, but was unfortunately again taken seriously ill. Her work was suspended until the end of the year. Mr R. Lang joined the Department as a research scholar in October and spent his time preparing for fieldwork in the Western District of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.
8. 30/1967
PUBLICATIONS
AMBROSE I w. R.
1966
BARNES, J.A.
1965
1965
1966
1966
'A Limiter of New Zealand Archaeology'. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter, vol.9, no.2, pp.71-73.
Foreword. In MADAN, Triloki Natha. Family and Kinship: a Study of the Pandits of Rural Kashmir. Bombay; Asia Publishing House. Pp.vii-x.
Foreword. In HIATT, Lester Richard. Kinship and Conflict: a Study of an Aboriginal Community in Northern Arnhem Land. Canberra: Australian National University. Pp.vii-xi.
'Indigenous Politics and Colonial Administration, with Special Reference to Australia'. In WALLERSTEIN, Immanuel, ed., Social Chanqe: the Colonial Situation. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Pp.214-231.
'Durkheim's Division of Labour in Society•. Man, vol.l (n.s.), pp.158-175.
BARWICK, Diane
1966 'Short History of Lake Tyers Farming Development -Submission by Dr Diane Barwick'. Appendix 2C, pp.35-37, Report of the Lake Tyers Planning and Action Committee on Rehabilitation and Training for Aborigines at Lake Tyers Reserve, mimeo., Aborigines Welfare Board.
1965-66 'Lakalai Political Organization'. Anthropological Forum, vol.l, nos.3-4, pp.412-473.
FREEMAN, J.D.
1965
1966
1966
'Samoa: a Matter of Emphasis'. American Anthropologist, vol.67, pp.1534-1537.
'Anthropological Theorizing and Historical Scholarship'. American Anthropologist, vol.68, pp.168-171.
'Social Anthropology and the Scientific Study of Human Behaviour'. Man, vol.l (n.s.), pp.330-342.
GOLSON, J., and GATHERCOLE, P.W.
1966 'The Last Decade in New Zealand Archaeology'. New Z.ealand Archaeological Association Newsletter, vol. 9, no.l, pp.4-19 (reprinted from Antiquity, vol.36, 1962).
9. 30/1967
LAMPERT, R.J.
1966
LIEM, N.G.
1966
1966
'An Excavation at Durras North, New South Wales'. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, vol.l, no.2, pp.83-118.
English Grarrmar: a Combined Tagmemic and Transformational Aopro&ch, Linguistic Circle of Canberra Publications, Series C.
'English Grammar for Vietnamese'. Hemisphere, vol.10, no.11, pp.11-16.
MULVANEY, D. J.
1966
1966
1966
'The Prehistory of the Australian Aborigine'. Scientific Am2rican, vol.214, pp.84-93.
'Bcche-de-mer, Aborigines and Australian History'. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol.79, pp.449-457.
'Fact, Fancy and Aboriginal Australian Ethnic Origins'. M~nkind. vol.6, pp.299-305.
MULVANEY, D.J., and JOYCE, E.B.
1965 'Archaeological and Geomorphological Investigations on Mt. Moffatt Station, Queensland'. Proceedings of the Prehictoric Society, vol.31, pp.147-212.
POLACH, H.A., and GOLSON, J.
1966
POULSEN, J.
1964
Collection of Specimens for Radiocarbon Dating and Interpretation of Results. Canberra, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Manual no.2.
'Preliminary Report on Pottery Finds in Tonga1• Asian
Percp8ctivcs, vol.8, no.l, pp.184-195.
REAY, Marie O.
1966 'Women in Transitional Society'. New Guinea on the Threshold, ed. E.K. Fisk, Canberra, Australian National University, pp.166-184.
RIMOLDI, M. R.
1966
SINHA, D.P.
1966
'Land Tenure and Land Use among the Mount Lamington Orokaiva'. New Guinea Research Unit Bulletin, no.11, Canberra.
The Processes of Cultural Change at the Banari Intertribal Market. Ranchi, Council of Social and Cultural Research.
.. 10. 30/1967
SMART, C.D.
1966 'The Ditch-and-Bank Fence'. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter, vol.9, no.l, pp.19-28.
STANNER, W. E. H.
1966
1966
'Australia and Racialism'. St. Mark's Review, no.43, pp.1-11.
'Firth's Conception of Social Organization'. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, vol.2, no.2, pp.66-78.
VAN RIJSWIJCK, Olga
1966 'The Selang Resettlement Project'. New Guinea Research Unit Bulletin, no.10, Canberra.
WIJEYEWARDENE, G.E.T.
1965
1966
WURM, S.A.
1966
1966
1966
1966
YOUNG, M.W.
1966
'A Note on Irrigation and Agriculture in a North Thai Village'. Felicitation Volumes of Southeast-Asian Studies presented to His Highness Prince Dhaninivat Kromamum Bidyalabh Bridhyakorn on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Vol.2, pp.255-259, The Siam Society.
'A Comparative Note on Ecology and Social Structure'. Man, vol.l (n.s.), pp.95-102.
'Language and Literacy'. New Guinea on the Threshold, ed. E.K. Fisk, Canberra, Australian National University, pp.135-148.
'Papua-New Guinea Nationhood: the Problem of a National Language'. The Journal of the Papua and New Guinea Society, vol.l.
'Pidgin : a National Language'. New Guinea and Australia, the Pacific and South-East Asia, no.7.
'Language and Agriculture in New Guinea'. New Scientist, vol.31, no.506, pp.216-218.
'The Divine Kingship of the Jukun: a Re-Evaluation of some Theories'. Africa, vol.36, no.2, pp.135-152.
