Obituary: Thomas Mitchell Ernst (1943-2016)

Anthropologist Thomas Mitchell Ernst had a long and close association with Papua New Guinea. Although Tom was not a prolific writer, several of his publications stand out as gems, including, in addition to the ‘Entification’ article (Ernst 1999 Ernst, Thomas M. 1999. “Land, Stories and Resources: Di...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Asia Pacific journal of anthropology 2017-01, Vol.18 (1), p.87-88
Main Authors:	Merlan, Francesca, Rumsey, Alan
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Anthropologists Anthropology Attitudes Deaths Discourses Ernst, Thomas Ernst, Thomas Mitchell Honour Modernity Mythology Social analysis Teachers
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Anthropologist Thomas Mitchell Ernst had a long and close association with Papua New Guinea. Although Tom was not a prolific writer, several of his publications stand out as gems, including, in addition to the ‘Entification’ article (Ernst 1999 Ernst, Thomas M. 1999. “Land, Stories and Resources: Discourses and Entification in Onabasulu Modernity.” American Anthropologist 101 (1): 88–97. doi: 10.1525/aa.1999.101.1.88[Crossref], [Web of Science ®], [Google Scholar]), his ‘Myth, Ritual, and Population among the Marind-Anim’ (Ernst 1979 Ernst, Thomas M. 1979. “Myth, Ritual, and Population among the Marind-Anim.” Social Analysis 1: 34–52. [Google Scholar]), and ‘Empirical Attitudes among the Onabasulu’ (Ernst 1991 Ernst, Thomas M. 1991. “Empirical Attitudes among the Onabasulu.” In A Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific anthropology and Ethnobiology in Honour of Ralph Bulmer, edited by Andrew Pawley, 1–624. Auckland: Polynesian Society. [Google Scholar]). Tom was a gifted teacher and inspiring supervisor of PhD students, including at least three who became prominent Melanesianists in their own right: Neal Maclean, Michael Nihill and Jeffrey Clark.
ISSN:	1444-2213 1740-9314