PERSONAL NEWS

Courses in Nijmegen

- Gilbert Herdt lectured a course entitled "Sexual Cultures" in the Departments of Anthropology and Women's Studies at The University of Nijmegen between February and June 1993.

- This academic year Henri Claessen and Anton Ploeg will lecture courses on the Pacific at the Centre in Nijmegen.

Staff

- Toon van Meijl has been appointed as research fellow of 'The Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for three years. He will be working at the Centre for Pacific Studies, and is the acting manager of the Centre for Pacific Studies during the period of time Ton Otto is on leave in Australia (until the end of this year). Toon is also the new secretary of The Netherlands Association of Southeast Asia and Oceania.

- Louise Thoonen has been appointed as junior researcher with the Centre for Pacific Studies (Department of Anthropology, University of Nijmegen) on a project of four years, She will conduct anthropological fieldwork in the Vogelkop (Bird's Head), Irian Jaya.

- Els Verzijlbergen has been appointed as junior researcher with the Centre for Pacific Studies (Department of Anthropology, University of Nijmegen) on a project of four years. She will examine the position of women on plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia, during the Dutch colonial occupation.

Recent MA and PhD's in Pacific Studies

Berit Gustafsson succesfully defended her PhD-dissertation at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (IASSA), University of Gothenburg, on 9 January 1993. Dr.Ton Otto of the Centre for Pacific Studies in Nijmegen acted as opponent during the examination.

The title of the dissertation is: Houses and Ancestors: Continuities and discontinuities in leadership among the Manus. Copies of the dissertation may be obtained from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (IASSA), Västra Hamngatan 3, S-411 17 Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jan A. Godschalk succesfully defended his PhD-dissertation at the Free University of Amsterdam on 18 March 1993.

The title of his dissertation is: Sela Valley: An Ethnography of a Mek Society in the Eastern Highlands, Irian Jaya, Indonesia.

Copies may be obtained from Logoconsult, Geldermalsen, Netherlands or from the author.

Eric Venbrux of the Centre for Pacific Studies in Nijmegen defended his PhD-dissertation at the University of Nijmegen on 1 June 1993. The examination committee awarded him with "cum laude" for his excellent work.

The title of his dissertation is:

Under the Mango tree; A case of homicide in an Australian Aboriginal society.

Antoine Vanhemelrijk, Analyse van recent voorlichtings- materiaal gericht op Nederlandse adspirant-emigranten naar Nieuw-Zeeland (Analysis of recent educational material aimed at Dutch potential migrants to New Zealand), MA 1993, University of Nijmegen.

Networkfacilities - Fred Melssen

Fred Melssen (1963) studied anthropology and history. He specialized in the ethnohistory and museal culture of the Pacific Islands. Some extensive research resulted in several publications and exhibitions. Fred is doing research to missionary collections in Europe, originating from Melanesia. This year he will continue his study of collections of the Congregations of the Holy Word (SVD). A visit to some collections in Poland is to be included.

At present he is engaged in two projects. One of them concerns "anthropology and networking". He created some networking facilities for the benefit of anthropological research. He is managing some email discussionlists about ethnohistory, pacific research and social sciences. Another project concerns the study of "virtual culture"; the way cultures and relations are constructed in the context of electronic communication (email and 'real time'. Especially gender and personal relations are topics of interest. At present Fred Melssen is associate editor of the (Arachnet) "Electronic Journal on Virtual Culture".

In September Fred will finish his job as network advisor at the University of Utrecht. He hopes to be able to continue the work in this promising frontier - network facilities, especially related to anthropological research.

Email address: u211610@kunrcl.urc.kun.nl.

In memoriam Jan van Baal

Sjoerd Jaarsma

On 9 August 1992 Jan van Baal died, 82 years old, at Doorn where he had lived. In him we lose a man whose influence on the anthropological study of Irian Jaya we can hardly measure. Van Baal, like so many anthropologists of his generation, had a varied career. He studied 'Indologie', an academic course for colonial officials, at Leyden University. In 1934 he was awarded a doctorate for an anthropological thesis on the headhunting complex of the Marind-anim. Shortly after, Van Baal left for the Dutch Indies to enter the colonial administration. He was appointed for two years as assistant-district commissioner at Merauke (Dutch New Guinea) in 1936. Detained by the Japanese during the Pacific War, he returned to Holland in 1950. Here, he first published on what became a major theoretical theme in his work, the study of religion. In 1951 he was once again posted to New Guinea, this time to set up a Bureau of Native Affairs, which he headed for over a year. He then left New Guinea for Holland, only to return in 1953 for a three-year stretch as Governor of Dutch New Guinea.

In 1959 he began his academic career at the department of anthropology of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. The following year he was appointed to part-time professorships at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam. During these years he wrote Dema (1966), an extensive study of the culture of the Marind-anim. Six years before his retirement in 1975 he was appointed to a full professorship in anthropology at Utrecht.

There are several ways in which to describe Van Baal's role in the development of Dutch anthropology. I mentioned his work on religion, in which he specifically focused upon religious beliefs as an integral part of the human condition. He had a lasting interest in cultural change which continued throughout his administrative and academic career. By far the most important aspect, however, is his influence on the ethnographic description of Irian Jaya. Here, he was an authority. He used his administrative and academic positions to instigate ethnographic research and to further the publishing of research results. In this he had an open eye not only for academic accomplishments, but also for administrative and missionary contributions. His purpose in stimulating fieldwork was the description of what he saw as a rapidly disappearing way of life. Urged by the variety of cultural adaptations in New Guinea his priorities were on providing for a scientifically valid record, less on the reasons behind such variety. During his academic career this 'black spots'-ethnography became increasingly controversial as its attainability was doubtful.

Jan van Baal will be remembered in many different ways. Not the least of these is, I think, as one of the few representatives that remained of an anthropology still unfettered as an academic discipline.

In memoriam Roger Martin Keesing

Ton Otto

On Friday night, May 7 1993, Roger Keesing died suddenly of a massive heart attack while dancing joyously at an informal gathering during the CASCA (Canadian Anthropology Society) meetings in Toronto, Canada. Born on May 16 1935, he was not yet 58 years old.

The way he died echoes the way he lived. Roger Keesing was a driven man. He lived his life with great intensity, even tensely at times. He was fully and seriously committed to the things he did, whether writing a book or playing a game of tennis. His life was like an energetic dance, motivated both by the joy of dancing and by the fear of a void which threatens every thinking human being. He appeared to be particularly aware of this void and this gave his life the quality of intensity that was so characteristic, but also an aspect of restlessness and anxiety.

It is a tragic coincidence that his father Felix Keesing, also a celebrated anthropologist, died of a heart attack, while playing tennis, at almost exactly the same age.

Roger's sudden death was an untimely end to an exceptionally successful and productive career. He received his academic training at Stanford University (BA) and Harvard University (MA and PhD). From 1965 he worked at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in various positions. In 1974 he accepted a professorship at the Institute of Advanced Studies, at the Australian National University. He headed the Department of Anthropology from until 1976 until 1990, when he accepted a chair in anthropology at McGill University in Montreal.

Roger combined a passion for knowledge with great productivity. He published some ten books and more than a hundred articles on a range of subjects reflecting the enormous breadth of his interests. His areas of research included cultural theory, kinship, religion, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, history, gender studies and politics. Gifted with a synthetic mind and a capacity for fluent and lucid prose, he distiled and summarised new developments in various fields in essays that were much cited. He was also the author of one of the best and most widely used introductory anthropology textbooks. In addition, he developed original and powerful lines of investigation, for example concerning the invention of tradition in the Pacific, and concerning the concept of mana, which he found was mystified by most anthropologists. In general he argued against idealistic trends in cognitive, symbolic and postmodern anthropology. He warned against other cultures and emphasized the underlying unity of humankind which allows us to communicate across cultural and political boundaries. Roger developed a strong awareness of the political aspects of culture and, consequently, of the academic study of culture. During his professional career he maintained an exemplary standard of intellectual and political honesty.

His anthropological writings, though often addressing more general and widely appealing issues, were based on thorough and sustained fieldwork, mainly among the Kwaio of Malaita, in the Solomon Islands, where he worked intermittently from 1962 till 1992, but also in Turkey and India. He had a strong bond with 'his' people, as was expressed by the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands in a fax read by the High Commissioner during the memorial service in Montreal. Roger was concerned about "giving voice" to indigenous people, whom he greatly admired. He edited and published several life histories of Kwaio men and women. The royalties from his books about the Kwaio were used to fund local development projects and to maintain the Kwaio Cultural Centre.

Roger Keesing was deeply concerned about developments in the Pacific which are leading to greater political inequalities and the deterioration of the environment. He aired this concern in his opening speech during the First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies in Nijmegen on 17 December 1992. The title of his lecture was 'A tin with the meat taken out. A bleak anthropological view of unsustainable development'. Although his view of these developments was undeniably pessimistic, he urged his audience to continue speaking out against them.

Roger Keesing's death is felt as premature by those he left behind. During his last years he was incredibly active: teaching, writing and travelling to conferences all over the world he was invariably acclaimed as one of the leading anthropologists of out time. His death is a great lost to the discipline.

His death is even a much greater loss to his family, friends and students who have known him as a generous, open, supportive and encouraging person. Like everyone. he had his weaknesses, one of them perhaps his strong desire for being acknowledged and being admired. His driven-ness sometimes prevented him from being "properly" diplomatic. As a result, he could irritate people who did not know him well. He was careful, however, not to reciprocate acts of unfriendliness and envy that were sometimes directed at him. He remained a gentle person who basically wanted to be on good terms with everyone.

On 13 May the 'Celebration of the life of Prof.R.Keesing' took place in the Chapel of McGill University in Montreal. The chapel was full to overflowing and the speeches by family, colleagues, and students testified to the warmth his life has generated. His ashes are taken to the Kwaio, who will honour him in traditional ways and who will keep his memory as an "andalo" (ancestor). His mind will live on in his publications and in the people he inspired and continues to inspire.