Ian Saem Majnep (c. 1948 – September 2007) was a naturalist from the
Kalam
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
people of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
who wrote about the plants, animals and the belief systems of the Kalam people while collaborating with the British anthropologist and ethnobiologist
Ralph Bulmer
Ralph Neville Hermon Bulmer (3 April 1928 – 18 July 1988) was a twentieth-century ethnobiologist who worked in Papua New Guinea, particularly with the Kalam people. From 1974 he made a radical shift by changing the role of his Kalam inform ...
. He worked as a field assistant for Bulmer at the
University of Papua New Guinea
The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...
in
Port Moresby
(; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...
, and co-authored several books with Bulmer. He was also a main contributor to a dictionary of the
Kalam language
Kalam is a Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to Kobon, and shares many of the features of that language. Kalam is spoken in Middle Ramu District of Madang Province and in Mount Hagen District of Western Highlands Provin ...
, which was published posthumously.
Biography
Majnep was born around 1948. He belonged to the Kalam people of
Madang Province
Madang is a province of Papua New Guinea. The province is on the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and has many of the country's highest peaks, active volcanoes and its biggest mix of languages. The capital is the town of Madang.
D ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. The name Majnep means "Just sweet potatoes", derived from the situation faced by his family at the time of his birth, of having nothing to eat but sweet potatoes. When he was just four, his father died after a fall from a tree and his mother, Kalam, took care of him. They lived in the mountain forest above Gobnem (pronounced Gombnem) and in the Gulkm Valley. His mother was described by him as an expert hunter of animals and knowledgeable on the plants. He learned to recognize and survive on plants and animals around him from a very young age.
When he was 11, the Kalam people came in contact with the outside world, and Europeans came to the region to study them. They included
Ralph Bulmer
Ralph Neville Hermon Bulmer (3 April 1928 – 18 July 1988) was a twentieth-century ethnobiologist who worked in Papua New Guinea, particularly with the Kalam people. From 1974 he made a radical shift by changing the role of his Kalam inform ...
and
Bruce Biggs
Bruce Grandison Biggs (4 September 1921 – 18 October 2000) was an influential figure in the academic field of Māori studies in New Zealand. The first academic appointed (1950) to teach the Māori language at a New Zealand university, he tau ...
. As a child he visited their camps, and when he was 15, he began to assist Bulmer, who continued to make visits. He became a field assistant for Bulmer, who translated his notes and made him the first author of the books they wrote together in later years.
From 1968, Majnep was employed by the
University of Papua New Guinea
The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...
as a research assistant. This work took Majnep on field trips to various parts of PNG, to do archaeological work in Chimbu and the Eastern Highlands Provinces and in the Kaironk Valley, as well as in Central Province. He worked with various UPNG staff including Ralph Bulmer, the archaeologist
Susan Bulmer and zoologist James Menzies. Initially Bulmer made use of Majnep as an informant, but in 1974, Bulmer decided to let Majnep be the main author and ethnographer.
Bulmer and Majnep published several works, starting with ''Birds of My Kalam Country'' (1977) with Majnep as the main author. Majnep was able to decide the shape and purpose of the anthropological work as ethnographer, rather than as consultant.
In 1974 Majnep was baptised and received the Christian name Ian. In 1977, Majnep got married and returned to live in the Kaironk Valley and raise his family.
Majnep received an honorary doctorate from the
University of Papua New Guinea
The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) is a university located in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea. It was established by ordinance of the Australian administration in 1965. This followed the Currie Commission which had enquired ...
for his contributions to
indigenous science
Indigenous science is the application and intersection of indigenous knowledge and science. In ecology this is sometimes termed traditional ecological knowledge.
Traditional and scientific
Indigenous knowledge and experiences have traditionally ...
in 1989.
Majnep died suddenly in 2007, and ''Kalam Plant Lore'', which he was working on, remains unpublished. A dictionary project that he worked on was published in 2011.
A conference on traditional environmental knowledge was held in his honour in October–November 2012.
In 2017 a gallery in the
Papua New Guinea National Museum was named in Majnep’s honour.
Works
The writings of Majnep include:
* Majnep, Ian Saem, 1982. On the importance of conserving traditional knowledge of wildlife and hunting and plants. In
Louise Morauta, J. Pernatta and W. Heaney, eds, Traditional conservation in Papua New Guinea: implications for today, 79-82. Monograph 16. Port Moresby, Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research.
* Majnep, Ian Saem, 1991. What is this man up to? A Kalam view of Ralph Bulmer. In Pawley ed. 1991, 29–36.
* Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer, 1977. Birds of my Kalam country. Auckland: Auckland and Oxford University Presses.
* Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer, 1983. Some food plants of our Kalam forests. Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics, Maori Studies no. 63. Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.
* Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer 1991. Kalam hunting traditions. (Edited by Andrew Pawley.) Working Papers in Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics Maori Studies nos 85–90. Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland. pp. 405.
* Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer 2007. Animals the ancestors hunted: an account of the wild mammals of the Kalam area, Papua New Guinea. (Edited by Robin Hide and Andrew Pawley.) Adelaide: Crawford House Australia.
* Majnep, Ian Saem with Andrew Pawley, 2001. On the value of ecological knowledge to the Kalam of Papua New Guinea: an insider‟s view. In Luisa Maffi ed., Biological diversity: linking language, knowledge and the environment, 343–357. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press.
* Majnep, Ian Saem, Andrew Pawley, Rhys Gardner and Robin Hide (?). Kalam plant lore: an account of the trees and other plants of the Upper Kaironk Valley, Papua New Guinea.
* Pawley, Andrew and Ralph Bulmer, with the assistance of John Kias, Simon Peter Gi and Ian Saem Majnep, 2011. A dictionary of Kalam with ethnographic notes. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
References
External links
A Dictionary of KalamArticle on Ralph Bulmer with a photograph of Majnep
{{Authority control
Papua New Guinean writers
1948 births
2007 deaths
Ethnobiologists
University of Papua New Guinea
University of Papua New Guinea faculty