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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 New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...
n religions. Lawrence was born in
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, and read
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. Between 1942 and 1946 he served in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
before returning to Cambridge at the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He conducted his first fieldwork among the Garia people in southern
Madang Province Madang is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, 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 capi ...
,
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
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 "perso ...
, 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 university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...
(1948-1957), the Australian School of Pacific Administration (from 1957), the
University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
(1960-1963), the
University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
(1966-1970), and the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
(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 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, 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 Cargo cults were diverse spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Typically (but not universally) cargo cults included: charismatic prophet ...
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
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Peter Australian anthropologists 1921 births 1987 deaths 20th-century British anthropologists British emigrants to Australia Australian expatriates in Papua New Guinea