Book Reviews
Tom Harrisson was an important figure in my own intellectual development. I studied anthropology under the distinguished Melanesist, Peter Lawrence and in the course of my studies I came across Tom Harrisson’s Savage Civilisation first published in 1937. This is a rather eccentric account, at least in terms of conventional and anthropological terms, of the ritual cannibalistic practices of the Big Nambas in Malekula. Reading about his field experiences convinced me that perhaps anthropology was not the career for an urban intellectual who did not care for the outdoors. The Big Nambas were the keenest bush people (as opposed to saltwater people) who volunteered for indentured service on sugar plantations. Their motive for enlistment on what was a dangerous enterprise was to gain access to guns for traditional warfare. My doctoral dissertation in anthropology and history stemmed from this interest in Melanesian history.
Judith M. Heimann is to be congratulated in bringing to life an intellectual and adventurer who defies any conventional classification. Indeed, his life story, which she has meticulously unearthed after a decade’s research, would have been a suitable vehicle for Errol Flynn in his heyday.
Harrisson was an eccentric polymath who pioneered a series of disparate fields. His research in anthropology was outstanding even if it did not match the theoretical sophistication of Bronislaw Malinowski. He established the Mass Observation programme in England during the 1930s. This has been an important source of social history for it was the first systematic survey of the thoughts and attitudes of ordinary people undertaken in England. Its extension into mass observation in the Second World War in Britain was an important tool of morale boosting. Harrisson was also an Arctic explorer, a noted ornithologist, a war hero (for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal, for his guerrilla activities in Borneo) and an important museum curator. In this latter field he pioneered the process of making third world museums relevant to both scholars and the locals. In the later stage of his career he was an academic at Cornell University.
Indeed, Harrisson had a series of careers all important in their own right. His unconventional approach to life and his resistance to hierarchy and authority saw him leave Oxford without his degree. As Heimann explains, this rebellion cost him dearly in his future career; for without the imprimatur of academic accreditation he could be dismissed by his critics and enemies, of whom there were legion, as an amateur. His abrasive personality, that could be both charismatic and aggressive, meant that he offended many potential admirers. Heimann knew Harrisson in Borneo. She has both the insight and the distance to be scrupulous in her judgement about such an infuriating character.
The Most Offending Soul Alive is well-written and engaging. It will please both the specialist and the general reader. This is no mean feat in the era of intense specialisation.
