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

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

minister and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

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

Biography

Mathew was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, 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 () is a village in the Garioch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located approximately from the city of Aberdeen. History Insch is home to the Picts, Pictish Picardy Stone which is one of the oldest Pictish stone, Pictish symbol stones ...

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

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, 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 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 and east ...

. Mathew worked there for six years as a stockrider, bookkeeper, and

storeman A warehouseman, also known as a warehouse worker, warehouse operator, or warehouse technician, is someone who works in a warehouse, usually delivering goods for sale or storage, or, in older usage, someone who owns a warehouse and sells goods dir ...

, 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, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

groups, the

Kabi Kabi or KABI may refer to: Places *Kabi Longstok, town in North Sikkim district, Sikkim, India *Kabi, Sikkim, village in North Sikkim district, Sikkim, India * Kabi River (''Kafu River''), river in Uganda People *Boris Kabi (born 1984), Ivorian fo ...

and

Wakka Wakka Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian people 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 t ...

people. He afterwards tried

gold-digging A gold digger is a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional sexual relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience. Etymology and usage The term "gold dig ...

for two years, and then worked as a teacher at

Dalby, Queensland Dalby () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Dalby had a population of 12,758 people. It is on the Darling Downs and is the administrativ ...

, (1872–75) and the

Brisbane Normal School Brisbane State High School (BSHS or commonly State High) is a partially selective, co-educational, state secondary school, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland, an ...

(1875–76). Mathew moved to

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, Australia, and graduated from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

(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 Ballan () is a town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the , Ballan had a population of 3,392. It is the second largest administrative centre, behind Bacchus Marsh, in the Shire of Moorabool local government area. Ballan is a small ...

, from 1887 for two years, then at

Coburg, Victoria Coburg is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Darebin, Darebin and City of Merri-bek, Merri-bek Loc ...

, 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. It is the oldest learned society in the Southern Hemisphere. The Society traces its ...

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 Sir Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian Evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, anthropology, anthropologist and Ethnology, ethnologist. He is k ...

Alfred William Howitt Alfred William Howitt (17 April 1830 – 7 March 1908), also known by author abbreviation A. W. Howitt, was an Australian anthropologist, explorer and naturalist. He was known for leading the Victorian Relief Expedition, which set out to est ...

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 language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

studies and

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

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. The

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

holds a notebook containing an Aboriginal vocabulary list by John Mathew and other papers including letters from his uncle John Mortimer and cousin G. W. Anderson of Manumbar Station.

References

External links

* A letter to the newspaper by Mathew.
John Mathew papers
State Library of Queensland {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathew, John 1849 births 1929 deaths Australian anthropologists People from Aberdeen People from Insch People from Queensland