Peter Lawrence (1921 – 21 December 1987) was a British-born Australian anthropologist and pioneer in the study of
Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
n religions.
Lawrence was born in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, and read
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Between 1942 and 1946 he served in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
before returning to Cambridge at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He conducted his first fieldwork among the Garia people in southern
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 ...
in 1949–1950. Supervised by
Meyer Fortes
Meyer Fortes FBA FRAI (25 April 1906 – 27 January 1983) was a South African-born anthropologist, best known for his work among the Tallensi and Ashanti in Ghana.
Originally trained in psychology, Fortes employed the notion of the "person ...
, he received his PhD in 1951 with a thesis entitled "Social structure and the process of social control among the Garia, Madang District, New Guinea".
Lawrence held teaching positions 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 ...
(1948-1957), the
Australian School of Pacific Administration
The Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) was a tertiary institution established by the Australian Government to train administrators and later school teachers to work in Papua New Guinea. It became the International Training Insti ...
(from 1957), the
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...
(1960-1963), the
University of Queensland
, mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work
, established =
, endowment = A$224.3 million
, budget = A$2.1 billion
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Peter Varghese
, vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry
, city = B ...
(1966-1970), and the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
(1963-1965 and 1970–1986).
Lawrence's early work was, in the British tradition, an examination of Garia social structure. However, Lawrence's portrayal of Garia social structure was by anthropologists of the day because the picture he painted differed so greatly from orthodox models of the time. Lawrence published ethnographic accounts of Garia life in ''Land Tenure Among The Garia: The Traditional System of a New Guinea People'' (1955) and (in roughly similar form) ''Studies in New Guinea Land Tenure'' (1967, which included work by
Ian Hogbin
Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...
as well). It was not until 1984 that Lawrence finally published ''Garia: An Ethnography of a Traditional Cosmic System in Papua New Guinea''. At that point, the academic community recognized that Lawrence's account of the Garia was not just accurate, but years ahead of its time. In the end, Lawrence's careful ethnography was vindicated and the earlier models that he challenged were recognized to be inaccurate. In 1967 he published a long, satirical poem entitled "Don Juan in Melanesia" mocking the structure-functionalism that he opposed.
In the course of his career, Lawrence moved beyond an interest in social structure and grew interested in religion. In 1965 he co-edited ''Gods, Ghosts, and Men in Melanesia'' with
Mervyn Meggitt
Mervyn John Meggitt (20 August 1924 – 13 November 2004 New York State) was an Australian anthropologist and one of the pioneering researchers of highland Papua New Guinea and of Indigenous Australian cultures.
Born in Warwick, Queensland and ...
, and his 1967 inaugural lecture "Daughters of Time" summarized his approach. His most important work on religion, however, is doubtless his masterpiece ''Road Belong Cargo ''(1964), which most scholars consider to be his most important work. It became one of the seminal contributions in the literature on
cargo cult
A cargo cult is an indigenist millenarian belief system, in which adherents perform rituals which they believe will cause a more technologically advanced society to deliver goods.
Causes, beliefs, and practices
Cargo cults are marked by a ...
s.
Lawrence's focus on religion was not abstract as his ''Road Belong Cargo'' showed, he was interested in religion as it related to politics and social change. Lawrence was one of the rare authors, with the French author Jean Guiart, they were friends, to introduce a political analytical view in the study of the so-called Cargo Cults, considered irrational by most Europeans, be they missionaries or administrators. He described the long resistance of the Garia people against the German, then the Australian, then the Japanese, then the Australian administration again, and the different traditional and modern ideas and experiments they have made use of to this end. His description of the career of the leader Yali is a model of anthropological and historical objectivity.
Lawrence became a prominent academic in Australia and abroad. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in 1967 and an Honorary Fellow of the Association for the Social Anthropology of Oceania. He also became the editor of Oceania, the first anthropology journal in Australia, in 1980.
He died of a stroke in Sydney.
A portrait of him painted in 1938 by Tempe Manning is held by the
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
.
NLA index to holdings
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Peter
Australian anthropologists
1921 births
1987 deaths
20th-century British anthropologists
British emigrants to Australia
Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea