Ann Chowning

We, the undersigned, wish to nominate Dr. Ann Chowning for the position of Honorary Fellow of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Dr. Chowning received her Ph.D. in 1958 from the University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation was titled “Lakalai Society” and was based on her field research in the Lakalai area of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. Dr. Chowning has conducted extensive field research in PNG. She worked in Lakalai for a total of 12 months spread over nine visits between 1954 and 1992. She also did research in Molima, Fergusson Island, PNG, for 12 months in 1957-58 and two months in 1974-75; in Sengseng, interior West New Britain, for 18 months between 1962 and 1966 and for 2-1/2 months in 1980-81; and in the Kove area of New Britain for a total of 20 months between 1966 and 1987.

Dr. Chowning has been the member of the faculty of several distinguished universities. She taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, between 1958 and 1965. She was a Senior Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at Australian National University between 1965 and 1970 and, throughout this time, she was also a representative of the Anthropology Department on the New Guinea Research Unit committee. From 1970 to 1977 she was a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Papua New Guinea, holding the position of Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1974. In 1977 she was appointed Professor and Chairperson of Anthropology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, a position she held until 1995. Since 1995 she has been an Honorary Research Fellow and Associate with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. During her years as a professor of anthropology, Dr. Chowning encouraged, fostered, helped, and supported many anthropology students and young faculty who were just beginning their scholarly careers or starting their field work in Papua New Guinea. Dr. Chowning has long maintained an interest in ASAO, has participated in many of the organization’s sessions, and has contributed to volumes published both by ASAO and elsewhere as a result of ASAO symposia. During her long and productive career she has published 72 reports, journal articles, book chapters, modules, and books. Some of her publications have been widely reprinted and are basic and required reading in anthropology courses focused on the area of Oceania.

The ASAO should recognize Dr. Chowning’s scholarly record and her assistance to generations of young Pacific scholars by inviting her to be an Honorary Fellow of our organization.

Some of her more important publications are:

1965-1966 Lakalai Kinship and Lakalai Political Organization Anthropological Forum 1.

1969 The Austronesian Languages of New Britain. Papers in Linguistics of Melanesia No. 2. Pacific LinguisticsC-39.

1972 Child Rearing and Socialization. Encyclopedia of Papua and New Guinea. University of Melbourne Press.

1973 An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Melanesia. Addison-Wesley Modules in Anthropology. 2nd edition 1977.

1976 History of Research in Austronesian Languages: New Britain: and Austronesian Languages: New Britain. In S.A. Wurm, ed., New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Vol. 2: Austronesian Languages. Pacific Linguistics C-39.

1978 Changes in West New Britain Trading Systems in the Twentieth Century. In J. Specht and J.P. White, eds., Trade and Exchange in Oceania and Australia. University of Sydney Press.

1983 Interaction between Pidgin and Three West New Britain Languages. Pacific Linguistics A-65.

1985. Kove Women and Violence: The Context of Wife-beating in a West New Britain Society. In Susan Toft, ed., Domestic Violence in Papua New Guinea, No. 3. Law Reform Commission of PNG.

1986 .Melanesian Religions: An Overview. The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 9. Macmillan.

1987 Women are Our Business: Women, Exchange and Prestige in Kove. In M. Strathern, ed., Dealing with Inequality. Cambridge University Press.

1988 Family Fertility Decisions Among the Kove. In N. McDowell, ed., Reproductive Decision Making and the Value of Children in Rural Papua New Guinea. I.A.S.E.R. Monograph 27.

1989 The Doctor and the Curer: Medical Theory and Practice in Kove, W.N.B.P. In S. Frankel and G. Lewis, eds., A Continuing Trial of Treatment: Medical Pluralism in Papua New Guinea. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

1990 Gods and Ghosts in Kove. In J. Barker, ed., Christianity in Oceania. ASAO Monograph 12. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

1991 Lakalai and Sengseng. In Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 2: Oceania. Boston: G.K. Hall.

1996 (with Jane Goodale). The Two-party Line. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

1997 Changes in Housing and Residence Patterns in Galilo, New Britain 1918-1992. In J. Rensel and M. Rodman, eds., Home in the Islands: Housing and Social Change in the Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.

Dorothy A. Counts, David Counts, and Naomi McPherson (Okanagan University College)

April 2004 Newsletter (#118)