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Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a corresponding member of the Anthropological Institute of London (later the Royal Anthropological Institute). Mathews had no academic qualifications and received no university backing for his research. Mathews supported himself and his family from investments made during his lucrative career as a licensed surveyor. He was in his early fifties when he began the investigations of Aboriginal society that would dominate the last 25 years of his life. During this period he published 171 works of anthropology running to approximately 2200 pages.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 22〕 Mathews enjoyed friendly relations with Aboriginal communities in many parts of south-east Australia. Marginalia in a book owned by Mathews suggest that Aboriginal people gave him the nickname Birrarak, a term used in the Gippsland region of Victoria to describe persons who communicated with the spirits of the deceased, from whom they learned dances and songs.〔Martin Thomas, '"Birrarak is the name given to me by the natives": Ethnological Notes on R. H. Mathews' in Martin Thomas (ed.) ''Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews'', (Canberra: Aboriginal History Monographs, 2007), pp. 19–20, http://epress.anu.edu.au/cit_citation.html.〕 Mathews won some support for his studies outside Australia. Edwin Sidney Hartland, Arnold van Gennep and Andrew Lang were among his admirers. Lang regarded him as the most lucid and 'well informed writer on the various divisions which regulate the marriages of the Australian tribes.'〔'Andrew Lang, ''Social Origins'', (London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1903), 38.〕 Despite endorsement abroad, Mathews was an isolated and maligned figure in his own country. Within the small and competitive anthropological scene in Australia his work was disputed and he fell into conflict with some prominent contemporaries, particularly Walter Baldwin Spencer and Alfred William Howitt.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 41〕 This affected Mathews’ reputation and his contribution as a founder of Australian anthropology has until recently been recognised only among specialists in Aboriginal studies. In 1987 Mathews’ notebooks and original papers were donated to the National Library of Australia by his granddaughter-in-law Janet Mathews. The availability of the (Robert Hamilton Mathews papers ) has allowed greater understanding of his working methods and opened access to significant data that were never published. Mathews' work is now used as a resource by anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, heritage consultants and by members of descendant Aboriginal communities. ==Family Background== Robert Hamilton Mathews was the third of five children in a family of Irish Protestants. His elder siblings Jane and William were born in Ulster prior to the family's flight from Ireland in 1839. Robert and his younger sisters Matilda and Annie were born in New South Wales.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), vi〕 Before they emigrated, Mathews’ father, William Mathews (1798–1866), was the principal co-proprietor of Lettermuck Mill, a small papermaking business near the village of Claudy in County Londonderry. The other partners were his three brothers, Robert, Hamilton and Samuel Mathews. When first established by Robert's grandfather (also named William Mathews), Lettermuck was a successful business. Changes in papermaking technology, combined with the introduction of the Paper Excise to Ireland in 1798, adversely affected profitability. Many Irish papermakers made efforts to evade the tax on paper and the Mathews family became 'notorious for crimes against the Excise'.〔Alison Muir, 'The eighteenth century paper-makers of the north of Ireland', ''Familia'', vol. 20, 2004, 59〕 They were regularly summoned before the Court of the Exchequer to answer charges of avoidance. Between 1820 and 1826 penalties of £3,300 were imposed on William Mathews, none of which he paid.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 122〕 Hostile relations developed between the Mathewses and the Excise officers who regularly inspected their business. In 1833 an Excise officer named James Lampen disappeared, having last been seen entering the Lettermuck premises. A witness heard the discharge of a firearm according to a newspaper report. In March 1833 Robert’s father, William Mathews, his three uncles and a journeyman employed in the mill were arrested for Lampen’s murder. They were incarcerated until May that year when the charges were dropped, reportedly because of the disappearance of a key witness and the failure to find a body, despite a substantial search.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 124–5〕 It was believed within and outside the Excise office that the Mathewses were guilty of murder. From the time of the brothers’ release, Excise officers, protected by an armed guard, monitored the mill around the clock. Prevented from trading illegally, the business collapsed and eventually all the brothers emigrated to various destinations. In later years, bodies were exhumed from bog near the mill, thought to belong to Lampen and an itinerant worker in the paper industry.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), ch. 3〕 This raises the possibility that R. H. Mathews’ father and uncles were involved in a double homicide. Penniless after the collapse of the business, William Mathews and his wife Jane (née Holmes) falsified their ages so as to qualify for assisted migration to New South Wales. In the company of R. H. Mathews’ two elder siblings, they arrived in Sydney on the ''Westminster'' in early 1840.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 140〕 William Mathews found labouring work for the family of John Macarthur (wool pioneer) at Camden, New South Wales and shepherded at another of their properties, Richlands near Taralga. They seem to have been itinerant for some years. R. H. Mathews was born at Narellan, southwest of Sydney, on 21 April 1841. The family's fortunes improved when they acquired a farm of 220 acres at Mutbilly near the present village of Breadalbane, New South Wales in the Southern Tablelands.〔Martin Thomas, ''The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist'', (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), 144〕 Goulburn is the nearest city. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「R. H. Mathews」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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