The early ethnographic writings of EW Pearson Chinnery: Government Anthropologist of New Guinea
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Lawrence, David
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Abstract
EW Pearson Chinnery (1887–1972) occupied a number of senior positions in the
Australian colonial administrations of the territories of Papua and New Guinea
in the 1920s and 1930s.
His career may therefore be conveniently examined in two parts: his
appointment as a District Officer in Papua from 1910 to 1917, and, following
service with the Australian Flying Corps during World War I and studies in
anthropology at Cambridge University, his work in the Mandated Territory of
New Guinea from 1924 to 1937. He was an important administrative official at
a time when Australia took the following significant steps to improve the
quality of the field staff in the territories:
• the appointment of government anthropologists reporting to the
colonial administration;
• the development of a cadet patrol officer scheme; and
• the establishment of the Chair in Anthropology at the University of
Sydney.
However, Chinnery is not regarded as an important figure in the history of
Australian anthropology. This paper offers some explanation as to why he is
largely ignored, but seeks first to examine how and why Chinnery developed
in interest in ethnology during his initial service in Papua and later when a
student at Cambridge in 1919 and 1920.
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2037-12-31
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