Guide to the Papers of Gerald Camden Wheeler (as filmed by the AJCP), 1953-1954
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Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- M599
- Creator:
- Wheeler, Gerald, 1872-1943
- Extent:
- 28 items
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the School of Oriental and African Studies and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Ranjang poems, 1783, School of Oriental and African Studies (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla-obj-1379824672)
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference.
Background
- Content Summary:
-
Incomplete typescript draft of 'The Mono-Alu People of Bougainville Strait' containing detailed descriptions of various aspects of their culture such as kinship, religion, marriage, ownership and death rites. Many of the statements are supported by verbatim quotations in the vernacular language together with translations. The draft includes a contents list and glossary of the Mono-Alu language.
Notes and correspondence 1953-1954 of George B. Milner of the University of London with Mrs Wheeler and the Royal Anthropological Institute relating to his work on the Wheeler Papers.
- Biographical / Historical:
-
Gerald Clair William Camden Wheeler (1872-1943) was born in London and educated at St Charles College and the University of London. He had a passion for languages and was fluent in English, French, Portuguese, German and Swedish and competent in eight other languages.
Under the direction of W.H.R. Rivers, he participated in an anthropological expedition to the Solomon Islands in 1908-1909. He first worked on Simbo Island and then settled in Alu Island, where he became acquainted with the German anthropologist Richard Thurnwald. In referring to the inhabitants of Alu, he coined the term 'Mono-Alu', as at some time in the nineteenth century Mono people had invaded Alu and killed or expelled the 'old Alu' inhabitants. Wheeler remained on the island for less than a year, but acquired an extraordinary knowledge of the Austronesian Mono-Alu language.
On his return to England, Wheeler published The tribe and intertribal relations in Australia (1910), based on his doctoral thesis at the University of London. He taught part-time at the London School of Economics for a number of years, but failed to secure a university position after World War I. He was a friend of Bronislaw Malinowski and collaborated with L.T. Hobhouse and Morris Ginsberg on their comparative study, The material culture and social institutions of the simpler peoples: an essay in correlation (1915).
In 1926 Wheeler published Mono-Alu folklore, describing 79 myths, stories and songs. For each myth he provided a transcription in the Mono-Alu language and an English translation. At the time of Wheeler's death, his monograph on the 'sociology' of Mono-Alu was unfinished. The School of Oriental and African Studies holds two versions of the draft, one manuscript and the other typed. There are references in the text to several chapters which are now missing, such as 'Genealogy', 'Crafts', 'Cooking', 'Technology', 'Philology' and 'Grammar'.
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Available for Access.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the School of Oriental and African Studies and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Ranjang poems, 1783, School of Oriental and African Studies (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla-obj-1379824672)
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: