John Mathew (31 May 1849 – 11 March 1929) was an Australian

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister and

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 ...

, author of ''"Eaglehawk and Crow"'' and ''"Two Representative Tribes of Queensland"''.

Biography

Mathew was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, on 31 May 1849, the fourth child (and eldest son) of Alexander Mathew, a factory overseer, and his wife Jean, ''née'' Mortimer. Mathew was initially educated at Kidd's school, Aberdeen. At nine years of age his father died and he went to live with his maternal grandmother at

Insch Insch ( gd, An Innis or Innis Mo Bheathain) is a village in the Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located approximately from the city of Aberdeen. Etymology The name of the village may have come from the Scottish Gaelic ''innis'', me ...

, where he attended the Insch Free Church School as a pupil-teacher from 1862 to 1864. In 1864 Mathew migrated to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia, with a brother and sister, to live with their uncle John Mortimer on his station, ''Manumbar'', on the

Burnett River The Burnett River is a river located in the Wide Bay–Burnett and Central Queensland regions of Queensland, Australia. Course and features The Burnett River rises in the Burnett Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, close to Mount Gaeta a ...

. Mathew worked there for six years as a stockrider, bookkeeper, and storeman, becoming familiar with the culture and language of two

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

groups, the Kabi and

Wakka Wakka Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian community of the state of Queensland. Name "''Wakka''" was assigned the meaning "no" by Western linguists who documented the Wakawaka language. Ethnonyms based on the duplication of ...

people. He afterwards tried gold-digging for two years, and then worked as a teacher at

Dalby, Queensland Dalby () is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Dalby had a population of 12,719 people. It is on the Darling Downs and is the administrative centre for the Western Downs Regi ...

(1872–75) and the

Brisbane Normal School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , city = South Brisbane , state = Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Public, selective, co-educational, secondary, ...

(1875–76). Mathew moved to

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia and graduated from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

(B.A., 1884; M.A., 1886) with first-class honours despite working at times as a tutor and station-manager. As a Presbyterian minister, Mathew worked at Ballan, Victoria from 1887 for two years, then at

Coburg, Victoria Coburg is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Darebin and Merri-bek local government areas. Coburg recorded a population of 26,574 at the 2021 census. Alt ...

from 1889 to 1923. Mathew returned to Queensland in 1906, visiting the Kabi and Wakka Wakka people at the Barambah Aboriginal Settlement.

Publications

In 1889 Mathew won the prize and medal of the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June ...

for an essay titled "The Australian Aborigines". This was the basis for his best-known publication, ''Eaglehawk and Crow'' (1899). This publication was criticised (as Mathew had expected) by the ethnographers

Walter Baldwin Spencer Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (23 June 1860 – 14 July 1929), commonly referred to as Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian evolutionary biologist, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his fieldwork with Aboriginal peoples in ...

, Alfred William Howitt and

Lorimer Fison Lorimer Fison (9 November 1832 – 29 December 1907) was an Australian anthropologist, Methodist minister and journalist. Early life Fison was born at Barningham, Suffolk, England, the son of Thomas Fison, a prosperous landowner, and his wife ...

. There was however, more support from Daisy Bates and

Robert Hamilton Mathews Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the ...

. He published ''Two Representative Tribes of Queensland'' in 1910.

Death and legacy

Mathews died on 11 March 1929. Although his

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

studies and

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

reporting are still well regarded (as of 1986), his controversial theory of a tri-hybrid origin of Australian Aboriginal peoples is not supported by current data.

References

External links

* A letter to the newspaper by Mathew. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathew, John 1849 births 1929 deaths Australian anthropologists