Remembering Bernard Juillerat. Visiting the Bánaro After Richard Thurnwald

Journal de la Société des Océanistes

130-131 | 2010 Hommage à Bernard Juillerat

Remembering Bernard Juillerat. Visiting the Bánaro after Richard Thurnwald

Marion Melk-Koch

Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/6075 DOI: 10.4000/jso.6075 ISSN: 1760-7256

Publisher Société des océanistes

Printed version Date of publication: 15 December 2010 Number of pages: 29-40 ISBN: 978-2-85430-027-7 ISSN: 0300-953x

Electronic reference Marion Melk-Koch, « Remembering Bernard Juillerat. Visiting the Bánaro after Richard Thurnwald », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 130-131 | 2010, Online since 15 December 2013, connection on 09 June 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/jso/6075 ; DOI : https://doi.org/ 10.4000/jso.6075

Marion MELK-KOCH*

ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ

Bernard Juillerat followed in Richard Thurnwald’s Bernard Juillerat, en s’intéressant aux effets des footsteps as a result of their common interest in the structures sociales sur la psyché individuelle, a mis ses impact of specific social structures on the psyche of pas dans ceux de Richard Thurnwald (1869-1954). individuals. Both considered research in New Guinea as Tous deux sont allés en Nouvelle-Guinée enquêter spé- particularly rewarding for answering such questions in cialement sur ce sujet et tâcher de l’élucider en s’affran- an area unaffected by European-American culture. This chissant des influences culturelles européennes ou amé- article will discuss Bernard’s restudy of a group of ricaines. Le présent article discute l’étude à nouveaux people, living by the Keram river, which had first been frais qu’a donnée Bernard d’un groupe vivant sur les contacted by Thurnwald in 1913 and had been described rives de la Keram, auparavant contacté en 1913 par by him as ‘‘the Bánaro’’. Their complex social structure, Richard Thurnwald qui l’a décrit sous le nom de analysed by Thurnwald in two different publications in «Bánaro», et qui lui a consacré une monographie dont il 1916 and 1920, made them the subject of one of the a livré deux versions. Ces deux savants ont apporté de la earliest monographs on a Melanesian society. In restu- sorte une contribution marquante à l’histoire de l’ethno- dying and analysing Thurnwald’s work Juillerat, like logie. Thurnwald, contributed significantly to the history of ethnology. Mots-clés : Nouvelle-Guinée, Sépik, Bánaro, sys- tèmes de parenté, histoire intellectuelle, études Keywords: Papua New Guinea, Sepik, Bánaro, critiques kinship systems, intellectual history, restudies

Actually, I did not really know Bernard Juille- Bernard Juillerat, who was living on the same rat. In addition, my French was and is not good housing estate, agreed spontaneously to forsake enough to comprehend fully his profound expla- a very interesting TV discussion about the situa- nations of philosophical and psychoanalytical tion in Afghanistan, which had absorbed his questions. My memories of him are letters, attention, and to keep us company. It was a very Christmas cards and two personal meetings ¢ agreeable evening. one in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Berlin Our point of contact was Richard Thurnwald Wall in the summer of 1991 and another one in (1869-1954) and his two monographs about the Paris where Marie-Claire Bataille-Benguigui Bánaro. (i) 1916 Bánaro Society. Social Organi- had invited us for dinner and where it turned out, zation and Kinship System of a Tribe in the Inte- during a conversation, that we knew each other. rior of New Guinea, in Memoirs of the American

* Curator Oceania/Australia Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen, Leipzig, Germany, marion.melk- [email protected]

Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 130-131, année 2010 30 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES

Kolonialamt» ¢ and the Royal Museum of Eth- nology in Berlin had organised an interdiscipli- nary expedition to explore the inner part of Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land along the Sepik river. This primarily geographic exploration included anthropological and ethnographical research as well. The group, consisting mainly of Roesike, Behrmann and Thurnwald ¢ who joined a year later ¢ found several tributaries of the Sepik. In 1913, Richard Thurnwald and the geographer Walter Behrmann, were both participants on the «Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss Expedition», as the Sepik was called during the German colonial period. They were the first to contact the Bánaro, who lived on a tributary of this river. Here it is necessary to somewhat develop my own research. This will help understand the problems Bernard Juillerat had in finding documents relating to Thurnwald’s work about the Bánaro.Astheyarekeptinseveralplacesthrough- out the world, the search for Thurnwald’s archives reads a little bit like detective work. By autumn 1988, I had nearly completed my thesis. And when Bernard’s inquiry reached me, I was about to map some important details concerning Thurnwald’s research in New Guinea. It was to become an interesting and unexpected discovery for the field of historical ethnology. And this discovery dealt precisely with Thurnwald’s monograph about the Bánaro, which was first published in 1916 in a short version. In 1921, Document 1. ¢ Title page of the 1921 Bánaro monograph in Thurnwald followed it up with a considerably German extended German version. After the outbreak of World War I, Thurn- wald spent a total of one year in New Guinea Anthropological Association, Vol. III, No. 4, before he could leave for the United States; he Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and (ii) 1921 Die was allowed to take with him only a small part of Gemeinde der Bánaro. Ehe, Verwandtschaft his collections, field-notes and photographs. und Gesellschaftsbau eines Stammes im Innern Documentation dealing with Richard Thurn- von Neu-Guinea. Aus den Ergebnissen einer wald’s collections in the National Archives of Forschungsreise 1913-15. Ein Beitrag zur Australia in Canberra, shows that none other Entstehungsgeschichte von Familie und Staat. than Winston Churchill himself decided on the Stuttgart1. fate of these items, which today are located for In October 1988, I received a message from the the most part in Sydney.Thurnwald’s collections Berlin Museum of Ethnology telling me that a comprised ethnographic and geological speci- French colleague had made inquiries about mens, sound recordings, photographs, drawings unpublished materials on Richard Thurnwald’s and sketches of maps and field-notes. research during the latter’s stay with the Bánaro Due to the wartime situation it was impossible and would like to get in contact with me. From for Thurnwald to return home by a direct route, the Berlin Museum he had learned about my so he took the chance to try the way back to work on a doctoral thesis about the two big Germany via the United States. At the Univer- expeditions of Richard Thurnwald to the former sity of California in Berkeley, Thurnwald German South Seas Protectorate and he himself encountered great hospitality and came into planned a «restudy» of this population group. In close contact with colleagues of German descent 1911, the German Government ¢ the «Reichs- like Alfred L. Kroeber and Robert Lowie,

1. Bánaro Society. Marriage, Social Organization and Kinship System of a Tribe in the Interior of New Guinea. Findings from an Expedition 1913-15. A Contribution to the History of Origin of Family and State. REMEMBERING BERNARD JUILLERAT. VISITING THE BAÌ NARO AFTER RICHARD THURNWALD 31

Document 2. ¢ Map taken from Behrmann (1922) amongst others. There, at that time, the systema- results. Thurnwald could not complete the tic analysis of classificatory kinship systems was proof-reading because he was forced to leave the an important topic. Thus in 1916, when the first U.S. precipitately, after the country entered the publication about the Bánaro was released, it war. Once again he was not able to take his was a late-breaking publication of his research remaining records with him to Germany. Part of 32 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES the documents remained in Berkeley, another dence files that were preserved in the Berlin Eth- part was lost on the way to New York City when nological Museum, more questions than mailed later. Some of Thurnwald’s documents answers arose. First and foremost, the numerous are still kept in the University of California, publications and results of Thurnwald’s first tra- Berkeley, among them some handwritten copies vel heavily contradicted the letters between of Thurnwald’s texts made by Kroeber. For the Thurnwald and his supervisor Felix von Lus- German version of the Bánaro publication chan, head of the department of Oceania in Thurnwald had even fewer documents at his dis- Berlin. Many of the connections remained com- posal. Moreover, he had to leave his ethnogra- pletely in the dark and could not be enlightened phic collection behind ¢ as before in Australia. even by the articles distributed in multitudinous He was not allowed to take pictures and docu- journals and anthologies (many of them were ments with him from the U.S. In San Francisco, fortunately available as offprints in the Ethnolo- he left behind 47 boxes, 3 boxes with photo- gical Institute of the Berlin Free University, graphs and 7 boxes with notes, as well as valu- which was founded by Thurnwald after World able maps and collections. (For details see Melk- War II). It was necessary to discover new sour- Koch, 1989: 249, 2000: 53, 68; Graig, 1997: 387, ces! Where, for instance, were Thurnwald’s field- 404.) notes from New Guinea and the manuscript of It was not easy to reconstruct these processes the second volume of his Buin monograph which to this point. Additionally, I heard about the was never printed? Where were the linguistic documents in Berkeley and the other documents field-notes and the maps drawn by him? What concerning the collection in Sydney only when I was his life like before the journeys and after his had already completed my doctoral thesis. Yet I return in the middle of World War I? What hap- had found essential indications, e.g. in the archi- pened to his scholarly archives ¢ if they existed at ves of Yale University where at least part of Thurnwald’s scholarly archives from the thirties all? Where were the photographs and the phono- are kept. In fact, complete archives of Thurn- graph wax cylinders with his phonographic wald’s work do not exist. However, since in 1931 records? It was only after the fall of the Berlin Thurnwald had obviously taken with him a part Wall that it was possible to answer the last ques- of his left-over documents for his lectures to Yale tion, what was that probably the major part of and because these documents contained passa- his photographs was located in the basement of ges relating to his research, it was possible to the Ethnological Institute. Some of them could complete the puzzle with the help of tiny indica- be incorporated in the publication of my thesis tors. Probably due to the politically and mate- in 1989. rially uncertain situation in Germany at the time, Of course, beyond the purely biographic and Thurnwald left his documents ¢ even important «material» questions, it was necessary to take private ones ¢ in the house of a colleague in Yale. into account several scientific questions and Thanks to this windfall, today we are at least able approaches. How did his contemporaries eva- to read up on his teaching activity and his luate his work, what is its reception today (or contacts with American research colleagues in rather how was it in 1989)? And, a topic for the nineteen thirties and furthermore gain a view which there was unfortunately not enough space of his research periods in the South Seas. and time: what is life like today in the regions, But let us go back to square one: The starting which he visited? What do the people there think point for my thesis were two preserved collec- about the statements concerning their culture? tions of letters of Thurnwald’s research in the Bernard Juillerat’s great merit is that he attended years 1906¢09 and 1913¢15 and the beginning of in detail to the last question for the Bánaro. And a travelogue from 1906 to 1907. But soon it without him, both of Thurnwald’s publications turned out that for the examination of the about the Bánaro would possibly still be buried background ¢ and thus for the understanding of beneath the dust of history. From October 1989 his publications ¢ it was necessary to do more to the spring of 1990, he spent four months with than limit myself to the period of pure field the group which Thurnwald had called the research. Consequently, my thesis became more Bánaro. and more about the exploration of his early What were the relations between Thurnwald years ¢ and hence of the scientific background ¢, and Bernard Juillerat? First and foremost, it of a man who became later such an influential was probably their common interest in psycho- social scientist. From reading the «Letter logical research. Thurnwald’s objective of his Diaries» (this is the working title) for the first stay in the South Seas consisted not only in time as well as combing through the correspon- collecting items for the Ethnology Museum in REMEMBERING BERNARD JUILLERAT. VISITING THE BAÌ NARO AFTER RICHARD THURNWALD 33

Berlin but also in gaining knowledge about the manage this when just passing through: «You thoughts and feelings of the indigenous popula- cannot think of research trials while you are on tion. Maybe this was even the main driving force the road. For this, you need a longer stay at a for his journeys. From early on, Richard Thurn- particular location and some contact with the wald occupied himself with this new discipline, indigenous people» (22.3.1907, Files of the Pho- as it then was, studied the works of experimental nogram Archive, Staatliche Museen Berlin psychologists and tried to combine sociology, Preußischer Kulturbesitz). Confronted with psychology, economics and «peoples’ science», these letters, suddenly, some of the field-notes which is how he described it himself. Thus, psy- make unexpected sense. There are also sound chological explorations were already one of his recordings of the Bánaro, which are preserved in main topics during his first field research in the Sound Archives of the Berlin Museum of Oceania. In 1906, after long preparations, he Ethnology (Ziegler, 2006:290-291). travelled to the German South Seas Protecto- To me, Thurnwald’s monograph on the rate, German New Guinea, with a comprehen- Bánaro by the Keram River in New Guinea sive catalogue. This had been put together in seemed incredibly boring at first. Browsing collaboration with different professional repre- through the two different versions in search of sentatives, extended by himself and entitled some information, which I could use to recons- EthnographischeFragesammlungzurErforschung truct his two journeys into the now long-gone des sozialen Lebens der Völker außerhalb des world of German New Guinea, these books did europa-amerikanischen Kulturkreises (Collection not produce any useful results at all ¢ this is of Ethnographic Questions for the Exploration hardly surprising, but I understood this only of the Social Life of the Peoples Outside the later, after sifting through all his publications European-American Cultural Area). Between and remaining parts of correspondence that had 1908 and 1909, Thurnwald spent several months also survived, trying to find more reliable data. in southern Bougainville, in Buin. More details Towards the end of my thesis, it became clear about his journeys and his background as well as why there was such a mystery around his mono- about the research results, can be found in my graph(s) on the Bánaro. To cut it short: Aside 1989 thesis. from the fact that Richard Thurnwald spent Back from his first journey, which lasted from nearly seven years «in the field», his «monogra- 1906 to 1909, he managed to publish two volu- phs» on the Bánaro are the only ones he ever mes on Buin, based on localised fieldwork which wrote on a Melanesian society ¢ but... he never had taken at least a few months. Lieder und really stayed with these people. Sagen aus Buin (Songs and Legends from Buin), While in 1913 Thurnwald regretted that he did the first volume of his Forschungen auf den not have enough time for conducting research on Salomo-Inseln[...] (Research on the Solomon the Keram river, which they had named Töpfer- Islands...), published in 1912, is a comprehensive fluß, he was to get another chance to learn more example of his attempt to learn about the human about the life of the people there. Right from his mind and its perception. In 538 pages, he first stay, he was interested in the social structure published (in inter-linear transcription) and ana- of the Bánaro. Then, two years later, he could get lysed 139 song texts. With his «rendering of detailed information about them. In 1915, una- Stone Age Literature», as he himself calls it, ble to return home and waiting in Marienberg, Thurnwald became a poet himself and pursued one of the British occupation officers provided his goal of keeping as the basis of his work him with two «boys», Jomba und Manape, who things he really had heard and seen and letting hailed from this region, and Thurnwald was able the indigenous people themselves interpret their to work with these two informants for five culture2. months. When returning the two boys to their So Bernard Juillerat and Richard Thurnwald home village, however, he failed in his desire to similarly turned mental processes into a focus of get into direct contact with the indigenous peo- their research. Thurnwald’s correspondence ple. Unlike the other villages, he was not allowed from his first journey with Professor Karl to enter the village of the Bánaro, the «50 Kilo- Stumpf, the founder of the Phonogram Archive meters Village» because the inhabitants were in Berlin, and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel hostile towards him. So he had to rely on what demonstrates that he had a keen interest in this these two, obviously not fully initiated, young topic. He knew very well that he could not men told him.

2. Gerald Camden Wheeler’s 1926 Monu-Alu Folklore, dealing with song and narratives of the Shortland Islanders as well as coastal Bougainville peoples is in many respect a counterpart to Thurnwald’s Lieder und Sagen aus Buin. Thurnwald and Wheeler did ﬁeldwork at roughly the same time in Buin and Mono-Alu and met at least once. 34 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES

Document 3. ¢ Men in the «50 km village», Angisi, June 1, 1913 (photograph by Richard Thurnwald)

Thurnwald wrote his monograph(s) on conju- tions of researchers. One thing seems worth gal relations at a time when he himself had a lot mentioning: he was always looking for examples of problems with the perception of the institu- in European history when it came to specific tion of marriage. Thus, being aware of his per- structures, which seemed exotic to his contempo- sonal situation, it is in retrospect not surprising raries, like the reception of the goblin child that the volume, dealing with the representation (Thurnwald, 1921: 263-264). He was among the of processes which were described by his infor- first to emphasize the principle of reciprocity in mants, goes far beyond a philosophic reflection the field of ethnology.(For further discussion see on these processes. Melk-Koch, 1989: 239-240 and Tuzin, 1994: 516- Thurnwald was among the first ethnographers 517.) to define the terms he used. Sometimes he did It is this monograph on the Bánaro ¢ espe- this to such an extent that, in the first pages of cially the more comprehensive German version, the 1921 publication on the Bánaro, there were which he worked on in parallel with his state only three lines of text but three and a half pages doctoral thesis on the Psychologie des Primitiven were filled with footnotes. He quoted the most Menschen (1922, Psychology of the Primitive recent publications by Rivers, Vierkandt, Foul- Mind). Thurnwald used the word primitive not kes and others to make sure that the reader could in a sense of being inferior, but in the sense of easily and precisely understand the concepts he earlier or prior, but sometimes it is very confu- was talking about when using the terms «clan, sing. Both analyses were based on his search for kin, family, tribe, nation». This makes it easier the basic structure from which modern human today to follow his arguments. Only a few years society emerged. His monograph on the Bánaro later, we owe the separation of ethno-socio- where his own filtering process of extensive lite- logical terms from biological ones to Thurn- rature combined with his experiences in the field wald (in «Zur Kritik der Gesellschaftsbiologie», made him leave behind every evolutionistic 1924 [Criticizing Social Biology]). Sifting and approach. Donald Tuzin in his review of Ber- filtering literature, always reconciling and pro- nard’s book La révocation des Tambaran calls cessing the impressions of his own experience, him «a maverick in early twentieth century social Thurnwald created a basis followed by genera- science..., whose breadth of vision was ill-fitted REMEMBERING BERNARD JUILLERAT. VISITING THE BAÌ NARO AFTER RICHARD THURNWALD 35 to the prevailing intellectual schools. Surveying research was, as he wrote to me (on July 16th, the ruins of classical evolutionism from the pers- 1989), relatively open: pective of comparative law, Thurnwald asked «At first, I want to make clear that I am interested in ¢ how the state did, indeed, evolve as it must have Thurnwald because I would like to understand the done ¢ out of elemental exchange and authority present culture and the social system of the Bánaro arrangements; hence his interest in contempo- and thus learn how both of them have been transfor- rary primitive societies... Thurnwald’s broad med in the last 75 years. The problem of transforma- synthesis was rationalised by a functionalism tion is interesting to me, however, not so much from a quite advanced for its time.» (Tuzin, 1994: 517). descriptive (social and economic) but from a cultural Today, in biographic volumes or texts on the point of view.» history of German ethnology, Thurnwald often is regarded as an evolutionist. But from the very Unlike many of his colleagues, he was also able to read German-language literature. During first beginning, he was far away from that. His his own research on the Sepik, he must have analytical work on the Bánaro, the «sifting» of encountered Thurnwald’s «Die Gemeinde der all related literature which was accessible to him, Bánaro», which he took as a basis for his «re- taking into account his own experience, the dis- study» in 1989/90. Unfortunately, a proposed cussions with experts at first in Berkeley and later meeting between us in Paris in early October in Germany had an essential impact on his 1989 did not take place. My book about Richard future scientific oeuvre. In Thurnwald’s work Thurnwald was published only after his depar- the Bánaro publications mark the transition ture and he came across a copy of it by chance at from a classification of human social systems the Institute of P.N.G. Studies and was able to related to the history of the development of read it immediately. Afterwards, he wrote a mankind to his almost systemic theoretical review of it, which was published in L’Homme in approach in the thirties. The process of social 1991. «sifting», which Thurnwald increasingly pur- Right after his return in January 1990, Ber- sued in the twenties, was phrased by him («Sie- nard summarized the results of his field research bungstheorie») and went down as an important in a letter to me as follows: theory in the scientific history of ethnology and «So I returned from the Bánaro Community. In this sociology. To this very day it has far-ranging short letter I can only say that many (nearly all!) effects for the social sciences (Melk-Koch, things, which Thurnwald described, are lost. Today’s 1996:71-81). Bánaro are deeply christianized and have forgotten As already mentioned, I was seeing the everything to do with the cult of ‘Haus tambaran’. The Bánaro work as totally theoretical and «dry», changes started during World War II when a catholic not to say «fleshless», as the descriptions were so missionary stole all the woodcarvings from the ‘Haus tambaran’. It was also difficult to get a confirmation of far removed from what I had expected to learn the ‘mundu institution‘; it was only in Bagaram that I about daily life in a special village. Thus I was saw a man who was a ‘goblin child’ himself. The quite surprised when Bernard Juillerat’s letter ‘mundu’ system is also lost. What I read in ‘Thurn- arrived, asking about Thurnwald’s stay with the wald’s Diary’[...] and in your book makes me unders- Bánaro. Furthermore, he told me that he inten- tand that Thurnwald had conducted field research for ded to go there to figure out the changes that had only five weeks next to Yar in 1913 and moreover had taken place since 1915. This was the very begin- worked with these two boys (whose names the Bánaro ning of my career in the field of Oceania and I remember to this very day: they were kidnapped by the had no idea at all about who this person was ¢ Germans two years before) in Madang and Marien- who had an interest in this dusty and dry descrip- berg. In fact, Thurnwald’s material about the people whom he called the ‘Bánaro’ (Central Bánaro: Kivim, tion of mainly «Heiratsregeln» (marriage rules), Angisi, etc.) is related to the Bánaro in the Bagaram hardly ever mentioning the real life of the peo- and Yar villages, which he did not regard as ple! But the Bánaro were amongst the earliest ‘Bánaro’[...].» [Revised translation from the German group in today’s Papua New Guinea, whose text, dots by Bernard, January 13th, 1990] social structure was described in a monograph. And it took another 74 years until another eth- Bernard combined this letter with the request nologist dealt with the local social structure and for other information and details, which I was its change. able to send him time and again over a period of My letter to Paris in autumn 1988, in which I two years. He always appreciated this in his let- indicated that actual scholarly archives of Thur- ters and thanked me several times for our good nwald did not exist, was followed by a deepening collaborationandmyassistance.Thus,theresults correspondence. Initially Bernard Juillerat’s of my research, copies of the photographs 36 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES

Document 4. ¢ Field-note by Richard Thurnwald from 1915, describing the Haus tambaran. (Australian National University, Department of Linguistics) REMEMBERING BERNARD JUILLERAT. VISITING THE BAÌ NARO AFTER RICHARD THURNWALD 37

Document 5. ¢ Settlement area of the Bánaro according to Thurnwald’s and Behrmann’s research 1913/1915 (Detail from Walter Behrmann 1924 map 3) recovered by me, copied articles, which were not After Richard Thurnwald». Indeed, I found this available in the libraries in Paris (and not only article coincidentally and if he had sent me this there), and even my original copies of Thurn- text for a comment, it was probably lost in the wald’s correspondence from the archives in Can- mail due to our moving to Leipzig in 1997. Our berra and Yale went from Berlin to Paris. intensive correspondence in the early nineties To my surprise and during the actual revision was followed by some Christmas cards. After- of our correspondence when writing this article, wards, we lost sight of each other until that I noticed the following sentence by me at the end evening at Marie-Claire Bataille-Benguigui’s. of a long section of information: Thus, two decades ago, Bernard Juillerat started a journey to a group of descendants living on «I hope that I have informed you exhaustively. ¢ However, I would like to ask, why are you so sure that the Keram River for a «restudy» well prepared the ‘‘Bánaro system’’ really corresponded to Thurn- thanks to his own ﬁeld experience and Thurn- wald’s description? Awaiting your research results wald’s publications. With regards to content, I with anticipation [...]» (January 31st, 1990). think that up to now with the publication of Bernard’s article: «Do the Bánaro Really Exist? Bernard gave me a detailed reply, starting with [...]», Donald Tuzin’s review in Man 1994, and the diﬀerent place names and the changes that Robert Parkin’s 1993 review of La révocation des had occurred in the villages during the last deca- Tambaran: les Bánaro et Richard Thurnwald revi- des but mainly after the Japanese occupation of sités in Sociologus, there is really not much to be this area in WW II. His analyses were published, added to Bernard Juillerat’s information about as already mentioned, in the 1993 monograph La the Bánaro, Richard Thurnwald and all the révocation des Tambaran. Les Bánaro et Richard various related questions for our discipline. Par- Thurnwald revisités, and in an article in Gradhiva kin also gets to the heart of the matter that that same year. In 2000, he published a paper in Thurnwald, who in Germany is not really regar- Oceania, using the most crucial question as its ded as being a theoretician can now be seen just title: «Do the Bánaro Really Exist? Going Back as such thanks to the work of Bernard Juillerat. 38 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES

Concerning the numerous corrections of Thurn- tion difficulties, lack of professional perspectives wald’s descriptions of the Bánaro social life in spite of an enormous personal commitment, made by Bernard, he remarks: lack of hope of one day marrying the woman he loved. Hilde, who was eventually to become his «heconsistentlywritessympatheticallyaboutThurn- ¢ wald himself and about his unique distillation of the wife and companion and an anthropologist ideas of his time and the more original insights that he (1934, 1937). drew from them. Thurnwald’s status as one of the Finally, after twenty years I was once more most significant figures of pre- and post-war non- made aware of the fact that Thurnwald’s Bánaro Marxist, liberal German ethnology will not be dimi- writings, which at a first glance had been so nished [...].» (1993 : 96) boring for me, go far beyond a monograph on people in Melanesia. Whatever the real social The more I immersed myself into the review structure of the Bánaro was ¢ even the question of all my documents and the correspondence about the correctness of the information of between myself and Bernard Juillerat for this Thurnwald’s informants on initiation and sexual article, the more I understood that with regard to behaviour ¢, it is no longer possible to ascertain, content, I cannot add anything new because I in spite of Bernard Juillerat’s «restudy». had provided all the details of my research for Whether these Bánaro existed as a «tribe» in this Bernard Juillerat’s study. This «restudy» of the form or not ¢ it does not really affect the impor- Bánaro is also a good example of scientific col- tance of this publication. What remains is a work laboration, which was always taken for granted that marks a transition of our discipline out of by Thurnwald. Is there a better compliment for the «biological» paradigm towards a social an author than to see his/her own work as a sensible basis for future research? Certainly, science. Obviously, Bernard Juillerat discovered there are utterances of Thurnwald which I inter- this as well. Thurnwald’s Bánaro society is an pret in a different way from Bernard Juillerat, but epoch-making work, whose theoretical impor- possibly in ten years there will be another evalua- tance is independent from the real life of the tion and classification of his theories and works. people he called the Bánaro. Thanks to Bernard, Thus, the only (but very important) point for this insight was brought out of retirement on correction because I am quoted as a witness in dusty book shelves. His question: «Do the this matter is Bernard’s statement that Thurn- Bánaro really exist?» hits the crucial point. wald took allegedly no stock in stationary field However the answer is that after three quarters research (2000: 34). The exact opposite is the of a century, Bernard Juillerat gave the people, case, I have demonstrated this several times in described as the Bánaro, a chance to comment my doctoral thesis. He already wrote as soon as on what was written about their ancestors. 1912 in his Buin publication, in which his particular concern was to let people speak for themselves: BIBLIOGRAPHY «For an exact ethnology, we need to bring documents to life and thought; we do not need the opinions of others about indigenous people but their own opi- Behrmann Walter, 1922. Im Stromgebiet des Sepik, nions.» (1912: 2) Berlin, August Scherl. —, 1924. Das westliche Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land in Of course, this is only possible after a long stay Neu-Guinea, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erd- on site and this is also implied in the remark kunde zu Berlin, Berlin. already quoted in which he deems a longer stay Craig Barry, 1997. The fate of Thurnwald’s Sepik at a particular location important for an autho- ethnographic collections, Gestern und Heute ¢ Tra- ritative study of a people. Concerning the ditionen in der Südsee, Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, Bánaro themselves, he posed the question of Festschrift zum 75. Geburtstag von Gerd Koch, how the «Bánaro system impacts upon the cha- pp. 387-408. racter of men and women. In order to answer Juillerat Bernard, 1993. La révocation des Tamba- this question exhaustively, you need to stay for ran. Les Bánaro et Richard Thurnwald revisités, several years and deal with the indigenous peo- Paris, cnrs Éditions. ple in detail» (1921: 257). While restudying the —, 1993. Richard Thurnwald et la Mélanésie : récipro- sources, I was shocked by Thurnwald’s incredi- cités,hiérarchies,évolution,Gradhiva14,pp. 15-40. bly hard personal living conditions at the time —, 1991. Compte rendu de M. Melk-Koch, Auf der when he was composing the second, extended Suche nach der menschlischen Gesellschaft: Richard Bánaro publication: hunger, cold, transporta- Thurnwald, L’Homme 31, 120, pp. 115-118. REMEMBERING BERNARD JUILLERAT. VISITING THE BAÌ NARO AFTER RICHARD THURNWALD 39

—, 2000. Do the Banaro really exist? Going back after —, 1912. Über ethno-psychologische Untersuchun- Richard Thurwald, Oceania 71, pp. 46-66. gen bei Naturvölkern, Verhandlungen deutscher Melk-Koch Marion, 1989. Auf der Suche nach der Naturforscher und Ärzte 2, pp. 476-481. menschlichen Gesellschaft: Richard Thurnwald, Ber- —, 1912. Probleme der ethno-psychologischen For- lin, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Veröffentlichungen des schung; Zur Praxis der ethno-psychologischen Museums für Völkerkunde Berlin. Neue Folge 46. Ermittlungen besonders durch sprachliche For- tern ipmann —, 1991. Thurnwald Richard (Christian), in Walther schungen, in W. S and O. L (eds.), Bei- Killy (Ed.), Literaturlexikon 11, Munich, Bertels- hefte zur Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie, mann Lexicon Verlag, Autoren und Werke deuts- Leipzig, Beiheft 5, pp. 1-27 ; pp. 117-124. cher Sprache, pp. 356-365. —, 1916. Bánaro Society. Social Organization and —, 1992. Don Laycock ¢ Corrector Antiquorum, in Kinship System of a Tribe in the Interior of New Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon Guinea, Memoirs of the American Anthropological (eds), The Language Game. Papers in Memory of Association III, 4, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Donald C. Laycock, Canberra, The Australian —, 1921. Die Gemeinde der Bánaro. Ehe, Verwandt- National University, Pacific Linguistics Series C - schaft und Gesellschaftsbau eines Stammes im Innern 110, pp. 257-262. von Neu-Guinea. Aus den Ergebnissen einer For- —, 1996. Richard Thurnwald und die Siebungstheo- schungsreise 1913-15. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungs- rie, in Anthropologischer Anzeiger Jg. 54, H 1, geschichte von Familie und Staat, Stuttgart, Sonder- pp. 71-81. ausgabe aus der Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, vol. 38 and vol. 49. —, 2000. Melanesian Art or just Stones and Junk? Richard Thurnwald and the Question of Art in —, 1922. Psychologie des Primitiven Menschen, in G. Melanesia, Pacific Arts. The Journal of the Pacific Kafka (Ed.), Handbuch der vergleichenden Psycho- Arts Association 21-22, pp. 53-68. logie, vol. 1, Munich, Verlag von Ernst Reinhardt, pp. 147-320. —, 2001. Richard Thurnwald: «Die menschliche Gesellschaft in ihren ethnosoziologischen Grundla- —, 1924. Zur Kritik der Gesellschaftsbiologie, in Wer- ombart eber gen», fünf Bände 1931-1935, in Christian F. Feest ner S und Max W (eds), Archiv für und Karl-Heinz Kohl (Eds), Hauptwerke der Ethno- Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 52, pp. 462- logie, Stuttgart, Kröner Verlag, pp. 480-484. 499. uzin Parkin Robert, 1993. Review of La révocation des T Donald, 1994. Review of La révocation des Tambaran : les Bánaro et Richard Thurnwald revisi- Tambaran: les Bánaro et Richard Thurnwald revisi- tés, Sociologus, pp. 92-96. tés, Man, pp. 516 - 517. heeler Thurnwald Hilde, 1934. Woman’s status in Buin W Gerald Camden, 1926. Mono Alu Folklore society, Oceania 5, pp. 142-170. (Bougainville Straits, W. Solomon Islands), Lon- don, Routledge and Sons. —, 1937. Menschen der Südsee, Stuttgart, F. Enke. Ziegler Susanne, 2002. Die Wachszylinder des Berli- hurnwald teinmetz T Richard und S.R. S , 1906. Eth- ner Phonogramm-Archivs, Berlin, Veröffentlichun- nographische Fragesammlung zur Erforschung des gen des Ethnologischen Museums Berlin, N.F. 73, sozialen Lebens der Völker außerhalb des europa- Abteilung Musikethnologie, Medien-Technik und amerikanischen Kulturkreises, Berlin, Hg. von der Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv XII,. Internationalen Vereinigung für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft und Volkswirtschaftslehre. Other sources Thurnwald Richard,1912. Forschungen auf den Phonogram archive of the Ethnological Museum Salomo-Inseln und dem Bismarck-Archipel, Bd. 1: Berlin: PhA SMB PK, Thurnwald. Lieder und Sagen aus Buin, Berlin, Reimer. Correspondence Bernard Juillerat/Marion Melk- Koch.