Walter Edmund Roth

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Walter Edmund Roth (born April 2, 1861 in London , England , † April 5, 1933 in Georgetown , Guyana ) was a doctor, anthropologist , author and Protector of Aborigines . He has written numerous ethnological articles on the indigenous peoples in Australia and Guyana, which are still an important source on their life and customs today, and translated early travel literature on Guyana.

Early life

Walter Roth was one of six children of Mathias Roth, a doctor of Hungarian descent, and Anna Maria, née Collins, from England. At school he learned German and French. Walter Roth studied biology at Magdalen College , Oxford , received medical training at St Thomas's Hospital in London and published The Elements in School Hygiene in 1886 .

In 1892 he came to Australia for the second time and practiced as a doctor in Queensland until 1894 and then from 1896 to 1897 as a medical officer in Normanton .

anthropologist

Australia

In 1897 Roth brought out the monograph Ethnological Studies Among North-West Central Queensland Aborigines , which brought him international reputation. In 1902 Roth became President of the Anthropological Department of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science , in 1904 he was inducted into the Anthropological Societies of Berlin and Florence and was Queensland's Rapporteur for the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland . The Royal Society of New South Wales honored him in 1909 with the Clarke Medal .

In 1898 Roth was named the first Protector of Aboriginal in the Northern Territory and was responsible for regulating the living and working conditions of the Aborigines in Queensland, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander , in pearl fishing and sea ​​cucumber fishing . He had a ship to carry out the latter task.

The established circumstances of the working and living conditions caused him to campaign decisively for the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (1897) . Due to his commitment to the Aborigines, he came into conflict with politicians, settlers and the press in northern Queensland when he was Chief Protector of Aborigines there from 1904 to 1906 . In 1904 he led the Western Australian Royal Commission and submitted a report that documented the "grievances and violations", "atrocities and assaults" on the indigenous population. When he was violently politically attacked, he resigned from his office due to health problems in August 1906 and left Australia in December 1906.

British Guiana

From 1907 Roth was employed in British Guiana by the British colonial government in several offices, including as a medical officer, and he was responsible for the Aboriginal Protection Ordinance from 1910 . In Guyana he continued his anthropological studies and carried out expeditions. Since he was interested in the history of Guyana, he translated works by Dutch and German explorers , such as the work Reisen in Guiana and the Orinoco during the years 1835-1839 by Robert Hermann Schomburgk . After his resignation in 1928, he became the curator of the Georgetown Museum.

collection

His ethnographic collections are mainly in Australian and Queensland museums, furthermore in the Historical Museum of Mankind in London, in the Gothenburg Ethnographical Museum in Sweden, in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and in the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown.

Publications

  • Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aboriginals. Brisbane and London, 1897.
  • Notes on Social and Individual Nomenclature among Certain North Queensland Aborigines. Publication of the Royal Soc. of Queensland, 13, 1897.
  • Bulletins of North Queensland Ethnography published by the Queensland Government. Brisbane 1901-1910.
    • String, and other forms of Strand Basketry, Woven-Bag and Network, 1901. Structure of the Koko-Yimidir Language, 1901.
    • Food: its Search, Capture, and Preparation, 1901.
    • Games, Sports, and Amusements, 1902.
    • Superstition, Magic, and Medicine, 1903.
    • Domestic Implements, Arts, and Manufactures, 1904.
    • Burial Customs and the Disposal of the Dead, 1907.
    • Marriage Ceremonies and Infant Life, 1908. Miscellaneous Papers, 1908.
    • Fighting Weapons, 1908.
    • Certain Initiation Ceremonies, 1909.
    • Transport and Trade, 1910.
    • Decoration, Deformation, and Clothing, 1910.
    • Huts and Shelters, 1910.
    • Postures and Abnormalities, 1910.
    • Social and Industrial Nomenclature, 1910.
  • Notes on Savage Life in the Early Days of Western Australian Settlement. Publication of the Royal SOCo. f Queensland, 17,1902.
  • An Elementary Grammar of the Nggerikudi Language, by the Rev. N. Hey. Revised and written by Walter E. Roth. Brisbane, 1903.
  • Report of the Royal Commission [Dr. Roth] on the Condition of the Natives of Western Australia. Perth, 1905.
  • Notes on Government, Morals, and Crime. Publications of the Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW Brisbane, 1905.
  • Catch cradle in British Cuiana. Etudes Etlin. Published by the SOC.N, os. 4-5. Paris, 1908.
  • Australian hats and shelters. Man, 9: No. 27, p. 49, 1909.
  • Some Technological Notes from the Pomeroon District, British Guiana, Part I. Jour. of the Royal Anth. Inst., 14: 26-34, 1909.
  • Zbid. Part 11, Jour. of the Royal Anth. Inst., 13: 23-38, 1910.
  • Zbid. Part 111. Jour. of the Royal Anth. Inst., 14: 72-82, 1911.
  • Zbid. Part IV, Jour. of the Royal Anth. Inst., 15: 5 2 W, 1912.
  • Narcotics and Stimulants of the Guianese Indian. British Cuiana Medical Annals, 191 I. Old Time Indians. Timehri, 1.1911.
  • On the Native Drinks of the Guianese Indians. Timehri, 2, 1912.
  • An Inquiry into the Animism and Folklore of the Guiana Indians. 30th Ann. Rep., Bureau of Amer. Ethnology, 103-396, 1915.
  • Some examples of Indian Mimicry, Fraud, and Imposture. Timehri, 7, 1921.
  • Richard Schomburgk's Travels in British Guiana, 1840-1844. Translated by WE Roth. Georgetown, 1922-1923.
  • An Introductory Study of the Arts, Crafts, and Customs of the Guiana Indians. 38th Ann. Rep. Bureau of Amer. Ethnology, 23-745, 1924.
  • Additional Studies of the Arts, Crafts and Customs of the Guiana Indians, with special reference to those of Southern British Guiana. Bull. 91, Bureau of Amer. Ethnology, 1929.
  • Netcher's History of Guiana. Translated by WE Roth. Georgetown, 1931.
  • Robert Hermann Schomburgk's Travels in Guiana and on the Orinoco, 1835-1839. Translated by WE Roth. Georgetown, 1931.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c adb.anu.edu.au : Roth, Walter Edmund Roth (1861-1933), in English, accessed on March 30, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c onlinelibrary.wiley.com : Melville J. Herkovits: Walter E. Roth , p. 266 f., In English, accessed on March 30, 2012
  3. ↑ References from Melville J. Herkovits: Walter E. Roth , in English, accessed March 30, 2012. Available online at onlinelibrary.wiley.com
personal data
SURNAME Roth, Walter Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roth, WE
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ethnologist and protector of the Aborigines in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Guyana
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1933
Place of death Georgetown , Guyana