Howard Morphy (born 13 June 1947) is a British

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

who has conducted extensive fieldwork in northern Australia, mainly among the Yolngu people. He was founding director of the Research School of Humanities and the Arts at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

and is currently a distinguished professor of anthropology. Morphy is an anthropologist of art and film. He is co-editor of ''The Anthropology of Art: a Reader'' (2006, Blackwell's, with Morgan Perkins) and ''Rethinking Visual Anthropology'' (1997, Yale University Press, with Marcus Banks), two keys texts in these fields. He has also published in the area of Australian Aboriginal art, especially ''Ancestral Connections'' (Chicago 1991), and a general survey book ''Aboriginal Art'' (Phaidon, 1998) as well as ''Becoming Art: Exploring Cross-Cultural Categories'' (Berg, 2007), described by one reviewer as demonstrating his 'encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Yolngu art production', whilst also noting it was 'no easy read'. He has also produced a multimedia biography ''The Art of Narritjin Maymuru'' with Pip Deveson and Katie Hayne (ANU epress 2005). Morphy has also worked closely filmmakers and curated exhibitions including ''Yingapungapu'' at the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

Academic career

After completing BSc and MPhil degrees at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Morphy worked briefly in the Ethnography department of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

before responding to an advertisement for PhD funding at the

, to work with the Yolngu people of northeast

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

(Yirrkala), which he began in 1974. After a period teaching at ANU he was appointed lecturer in anthropology and curator at the

Pitt Rivers Museum Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, in 1986. During his period in Oxford, Morphy served as Junior Proctor in 1990-91, Senior Tutor of

Linacre College Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students. Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its m ...

, and, with Sir

Barry Cunliffe Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe, (born 10 December 1939), known as Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. Since 2007, he has been an Emeri ...

, helped develop the new Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduate degree. In 1996 Morphy moved to

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

as professor of anthropology and the following year returned to

as a senior research fellow. At ANU Morphy was appointed director for the Centre for Cross Cultural Research, and then director of the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, with a responsibility for undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as research. He stood down from that position in September 2013. Morphy is a past president of the Council for Museum Anthropology of the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...

. In 2013 he was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal by the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI). A special seminar 'Fostering the Anthropological Imagination: The work of Frances and Howard Morphy' was convened by the

American Ethnological Society The American Ethnological Society (AES) is the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States. History of the American Ethnological Society Albert Gallatin and John Russell Bartlett founded the American Ethnological Societ ...

in 2018, celebrating their important contribution to Australian anthropology.

Personal life

Morphy is married to the anthropologist Frances Morphy, a honorary associate professor at Australian National University, with whom he has collaborated extensively over the years. The couple met at University College London and moved to Australia together to do fieldwork in Arnhem Land. Frances Morphy has said that 'that field experience with the Yolngu gave us the solid foundation for our long-term partnership and our lifelong, shared interests.'

Selected publications

Morphy, Howard. 'The anthropology of art', in ''Companion encyclopedia of anthropology'', pp. 682-719. Routledge, 2002. Banks, Marcus, and Howard Morphy, eds. ''Rethinking visual anthropology''. Yale University Press, 1997. Morphy, Howard. 'Landscape and the reproduction of the ancestral past', In ''The anthropology of landscape: perspectives on place and space'', edited by Eric Hirsch and Michael O'Hanlon. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1995), 184-209. Morphy, Howard. "The interpretation of ritual: reflections from film on anthropological practice." ''Man'' (1994): 117-146. Morphy, Howard. ''Ancestral connections: art and an Aboriginal system of knowledge''. University of Chicago Press, 1991. Morphy, Howard. "From dull to brilliant: the aesthetics of spiritual power among the Yolngu." ''Man'' (1989): 21-40.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morphy, Howard People associated with the Pitt Rivers Museum Visual anthropologists Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford British anthropologists Yolngu 1947 births Living people Alumni of University College London Australian National University alumni