BURRIDGE, Kenelm (Oswald Lancelot) 1922-(James Casing)

PERSONAL: Born October 31, 1922, in St. Julians, Malta; son of William (a professor of physiology) and Jane (Cassar-Torregiani) Burridge; married Rosabelle Griffiths (marriage ended); married Anna Emslie; children: (first marriage) Julian Langford. Ethnicity: "English." Education: Oxford University, B.A., 1948, diploma in anthropology, 1949, M.A., 1950, B.Litt., 1950; Australian National University, Ph.D., 1953.

ADDRESSES: Home—231 Prince John Way, Xlanaimo, British Columbia V9T 4L4, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, research fellow, 1954-56; University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, professor of anthropology, 1956-58; Oxford University, Oxford, England, lecturer in ethnology, 1958-68; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, professor of anthropology, 1968—, head of anthropology and sociology department, 1973—. University of Western Australia, visiting lecturer, 1968; International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, visiting professor, 1988-89. Military service: Royal Navy, 1939-46; became lieutenant.

MEMBER: Royal Society of Canada, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

AWARDS, HONORS: Guggenheim fellow, 1972-73; fellow of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1979-80; Killam fellow, 1979-80.

WRITINGS:

(Under pseudonym James Casing) Submariners, Macmillan (London, England), 1951.

Mambu: A Melanesian Millennium, Methuen (London, England), 1960, Harper Torchbooks (New York, NY), reprinted with revised preface, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1995.

Tangu Traditions: A Study of the Way of Life, Mythology, and Developing Experience of a New Guinea People, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1969.

New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities, Schocken (New York, NY), 1969.

Encountering Aborigines: A Case Study: Anthropology and the Australian Aboriginal, Pergamon Press (New York, NY), 1973.

Someone, No One: An Essay on Individuality, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1979.

In the Way: A Study of Christian Missionary Endeavors, University of British Columbia Press (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1991.

Contributor of more than 100 articles and reviews to learned journals.

Some of Burridge's writings have been translated into Spanish and Japanese.

SIDELIGHTS: Anthropology is frequently defined as the comparative study of humankind. The word comparative carries special significance for many contemporary cultural anthropologists, including Kenelm Burridge. Burridge believes that a culture must not be arbitrarily criticized through another's standards. Nevertheless, it is vital to realize a culture's relevance to every other society. Burridge takes this position in Encountering Aborigines: A Case Study: Anthropology and the Australian Aboriginal. Though suggested by the title, his work is not totally devoted to the aborigine; rather, it is "concerned with the way the anthropological enterprise has been shaped by the context of Western civilization, as that enterprise is revealed through its praxis among the Aborigines," explained Philip L. Newman in Science.

Burridge begins Encountering Aborigines with a cumulation of much of the published information available on the migratory tribe to date. He then draws generalizations on the society as a whole, leading directly into "motives" or "themes" applicable to any culture. The aborigine is seen as "everyman," reacting in his own unique way to the basic biological and sociological stimuli faced by all humankind. By not taking into account alien cultures such as this one, Burridge insists we cannot ultimately understand our own. And to gain this intrinsic knowledge, the overwhelming conceit in the virtue of our own morals and traditions with its condescending opinion of other cultures must be eradicated.

Burridge's "critique of evolutionary theory [in Encountering Aborigines] is particularly interesting in terms of his general thesis," commented Newman. However, "most of the standard works on the history of anthropological theory [are not mentioned,]" reported a Choice critic, noting that "Burridge's command of Aboriginal data seems limited, although 'extensive field work' is claimed. A convoluted and ponderous style makes for obscurity and leads Burridge into errors." Nevertheless, Newman wrote, "Burridge can count the book a success insofar as it moves its reader into a greater awareness of whence he came intellectually and where, possibly, he might go."

Burridge sees the unfortunate trend of anthropology today leaning toward "professionalism" rather than "humanism." Cultures are statistically and categorically analyzed with little apparent regard for inherent motivating factors. Rituals and routines alike are duly recorded, but the spirit of the people themselves never emerges. As in most human endeavor, however, a reversal is in sight. Burridge believes the current attitude will soon run its course, with a more humanistic approach resulting.

Critics of Tangu Traditions: A Study of the Way of Life, Mythology, and Developing Experience of a New Guinea People praised the methodology Burridge used in exploring the Tangu people. "Besides adding to what we know of [the Tangu] culture, it presents an interesting and innovative mode of analysis.... Both substantively and methodologically the book is a valuable addition to a library collection in anthropology," claimed a Choice contributor. A Times Literary Supplement reviewer wrote: "Here we have an ideal combination of the empiricism of British anthropology and the metaphysics of French structuralism. Following from his field research in the early 1950s, Dr. Burridge has found and developed a theoretical framework that has resulted in this most important contribution to social anthropology so far. He has tackled one of the most complex aspects of the discipline but with undoubted competence and with invaluable results."

Another Burridge accomplishment, New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities, "is a thoughtful, provocative, and exciting book that will encourage a fresh approach not only to millenarian activities but to the question of dynamics generally," according to Pacific Affairs contributor D. G. Bettison. In this work Burridge reviews and criticizes existing literature as well as providing his own theories; it "presents a model of the social process responsible for that type of millennial movement in which transition to a money economy presents a crucial challenge to male integrity," described A. F. C. Wallace in American Anthropology. Burridge "is intent on using millenarian activities as a test case in the search for a new objective validity to the interpretation of social relations," explained Bettison. "Although the model is too narrow for application to all revitalization movements, it permits a penetrating analysis of some movements," maintained Wallace. "When Burridge turns to the task of explanation, he does this in a way that is singularly appropriate for the present stage of sociological and anthropological enquiries," reported Alasdair MacIntyre in Encounter, concluding: "This is one of the most interesting books in the field of the human sciences for some time."

Burridge told CA: "I write because, in a sense, I have to. Sometimes, on putting pen to paper, something entirely unexpected comes on to the paper. Difficulties arise in sticking to the point.

"I suppose the influence on my work that I am most aware of is that of E. E. Evans-Pritchard: a certain honesty, trying to be led by the material rather than attempting to control it so as to conform to a 'genre' or more popular point of view.

"Inspiration and the writing process really go together. I ask myself what material do I have? What do I need to know to make sense of it? I listen to people's direct ('You ought to write a book about . . .') and indirect ('There ought to be a book about . . .') suggestions. I plot out what might make a book—which goes through many changes—and then I start writing. However, I am doing very little writing these days."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropology, October, 1970, A. F. C. Wallace, review of New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities.

Choice, September, 1970, review of Tangu Traditions: A Study of the Way of Life, Mythology, and Developing Experience of a New Guinea People; May, 1974, review of Encountering Aborigines: A Case Study: Anthropology and the Australian Aboriginal.

Encounter, March, 1970, Alasdair MacIntyre, review of New Heaven, New Earth.

Pacific Affairs, summer, 1970, D. G. Bettison, review of New Heaven, New Earth.

Science, June 28, 1974, Philip L. Newman, review of Encountering Aborigines: A Case Study.

Times Literary Supplement, March 5, 1970, review of Tangu Traditions.