Charles Mountford

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Charles Pearcy Mountford (* 8. May 1890 in Hallett , South Australia , Australia ; † 16th December 1976 in Norwood , ibid) was a trained telecommunications technician who has become a anthropologists , ethnologists developed, photographer and filmmaker.

Early years

He was the son of Charles Mountford, a farmer, and his wife Arabella, née Windsor. He went to school in Hallett, Georgetown and Moonta . In 1907 he moved with his family to Adelaide and worked there as a tram conductor from 1909. Mountford trained as a telecommunications fitter in correspondence courses at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries . In 1903 he was employed by the Australian Post Office.

On March 18, 1914, he married Florence Julge, who died in 1925. He had two children with her. In 1933 he married Bessie Ilma Johnstone.

Path to the scientist

In 1920 Mountford was transferred to the post office in Darwin , where he became interested in regional history. After he returned to Adelaide , he studied Aboriginal rock art near Peterborough Farm. In 1926 he published an article about it together with Norman Tindale . Mountford and his father were founding members of the Anthropological Society of South Australia in 1936 .

Mountford documented prehistoric rock carvings at Panaramitee Station, after which the Panaramitee style is named, and at Mount Chambers Gorge . In 1935 he was appointed secretary to the board of directors of the Inquiry to investigate allegations of ill-treatment of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in Hermannsburg and at Ayers Rock . An expedition with Norman Tindale took him to the Warburton Range in Western Australia . In the years 1937 to 1939 he traveled several times to the Nepabunna mission station in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia , where he took photos and wrote reports on the life and culture of the Adnyamathanha Aborigines . He was involved in an expedition that unsuccessfully searched for the human remains of the lost explorer Ludwig Leichhardt . He later worked at the South Australian Museum for two years , where he published scientific articles. In addition to this activity, he investigated corrosion effects on underground cables on behalf of the Ministry of Post. He quit this job in 1938 to work as an ethnologist at the South Australian Museum.

In 1940 he led a four-month expedition to Central Australia to Ernabella in the eastern Musgrave Ranges with a small team , including his wife, to study the art of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara Aborigines . The expedition took him to the area of Mount Conner . His research interests were in art and mythology at Ayers Rock on the Olgas . In 1942 he documented Aboriginal mythological sites in the MacDonnell Ranges . This journey appears in his film Tjurunga . He also made the film Namatjira the Painter and other films.

In 1945 and 1946, Mountford was on lecture tours in the USA , where he lectured on Aboriginal art . In 1948 he accompanied the American-Australian Arnhem Land Expedition to Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory on behalf of the National Geographic Society . Further expeditions took him to Arnhem Land in 1949, to Yuendumu in the Northern Territory in 1951 and to the Melville Islands in 1954 .

In the 1950s and 1960s, Charles Mountford published several books and photographs. In 1973 he donated manuscripts and a collection of 13,000 photographs to the State Library of South Australia .

Honors

Charles Mountford received the Australian Natural History Medallion in 1945 , the Franklin L. Burr Award in 1949 and the John Lewis Gold Medal and the Thomson Gold Medal in 1955 . In 1971 he was awarded the Verco Medal of the Royal Society of South Australia . In 1973 the University of Melbourne and in 1976 the University of Adelaide awarded him the title Doctor honoris causa for his achievements .

During his lifetime, the State Library of South Australia held an exhibition about his life's work in 1970.

Works

  • The Art of Albert Namatjira (1944)
  • Brown Men and Red Sand (1948)
  • Australian tree portraits (1956)
  • Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 1: Art, Myth and Symbolism. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. (1956)
  • Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 2: Anthropology and Nutrition. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. (1960)
  • Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 3: Botany and Plant Ecology. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Edited with R. Specht
  • The Tiwi: their art, myth and ceremony (1958)
  • Ayers Rock , its people, their beliefs and their art (1965) (work on obtaining a Masters , which he also published in paperback)
  • The Dreamtime (1965), The Dawn of Time (1969) and The First Sunrise (1971) (co-published with artist Ainslie Roberts )
  • Winbaraku: and the myth of Jarapiri (1967)
  • Australian Aboriginal portraits (1967)
  • The Aborigines and their country (1969)
  • Nomads of the Australian Desert (1976)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g adb.anu.edu.au : Philip Jones: Mountford, Charles Pearcy (1890–1976) , in English, accessed December 2, 2012
  2. ↑ samemory.sa.gov.au : Nepabunna, 1937-39 , in English, accessed December 2, 2012
  3. ↑ sdammory.sa.gov.au : Search for Leichhardt remains, 1938 , in English, accessed on December 2, 2012
  4. ↑ samemory.sa.gov.au : Central Australia , in English, accessed December 2, 2012
  5. ↑ samemory.sa.gov.au : SA Memory , in English, accessed December 2, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Mountford, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mountford, Charles Pearcy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian anthropologist and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Hallett , South Australia , Australia
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1976
Place of death Norwood , Australia