Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881
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Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8 Part 1 Goemulgaw Lagal: Natural and Cultural Histories of the Island of Mabuyag, Torres Strait. Edited by Ian J. McNiven and Garrick Hitchcock Minister: Annastacia Palaszczuk MP, Premier and Minister for the Arts CEO: Suzanne Miller, BSc(Hons), PhD, FGS, FMinSoc, FAIMM, FGSA , FRSSA Editor in Chief: J.N.A. Hooper, PhD Editors: Ian J. McNiven PhD and Garrick Hitchcock, BA (Hons) PhD(QLD) FLS FRGS Issue Editors: Geraldine Mate, PhD PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD 2015 © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone: +61 (0) 7 3840 7555 Fax: +61 (0) 7 3846 1226 Web: qm.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 1440-4788 VOLUME 8 IS COMPLETE IN 2 PARTS COVER Image on book cover: People tending to a ground oven (umai) at Nayedh, Bau village, Mabuyag, 1921. Photographed by Frank Hurley (National Library of Australia: pic-vn3314129-v). NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the CEO. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed on the Queensland Museum website qm.qld.gov.au A Queensland Government Project Design and Layout: Tanya Edbrooke, Queensland Museum Printed by Watson, Ferguson & Company Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881 Hilary HOWES Howes, H. 2015: Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 8(1):221-251. Brisbane. ISSN 1440-4788. The late nineteenth-century German traveller-naturalist Otto Finsch (1839- 1917) visited Torres Strait from October 1881 to January 1882 as part of a far longer Pacific voyage, which lasted from April 1879 to November 1882. I discuss his impressions and experiences of Mabuyag (Mabuiag Island, also known as Jervis Island), particularly its natural history and the cultural and social life of its inhabitants. Mabuyag, Mabuiag Island, Otto Finsch Hilary Howes Graudenzerstr. 6, 10243 Berlin, Germany [email protected] Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (1) 2015 | 221 Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881 The late nineteenth-century German traveller- New Guinea, interrupted the preparation naturalist Otto Finsch (1839-1917) visited of several ambitious works on the peoples Torres Strait from October 1881 to January of the South Seas. At least three of these 1882 as part of a far longer Pacific voyage, works subsequently reached the stage of which lasted from April 1879 to January 1882 print-ready manuscripts, but were never and took him from Hawai’i to the Marshall, published (Finsch, 1899: 71, 73). His major Gilbert and Caroline Islands, New Britain, monographs later in life were devoted to the New Zealand, Sydney, Cape York Peninsula, anthropology and material culture of New south-east New Guinea and Java (Figure Guinea (and, to a lesser extent, Micronesia) 1). He did not publish extensively on his (Finsch, 1893, 1914). The observations in this experiences in Torres Strait: his departure in paper are drawn principally from an article 1884 on a second voyage to the Pacific, this which appeared on 8 October 1882 in the time as leader of an expedition seeking land twice-daily regional newspaper Hamburger for German colonial acquisition in north-east Nachrichten under the title ‘Aus dem Pacific. FIG. 1. Map of the Pacific, showing locations visited by Otto Finsch. Courtesy of Karina Pelling, The Australian National University, College of Asia and the Pacific, CartoGIS. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8 (1) 2015 | 223 Hilary Howes XII. Torres-Straße’ (‘From the Pacific. XII. Torres Strait’) (Finsch, 1882a). Despite the misleading numbering of its title, this was in fact the tenth in a series of thirteen articles which, in Finsch’s own words, were ‘written under the immediate impression of what [he had] experienced and seen’ and consequently provided ‘a continuous depiction’ of his travels in the years 1879-82 (Finsch, 1899: 70-71). Further details, particularly those relating to local practices of hunting dugong, come from a later article, ‘Der Dujong. Zoologisch- ethnologische Skizze einer untergehenden Sirene’ (‘The Dugong. Zoological-ethnological portrait of a vanishing siren’), published in 1900 as part of the public interest series Sammlung gemeinverständlicher wissenschaftlicher Vorträge (‘Collection of generally comprehensible scientific lectures’) (Finsch, 1900). In addition, I refer to unpublished correspondence between Finsch and his colleagues in the metropole, together with further materials and insights drawn from research conducted for my doctoral thesis (Howes, 2013). Precise dates are taken from a transcription of Finsch’s FIG. 2. Portrait of Otto Finsch, Anon (c.1870). Duplicate journal No. 13, recording his observations of photograph from unidentified source, part of G.M. Mathews collection of portraits of ornithologists, in Torres Strait and Cape York between 30 vn3798240. Reproduction courtesy of the National September 1881 and 22 January 1882 (Finsch, Library of Australia. 1881-82). I retain Finsch’s original spellings glass painter and trader, and travelled to Pest of place names – e.g. ‘Mabiak’ for Mabuyag, (now Budapest, Hungary). Here he studied ‘Morilug’ for Muralag – in direct quotes briefly at the university, supporting himself only. Problematic terms such as ‘native’ through the production and sale of natural and ‘Kanaka’ should be understood in their historical specimens, before travelling historical context. Unless otherwise stated, onward to Rustchuk (Ruse, Bulgaria). all translations are my own. Following his return to Germany in 1859, Finsch (Figure 2) was essentially an he first pursued his interest in ornithology autodidact. Born in Warmbrunn, Silesia as an assistant at the Rijksmuseum van (now Cieplice Zdrój, south-eastern Poland), Natuurlijke Historie (‘Imperial Museum of he had attended only the local elementary Natural History’) in Leiden, Netherlands, school as a child, but had also demonstrated then joined the Gesellschaft Museum an early interest in observing, sketching (‘Museum Society’) in Bremen, Germany, and collecting the natural world and its as curator of the collections of ethnology products, particularly birds. In 1857 he and natural history (Abel, 1938: 318, 1970: broke off an apprenticeship to his father, a 22, 26-28, 32, 37). In 1868, in recognition of 224 | Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture 8(1) 2015 Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881 his contributions to ornithology, he was In return for the funding provided by the awarded an honorary doctorate by the grant, which amounted to 30,000 German University of Bonn (Abel, 1938: 318; Cunze, marks over three and a half years, Finsch 1917: 23; Finsch, 1868). In 1876 he became was expected to make detailed observations Director of the Städtische Sammlungen and assemble extensive collections of natural für Naturgeschichte und Ethnographie historical, physical anthropological and (‘Municipal Collections of Natural History ethnographic interest. In accordance with and Ethnography’) in Bremen, resigning in his contract, the bulk of these collections, 1879 in order to commence his voyage to the which in total filled approximately 157 Pacific. His previous research trips included crates, became the property of the Royal six months (July – December 1872) in the Museums (including the Zoological, United States and nine months (March – Anatomical, Botanical, Mineralogical and November 1876) in Western Siberia (Finsch, Ethnographic Museums) in Berlin. However, 1899: 11-14). as Finsch’s travel expenses had required him Finsch’s travels in the Pacific were supported to supplement the grant with considerable by a grant from the Humboldt-Stiftung für personal funds, he was permitted to keep Naturforschung und Reisen (‘Humboldt any items considered ‘duplicates’. The Foundation for Natural History Research majority of these, together with collections and Travel’), issued by the members of the assembled during his later voyage to New Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften Guinea in 1884-85, were subsequently zu Berlin (‘Royal Academy of Sciences in incorporated into the holdings of several Berlin’). His aims, as listed in somewhat European and North American museums, idiosyncratic English in a letter of including the Kaiserlich-Königliches introduction given to him by the Secretaries Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum (‘Royal and of the Academy of Sciences, were ‘to make Imperial Museum of Natural History’, now observations on, and to form collections of, the Weltmuseum) in Vienna; the Museo all sorts of natural objects; to inquire into the Preistorico, Etnografico e Kircheriano present state of the Aborigenes [sic] of [the (‘Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography Micronesian Islands] … and to gather relics / Museum Kircherianum’) in Rome; the of that fast out-dying race’ (Secretaries of the Museum der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, 1878; Wissenschaften (‘Museum of the Imperial Anon., 1880). As this letter suggests, the initial grant was envisaged both by Finsch Academy of Sciences’) in St Petersburg; the and by the Academy of Sciences as relating Field Columbian Museum in Chicago; and primarily to Micronesia: Australia,