AN ETHNOGRAPHER'S TALE: ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH IN NETHERLANDS (WEST) NEW GUINEA (1950 – 1962)1

A major part of the ethnographic literature concerning present-day Irian Jay a is based on research dating back to the 1950s and 1960s. Following the independence of Indonesia, West New Guinea remained a separate Dutch colony between 1950 and 1962. The Dutch colonial administration had had little ethnographic interest in the area since the beginning of the century, so that interest in knowledge concerning the indigenous population had yet to develop. Lack of manpower, finances and time to instigate adequate research meant that the resulting search for ethnographic data became itself a complex social process. People from a range of backgrounds and training - not only academic researchers, but also administrative and missionary personnel - became involved in the gathering of ethnographic material, often while engaged in quite different duties. In this article some light is shed both on the resulting structure of research and on the motivations behind the separate research efforts. At the end of the article some conclusions are drawn concerning the nature of the material gathered.     

Reviews

Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini , Houchang E. Chehabi, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990, xiv + 342 pp.

Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition , Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990, xxxvi + 564 pp., cloth $49.75, paper $23.50.

Gnoseologiia sufizma , A. Mukhammedkhodzhaev, Dushanbe: Donish, 1990, 112 pp., 1.50 rubles.

Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement , Sussan Siavoshi, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990, 196 pp., bibliography and index to p. 214, $24.50.

The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact , ed. John L. Esposito, Miami: Florida International University Press, 1990, viii + 346 pp.

Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade , Shireen T. Hunter, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, pp. 254, $35.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Miniature Painting in Ottoman Baghdad , Rachel Milstein, Islamic Art and Architecture No. 5., Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda publishers, 1990, 132 pp., 16 color plates, b & w illus., drawings, index, bibliography, no price listed.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan , Oleg Grabar, London: I. B. Tauris and Company Ltd., 1990, 156 pp., £24.95.

The State, Bureaucracy, and Revolution in Iran: Agrarian Reform and Politics , Ali Farazmand, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1989, 289 pp., $41.85.

Acta Iranica: Encyclopédie permanente des études iraniennes 30, Iranica Varia: Papers In Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater , ed. D. Amin, M. Kashef, and A. S. Shahbazi, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990, xxxii + 291 pp., with maps and photographs.

Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village , Erika Friedl, Washington and London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1989, 237 pp., no bibliography or index.

Le Discours populaire de la révolution iranienne (2 volumes), Paul Vieille and Farhad Khosrokhavar, Paris: Contemporanéité, 1990, 275 pp.

Iranian Drama, an Anthology , trans. from Persian, comp. and ed. M. R. Ghanoonparvar and John Green, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1989, xxix + 302 pp., $24.95.

Labor Transfer and Economic Development: Theoretical Perspectives and Case Studies from Iran , Hassan Hakimian, Herefordshire, England: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990, pp. xii + 206, $60.00.

Iranian Jewry During the Afghan Invasion: The Kitab‐i Sar Guzasht of Babai b. Farhad — Text Edition and Commentary , Vera B. Moreen, Freiburger Islamstudien, Band XIV, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, x + 178 pp.

Persian Literature , ed. Ehsan Yarshater, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 3, New York: The Persian Heritage Foundation; Bibliotheca Persica, 1988, xi + 562 pp.

Oil, State and Industrialization in Iran , Massoud Karshenas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. xviii + 308.

On Islam and Shi'ism , Ahmad Kasravi, trans. M. R. Ghanoonparvar, intro. and ed. M. A. Jazayery, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1990, paper $14.95.

Neither East Nor West: Iran, the Soviet Union, and the United States , ed. Nikki R. Keddie and Mark J. Gasiorowski, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990, ix + 295 pp.