Department of Anthropology

The Chair of Anthropology was established in 1925 with the dual purpose of training administrative officers for work in Papua and in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea and for research and was to be funded between the State and Commonwealth Governments with additional funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The first person appointed to the Chair was Alfred Reginald Radcliffe Brown, a scholar of Trinity College Cambridge and a distinguished researcher and lecturer. The Department of Anthropology was also created in 1925 and Radcliffe Brown built up an impressive program offering not only a diploma in anthropology but also teaching MA students; providing classes for cadets, officers and missionaries for New Guinea and placing high quality research fellows such as Warner and Raymond Firth.

Radcliffe Brown was appointed Chairman of the Research Committee on Anthropology of the Council of the Australian National Research Council and had some success at employing anthropologists in field work. A magazine, Oceania, was produced to publish the results of their research. However both the future of the department and the journal were threatened by the economic recession of the time and Radcliffe Brown eventually resigned to take up a position at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, although he still took an interest in the departments future.

His successor, Associate Professor Raymond Firth, was left to struggle on running a department with an uncertain future, producing Oceania and directing the Research Council. He too, however resigned, in 1932 following cutbacks to their funding from the State Government and a communication from the Commonwealth Government saying it could not confirm what its contribution would be after June 1932.

Dr Adolphus Peter Elkin stepped up to take over the Chair of Anthropology in 1933, a difficult year when the department was under serious threat. The Commonwealth Government halved their annual financial contribution towards the Chair and the State Governments, with the exception of New South Wales withdrew their subsidies altogether. The Faculty of Arts was requested, by the Senate, to produce a report on the future of the department in which they strongly expressed their wish to continue teaching the course. They also recommended making a public announcement to the effect that it might be necessary to discontinue the course in Anthropology unless funding were made available. This caused some consternation and there followed much political lobbying to which end the Commonwealth Government agreed to supply a sum of 1250 per year for four years which, together with the grant from the New South Wales Government, allowed the continuation of the department for the moment.

Money was still tight though and Elkin, with the help of some of the Research Council Fellows, lectured the students; he also supervised the MA students, continued to edit Oceania and was Director of the Research Councils Anthropological Research Programme. After much petitioning of the Prime Minister, and with the help of Sir Grafton Elliott Smith who was so influential in gaining the Commonwealth Government grant back in 1933, an additional lectureship was granted to the University in 1936.
By 1940 the departments future was secure. It was an integrated part of the Universitys financial structure and its good reputation and research ensured outside donations began to be offered. The trio of A P Elkin, the Professor, H I P Hogbin as Reader and A Capell as Reader in Oceanic Languages were widely recognised in the field and Elkin became well known for his work on Aboriginal life.

Elkin retired in 1956 to be succeeded briefly by J A Barnes until 1958 when he took up a post at the Australian National University. In 1959 W R Geddes was appointed to the Chair and in 1969 a second Chair was created to be taken by Peter Lawrence, a senior lecturer.

During Geddes time in the Chair the research of the department diversified to include, not only Australian and Melanesian studies, but also New Guinea, Fiji and eventually much of the Asian continent. The course was also extended into the Prehistory and Archaeology course and in 1975 the University produced a research report which described the department as having three sections; Social Anthropology, Prehistory or Archaeology and Linguistics. Consistent with the course expansion was staff expansion and the department gained a sociologist in 1970, R A Wild, and an associate professor and a reader in Pre-History in 1975, R V S Wright.

The Department of Anthropology today offers courses in social anthropology and the staff number 7 senior lecturers, 2 lecturers, a Professor and Daryl Feil in the Chair.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY IS INCOMPLETE