John Liep Papers

Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2022
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu


Descriptive Summary

Contributing Institution: Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: John Liep Papers
Creator: Liep, John
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0782
Physical Description: 4.3 Linear feet (10 archives boxes, 1 card file box, 3 oversized folders)
Date (inclusive): 1920-2007 (bulk 1971-1980)
Abstract: Papers of Danish anthropologist John Liep (1936-2014), who was known for his research on Rossel Island (or Yela), located in the Louisiade Archipelago, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The collection includes field notes and notebooks, slides, negatives, sound recordings, writings, drawings, and correspondence.
Languages: English .

Scope and Content of Collection

Papers of Danish anthropologist John Liep (1936-2014), who was known for his research on Rossel Island (or Yela), located in the Louisiade Archipelago, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The collection includes field notes and notebooks, slides, negatives, sound recordings, writings, drawings, and correspondence. Liep traveled to Rossel Island in 1971-1972, 1973, 1980, and 1989-1990.
Arranged in five series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE AND WRITINGS, 2) RESEARCH, 3) PHOTOGRAPHS, 4) MAPS AND DRAWINGS, and 5) SOUND RECORDINGS.

Biography

John Aage Liep was born September 20, 1936 in Horsens, Denmark. Originally a student of architecture at the University of Copenhagen, Liep switched to social anthropology, completing a master's degree in 1970. He began his field studies on Rossel Island (or Yela) in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea in 1971, often accompanied by his wife, Annette Liep, and their two children. Liep was best known for his studies of Rossel Island economics and social systems. In particular, he described the ranked exchange of shells on the island as displays of distinction and rank, rather than as a monetary system, in contrast to the earlier studies of W.E. Armstrong.
Liep was a lecturer at the University of Copenhagen Institute of Anthropology from 1970 to 1978 and an associate professor from 1979 to 2003, when he became associate professor emeritus. He was also associated with the Australian National University in Canberra for his field studies in Papua New Guinea. In 2009, he completed his Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Copenhagen, which was published as A Papuan Plutocracy: Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island. Liep continued writing and attending conferences until shortly before his death on November 14, 2014.

Preferred Citation

John Liep Papers. MSS 782. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.

Acquisition Information

Acquired 2015

Publication Rights

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

Restrictions

Original sound recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available for researchers.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Ethnology -- Papua New Guinea -- Rossel Island
Anthropology -- Melanesia
Louisiade Archipelago (Papua New Guinea) -- Social life and customs
Rossel Island (Papua New Guinea)
Liep, John -- Archives

 

CORRESPONDENCE AND WRITINGS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 1) CORRESPONDENCE AND WRITINGS: Liep's incoming correspondence with anthropologists and research institutions, arranged chronologically. Correspondence with anthropologist Wallace Edwin Armstrong can be found in the RESEARCH series. Includes drafts for two articles by Liep on Rossel Island culture. A small amount of materials are in Danish.
Box 10, Folder 1

Correspondence 1965-2006

Box 1, Folder 1

Investigation and Processes of Social Reproduction in the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, with Special Reference to Rossel Island (Yela) - Preliminary report 1980 October

Box 1, Folder 2

Ernæringens sociale og kulturelle rammer på Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea (The Social and Cultural Framework of Nutrition on Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea) ca. 1990

 

RESEARCH

Scope and Content of Series

Series 2) RESEARCH. Arranged in two subseries: A) Notebooks, and B) Notes and Data. Liep kept notes in English, Danish, and Yélîtyne, the language of Rossel Island. When writing words in Yélîtyne, Liep chose spellings that reflected the language as he heard it spoken near Pum village, and which may differ from spellings used by other researchers on Rossel Island.
A) Notebooks: Liep's field notebooks from his travel to Rossel Island and other locations in Papua New Guinea from 1970 to 1990, arranged chronologically.
B) Notes and Data: Notes kept by Liep on the people and culture of Rossel Island, particularly near Pum village, arranged alphabetically by subject. Includes information on feasts, payments, shell money, language, myths, genealogies, census materials, and agriculture. The subseries includes a file of notes, correspondence, and photographs regarding British anthropologist Wallace Edwin Armstrong, who traveled to Rossel Island in 1921.
 

Notebooks

Box 1, Folder 3-9

Rossel Island field notes and table of contents 1971-1973

Box 2, Folder 1-3

Primary notes (question notes) and patrol notes 1971-1973

Box 2, Folder 4

Notes taken in Ukarumpa, Misima, and Cheme, Rossel 1971

Box 2, Folder 5

Copy of Father Earl's genealogical notes. Copy of government census (Wulanga Bay area) 1971-1972

Box 2, Folder 6

Genealogies - Primary notes 1972

Box 2, Folder 7

Survey book 1972

Box 2, Folder 8

Journal - Pumu activities 1972-1973

Box 3, Folder 1

Notes on pig feasts, mortuary feasts, and marriage transactions 1972-1973

Box 3, Folder 2-3

Notebooks 1977-1983

Box 3, Folder 4

Kula conferences 1978, 1981

Box 3, Folder 5

Travel notes, Milne Bay Province 1980

Box 3, Folder 6-8

Rossel Island rough notes 1980

Box 4, Folder 1-3

Rossel Island 1980-1990

 

Notes and Data

Box 4, Folder 4

Big men 1972-1973

Box 4, Folder 5

Brideprice payments 1971-1980

Box 10, Folder 2

Cash cropping 1971-1980

Box 4, Folder 6-10

Census materials and genealogies 1930-1990

General note

Includes Catholic Mission, Rossel Island, Wulanga Bay, and government census data.
Box 4, Folder 11

Collection of ethnographics from Rossel Island by John and Annette Liep 1973

Box 4, Folder 12

Dances and sing-sings 1972-1996

Box 4, Folder 13

Disputes 1972-1980

Box 10, Folder 3

Food rules, etc. 1980-1990

General note

Includes slides.
Box 4, Folder 14

Gardening 1971-1989

Box 10, Folder 4

Genealogies

Oversize FB-016, Folder 10

Genealogies

Box 4, Folder 15

Groups/clans/land tenure 1972-1980

Box 4, Folder 16

History 1972-2006

Box 5, Folder 1

Kinship 1972-2007

Box 5, Folder 2

Local council/tax 1972-1973

Box 10, Folder 5

Language 1971-1987

Box 5, Folder 3

Miscellaneous notes 1973-2005

Box 5, Folder 4-5

Mortuary feasts and payments 1971-1990

Box 5, Folder 6

Myths and legends 1972-1980

Box 5, Folder 7

Other feasts 1972-1973

Box 10, Folder 6

Other payments 1972-1989

Box 5, Folder 8

Other production 1972-1980

Box 10, Folder 7

Other valuables/trade 1971-1980

General note

Includes photographs.
Box 5, Folder 9

Patrol reports - Notes for 1908-1933

Box 5, Folder 10-11

Pig feasts 1972-1980

Box 10, Folder 8

Rossel Island census division area study 1971

Box 5, Folder 12

Rossel Island plants 1973-1977

Box 5, Folder 13

Sacred places 1972-1980

Box 5, Folder 14-16

Shell money, ndap and kö 1971-1989

Box 5, Folder 17

Sorcery, magic, and healing 1972-1990

Box 5, Folder 18

Wallace Edwin Armstrong - Notes, correspondence, photographs, and genealogies 1920-1993

General note

Includes photographs of W.E. Armstrong taken on Rossel Island ca. 1921.
Box 11, Folder 1-3

Wulanga Bay ward hamlet and household files, and biographical notes - Index cards 1971-1973

 

PHOTOGRAPHS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 3) PHOTOGRAPHS: Slides and negatives taken by Liep on Rossel Island and other locations in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and his lists of the images. The slides were numbered by Liep starting in 1971; the numbering system starts over in 1980. Includes images of John Liep and his family on Rossel Island.
Box 6, Folder 1-7

Rossel Island - Slides #1-700 and image list 1971-1973

Box 7, Folder 1-4

Rossel Island - Slides #701-1069 1973

Box 7, Folder 5-7

Rossel Island, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Trobriands - Slides #1-200 and image list 1980

Box 8, Folder 1-5

Rossel Island and Trobriands - Slides #201-650 1980

Box 8, Folder 6

Negatives and image list 1972-1973

Box 9, Folder 1

Pictures of some Rossel people, by John Lamonga and James Henderson (in Rossel and English) - Small publication 1979

 

MAPS AND DRAWINGS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 4) MAPS AND DRAWINGS: Drawings of shell money by Liep, annotated maps of the Louisiade Archipelago, and diagrams of villages on Rossel Island.
Oversize FB-016, Folder 10

Drawings of shell money

Oversize FB-016, Folder 11

Maps and diagrams of Louisiade Archipelago, Rossel Island, and villages

Oversize MC-012, Folder 06

Village diagram

 

SOUND RECORDINGS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 5) SOUND RECORDINGS: Audio recordings of singing, talking, and drumming on Rossel Island and other locations in the Louisiade Archipelago in 1972 and 1973. Includes a short speech by Liep to the Rossel Islanders. On reel-to-reel tapes and audiocassettes.
Box 9, Folder 2

Pyilewe, Mbwode, Ndawa Island, and Rossel Island - Reel-to-reel tape 1972 July 13-14

Box 9, Folder 3

Ndama, Yimawie, Yemnaikela, Rossel Island - Reel-to-reel tape 1972 July 19-20

Box 11, Folder 4

Band I. Ndama, Yimawie, Yemnaikela, Rossel Island, Pyilewe, Mbwode, and Ndawa Island - Audiocassette (110 minutes) 1972 July 13-20

General note

Includes John Liep saying farewell to the Rossel Islanders. Side 2 starts at 8 minutes.
Box 11, Folder 5

Band II. Pyilewe, Mbwode, Ndawa Island, Rossel Island - Audiocassette (side 1, 52 minutes) 1972 July 13-14

Box 11, Folder 6

Tpilewe chambe - Audiocassette (side 1, 60 minutes) 1973 August 15

Box 11, Folder 7

Pig feast, Tumnbwye, and Pyilewe - Audiocassette (120 minutes) 1973 September 9

Box 11, Folder 8

Ptilewe chambe - Audiocassette (102 minutes) 1973 November 11