Roger Duff

Roger Shepherd Duff (born July 11, 1912 in Invercargill , † October 30, 1978 in Christchurch ) was a New Zealand ethnologist and museum director.

Life

Duff was the son of Oliver Duff and Jessie Barclay. His father was first a school teacher and later a journalist and editor of the New Zealand Listener . After graduating from Christchurch Boys' High School, Duff studied at the University of Otago and Canterbury University College , where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1935 and a Master of Arts in 1936 . In Otago he studied anthropology with Henry Devenish Skinner , who later became his mentor and colleague. Unable to take anthropology to an advanced level, he graduated in pedagogy , the only available social science subject. His master's thesis on the sociology of the Tuahiwi - Māori reflected his early interest in Maori culture.

From 1935 to 1937 Duff served as a cadet in the Samoa public service . He intended to conduct a social anthropological study, but this proved impossible. The two years in Samoa furthered his interest in Polynesian culture. He learned some Samoan and collected artifacts that are now in the Canterbury Museum . In 1938 he was appointed an ethnologist at the Canterbury Museum. In December 1938 he married Deirdre Milligan in Christchurch. The marriage ended in divorce in 1953. In 1948 he succeeded Robert Alexander Falla as director of the Canterbury Museum.

His first research project, starting in 1939, was the excavation of well-preserved complete Moa skeletons in the Pyramid Valley in North Canterbury. In 1942, excavations followed at the archaeological site of Wairau Bar in the Marlborough District , which continued for many more years. Jim Eyles , who was still a schoolboy at the time and would later become a successful archaeologist himself, was Duff's assistant for some time. Based on the artifacts discovered in Wairau Bar, Duff was able to conclusively prove that the Moa hunters represented an early Maori culture. Duff published the results of the Wairau Bar excavations in 1950 in his work The moa-hunter period of Maori culture . For this he received his doctorate in 1951 as a Doctor of Science (DSc) at the University of New Zealand . For his work at Wairau Bar, Duff received a number of other academic honors and awards, including the Percy Smith Medal from the University of Otago in 1948, a fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1952, and the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize from the Royal in 1956 Society of New Zealand. The Duff peak in Antarctica bears his name.

Roger Duff wrote short, popular science and academic, well-illustrated articles on Pyramid Valley and Wairau Bar. Despite poor excavation techniques at Wairau Bar, his description of the material culture of New Zealand Polynesians and their relationships with other Polynesian cultures is considered a milestone in the study of New Zealand prehistory .

With a British Council scholarship , Duff was given the opportunity to visit museums in the United Kingdom in 1947 . At the time, he and Skinner were involved in negotiations to acquire the Oldman collection of Maori and Polynesian artifacts . Duff visited the collector and dealer William Ockelford Oldman in London and in 1948 the New Zealand government bought the collection, which was originally intended for what was then the Dominion Museum . However, Duff managed to have it split among the great museums of New Zealand.

Duff headed the Canterbury Museum's archaeological group for many years. A SEATO scholarship and a travel grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation in 1961 enabled him to study stone changing in Southeast Asian museums. He led two archaeological expeditions to the Cook Islands between 1962 and 1964 and in 1969 he was a member of the Cook Bicentenary Expedition of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Duff led through a long period of stable administration and secure funding. Under his leadership, the size of the museum's building was tripled and the staff increased fivefold. In 1977 the Antarctic Exhibition was opened in recognition of the Canterbury Museum's long commitment to south polar research. Since 1978 the grand piano that houses the exhibition has been called the Roger Duff grand piano. A grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust in 1967 enabled Duff to visit museums overseas and come up with new ideas. In 1964 he married his secretary Myrtle Jessie McLachlan.

From 1969 to 1970 he organized an exhibition on James Cook for the Art Galleries and Museums Association of New Zealand , where he was a councilor from 1949 until his death. For his contributions to the museum movement, he received the Order of Commander of the British Empire in 1977 .

Duff was active in the New Zealand Archaeological Association from an early age . He worked with UNESCO and organized the traveling exhibition The Art of Oceania in 1975/1976 under his patronage .

Fonts (selection)

• The Evolution of Native Culture in New Zealand: Moa Hunters, Morioris, Maoris , 1947
• The moa-hunter period of Maori culture , 1950
• Moas and Moa-hunters , 1951
• Recent Māori Occupation of Notornis Valley, Te Anau , 1952
• Excavation of House-pits at Pari Whakatau Pa, Claverley, Marlborough; The Waitara Swamp Search , 1961
• Stone Adzes of Southeast Asia: An Illustrated Typology , 1970
• Prehistory of the Southern Cook Islands , 1974
• The Art of Oceania: Unesco Traveling Exhibition , 1975

literature

• Ron Scarlett : Roger Shepherd Duff: an appreciation and tribute. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter 22 (2), 1979, p. 47.
• Gowan Duff, Robin Duff: Roger Duff: anthropologist, educationalist, archaeologist In: Matthew Campbell (Ed.) Digging into History: 50 years of the New Zealand Archaeological Association. Archeology in New Zealand 47 (4), December 2004, pp. 86-90.
• Janet Davidson. Duff, Roger Shepherd , Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2000. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Online (accessed February 16, 2018)