Barbara Harrisson

Barbara Harrisson and the " Deep Skull " from the Niah Great Cave (December 1958)

Barbara Harrisson (born as Barbara Veronika Gertrud Maria Elisabeth Güttler on May 20, 1922 in Reichenstein , District of Frankenstein , Province of Lower Silesia , died on December 26, 2015 in Jelsum , Netherlands ) was a German - British art historian who also worked scientifically in the fields of nature conservation , Primatology , anthropology and archeology worked.

Education and early professional activities

Barbara was born the daughter of the mining entrepreneur and art collector Gerhart Güttler (1889–1966) and his wife Clara (née Haselbach , 1897–1972). In 1926 the von Reichenstein family moved to Berlin . After graduating from high school and doing Reich Labor Service , she began studying art history in Berlin in 1941, but was drafted into military service a few weeks later and during the Second World War she was employed as a secretary for the German defense in Berlin, Paris and Breslau . Of her three brothers, only her younger brother survived the war. From 1945 she worked in Frankfurt / Main for the dissolution of cartel structures of IG Farben . In 1951 she married Eberhard Friedrich Brünig (born 1926), who was trained in forestry.

Career

From 1953 her professional development changed. During her stays in Asia, America, Australia and finally Europe again, she worked and taught in the fields of nature conservation, primatology, anthropology, archeology and art history.

Sarawak (Borneo)

Kuching Niah cave Bako NP

Borneo

In 1953 she went to Kuching / Sarawak on Borneo with her husband, who had accepted a position in the British colonial service - he later became a tropical forest expert . There she began to work for the British Tom Harrisson (1911-1976), the curator of the Sarawak Museum , a "romantic polymath, drunk bully, lateral thinking iconoclast, miserable husband and father and fearless adventurer" with a wide range of interests; both married in 1956.

natural reserve

The couple was active in a wide variety of fields. They initiated projects to protect sea ​​turtles and orangutans in the vicinity of the Bako National Park. Barbara Harrisson pioneered the rearing and rehabilitation of young orangutans that had lost their mothers and habitat due to the deforestation of the rainforests . These activities later led to the establishment of reserves such as the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Sepilok / Sabah in Sabah (since 1964) and the Gunung Leuser National Park in Sumatra (since 1980) and made crucial contributions to the conservation of these species.

In 1973 Barbara Harrisson became a senior member of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) ; in 2015 she was a member of the advisory board. Her interest also extended to restricting trade in endangered species, which is why she played a key role in the CITES ( Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ). The first version appeared in 1963, the signatures followed in 1973 and it came into force on July 1, 1975.

Archeology and anthropology

Entrance to the Niah Great Cave

"Deep Skull" ( Homo sapiens skull from the Niah Great Cave)

Tom and Barbara Harrisson's main interests were archeology and anthropology . Her fundamental excavations in the karst cave of Niah deserve special mention - current research projects there are based on her records. Their main find was on February 7, 1958 at the western opening of the Niah Great Cave, where they found a modern human skull in the "Hell Trench H / 6" at a depth of about 2.5 meters. Its age was determined by radiocarbon dating to 39,000 to 45,000 years, which at the time was received with skepticism, but has now been confirmed several times: This skull, known as the " deep skull ", is currently the earliest evidence of anatomically modern humans on the islands of Southeast Asia.

Heirloom jar (Martaban) from Borneo. Barbara Harrisson had owned this jug, a present, since 1960. Today it is in the Princessehof.

Barbara Harrisson - still without formal training - led the excavations partly independently, with a particular interest in the ceramic finds, and carried out expeditions to other caves. Their results are the subject of numerous publications.

Ithaca (USA)

After Tom Harrisson's retirement as curator of the Sarawak Museum in 1966, the couple went to Ithaca (USA) in 1967 , where Tom accepted a teaching position in Cornell University's Southeast Asia program . When he left Barbara in favor of another woman, she took over his seminars - still without formal training. In 1972 she finally began her own university education as an art historian, which she completed with a master's degree in 1974. Her time in Ithaca was interrupted by numerous stays in Southeast Asia. There she also began her dissertation on Heirloom Jars of Borneo under Stanley O'Connor, Professor of Southeast Asian Art History at Cornell University, which she graduated in 1984.

Perth (Australia)

In 1976 Barbara Harrisson accepted a lectureship in the Asia Department of the Western Australia Institute of Technology at the University of Western Australia .

Leeuwarden (Netherlands)

Ceramic museum Princessehof in Leeuwarden

Barbara Harrisson (1995)

In 1977 Barbara Harrisson was appointed director of the Princessehof in Leeuwarden , the Netherlands, a renowned ceramics museum, which was further enhanced by her successful work with numerous exhibitions and publications. Her main interest continued to be in the Martaban and Zhangzhou (Swatow) porcelain collections.

After her retirement in 1987, she continued her academic work. In the last years of her life she was - almost blind - busy writing her autobiography .

Awards

• 1973:       Honorary doctorate from Tulane University , USA, for her services to nature conservation
• 1972/73: American Motors Conservation Award
• 1975:       Lauriston Sharp Prize for her achievements at SEAP

Publications

The following listing of Barbara Harrisson's publications is a selection of books, articles and descriptions of ceramic collections in museums.

Art history

• Barbara Harrisson: European Trade Ceramics in the Brunei Museum , The Brunei Museum Journal Vol. 3 (1), pp. 66-87 (1973).
• Barbara Harrisson: Swatow in the Princessehof, Leeuwarden, Princessehof Museum (1978).
• Barbara Harrisson: Oriental Celadon: The Princessehoff Collection , Leeuwarden, Princessehof Museum (1978).
• Barbara Harrisson: Kraakporselein , Leeuwarden, Princessehof Museum (1981).
• Barbara Harrisson: Asian Ceramics in the Princessehof: An Introduction , Leeuwarden, Princessehof Museum (1986).
• Barbara Harrisson (based on her dissertation): Pusaka: Heirloom Jars of Borneo, Singapore, Oxford University Press (1986), ISBN 978-0195826548 .
• Barbara Harrisson: Later Ceramics in South-East Asia: Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries , Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press (1996), ISBN 978-9676531124 .
• Barbara Harrisson: Ceramic Trade across the South China Sea, Journal of the Malaysia Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 76 (1), pp. 99-114 (2003).

Archeology and anthropology

• Barbara Harrisson: Niah's Lobang Tulang ("Cave of Bones"), Sarawak Museum Journal, Vol. VIII, 12, pp. 596-619 (1958).
• Barbara Harrisson: A Classification of Stone Age Burials from Niah Great Cave, Sarawak, Sarawak Museum Journal, Vol. XV, 30-31, pp. 126-200 (1967).
• Barbara Harrisson: Classification of Archaeological Trade Ceramics from Kota Batu, Brunei Museum Journal, Vol. 2 (1), pp. 114-187 (1970).
• Tom and Barbara Harrisson: The Prehistory of Sabah , Sabah Society Journal 4, Monograph (1970).
• Barbara Harrisson: Kain Hitam: The Painted Cave, in: G. Barker and L. Farr (eds.), Archaeological Investigations in the Niah Caves , Sarawak. Archeology of the Niah Caves, Sarawak, Vol. 2, Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, McDonald Institute Monographs, S11-S19 (2016).

Primatology and Conservation

• Barbara Harrisson: A Study of Orangutan Behavior in the Semi-wild State , Sarawak Museum Journal, Vol. IX, 15-16, pp. 422-447 (1960).
• Barbara Harrisson: Orangutan , London: Collins (1962), Singapore: Oxford University Press (1987) German: Children of the jungle. My work with orangutans on Borneo, Wiesbaden: Brockhaus (1964), Fischer Taschenbuch-Verlag (1979), ISBN 3-596-23510-3 .
• Barbara Harrisson: Education to Wild Living of Young Orangutans at Bako National Park, Sarawak, Sarawak Museum Journal, Vol. XI, 21-22, pp. 220-258 (1963)
• Barbara Harrisson: Conservation of Non-Human Primates in 1970, Primates in Medicine, Vol. 5, pp. 98 ff. (1971)
• Barbara Harrisson: International Proposal to Regulate Trade in Non-Human Primates, Primates, Vol. 13 (1), pp. 111-114 (1972) doi: 10.1007 / BF01757942

literature

• Piotr Romanowski and Elżbieta Szumska: Güttlerowie , Złoty Stok (2016), publisher: Usługi Turystyczne AURUM, ISBN 978-8394014124 (history of the Güttler family in Reichenstein; in Polish).
• Rainforest Foraging and Farming in Island Southeast Asia. The Archeology of the Niah Caves , Sarawak Volume 1, Graeme Barker (ed.), McDonald Institute Monographs; Cambridge: McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, 2013. ISBN 9781902937540 .
• H. James Birx : Encyclopedia of Anthropology : Barbara Harrisson (p. 1502) , SAGE Publications (2005), ISBN 978-1-5063-2003-8 .
• Judith M. Heimann: The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life , University of Hawaii Press (1999), ISBN 978-0-8248-2199-9 .

Web links

• Barbara Harrisson in History of the Great Cave of Niah
• Obituary, The Oriental Ceramic Society

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} Huygens ING: Barbara Veronika Gertrud Maria Elisabeth Güttler , (1922-2015) ; accessed on December 2, 2016.
2. ^ Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft: the handbook of personalities in words and pictures , Berlin 1930-1931, entry "Güttler, Gerhard" (here the first name Gerhard is written). Güttler's own publications, e.g. The English Workers' Party: a contribution to the history and theory of the political labor movement in England (Gustav Fischer, 1914) and books on art exhibitions of works in the possession of Güttler, e.g. copperplate engravings by old masters ... from the Dr. Gerhart Güttler, Berlin and Fritz Rumpf, Potsdam ... (CG Boerner, 1928), name the correct first name Gerhart (with "t").
3. ^ EF Brünig: Conservation and Management of Tropical Rainforests: An Integrated Approach to Sustainability , Cabi Publishing (2016); 2nd ext. Edition, Wallingford, ISBN 978-1780641409 .
4. ^ Judith M. Heimann: The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life . University of Hawaii Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8248-2199-9 , p. 4.
5. ↑ Tom Harrisson was the curator of the Sarawak Museum from June 1947 to November 1966.
6. ^ Anne E. Russon: (Chapter 23) Orangutan Rehabilitation and Reintroduction: Successes, Failures, and Role in Conservation , in SA Wich (Ed.) Orangutans Compared , Oxford University Press (2007).
7. ^ International Primate Protection League: Representatives and Advisors .
8. ↑ John Krigbaum and Ipoi Dathan: The Deep Skull and Associated Human Remains From Niah Cave in The Perak Man and Other Prehistoric Skeletons of Malaysia , ed (2005) Zuraina Majid, Pulau Pinag. Penerbit University Sains Malaysia, pp 131-154.
9. ↑ Chris Stringer: The Origin of Our Species , Penguin (2012), ISBN 978-0141037202 , p. 235.
10. ↑ Darren Curnoe, Ipoi Datan, Paul SC Taçon, Charles Leh Moi Ung and Mohammad S. Sauffi: Deep Skull from Niah Cave and the Pleistocene Peopling of Southeast Asia. In: Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Online publication from June 27, 2016, doi: 10.3389 / fevo.2016.00075
11. ↑ American Motors Conservation Award , listed there under the misspelling Barbara Harrison .
12. ^ Stanley J. O'Connor, Nora A. Taylor: Studies in Southeast Asian Art: Essays in Honor of Stanley J. O'Connor . SEAP Publications, January 1, 2000, ISBN 978-0-87727-728-6 , p. 28. This award was established in 1975 and Barbara Harrisson was the first recipient.