John Layard
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John Willoughby Layard (27 November 1891–26 November 1974) was an English anthropologist and psychologist.
Layard was born in London. He was educated at Bedales School and King's College, Cambridge, from which he gained a degree in modern languages. At Cambridge he became interested in anthropology. In 1914 he accompanied W. H. R. Rivers, one of the leading anthropologists of the day, on an expedition to the New Hebrides (what is today Vanuatu). Layard travelled with his mentor Rivers. They were accompanied by A. C. Haddon and his students, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski. Layard and Rivers travelled through the New Hebrides before stopping at Atchin, a small islet off the northeastern shore of Malekula. The indigenous inhabitants gave them a rather cold reception at first, and Rivers decided to continue travelling while Layard stayed for a year immersing himself in the culture, learning and documenting the vernacular language, and recording myths, legends and oral history. Prior to this time, anthropologists tended to survey many cultures over the course of expeditions and did not spend long periods of time staying in one place and learning about a single culture. Layard in Atchin and his contemporary Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands of New Guinea were the first modern anthropologists to use what is today called participant observation methods in ethnographic research.
On his return to England, Layard was mentally exhausted and began to take a course of psychotherapy, eventually becoming a therapist himself. He later returned to anthropology, producing in 1942 his magnum opus, Stone Men of Malekula. This work was originally planned to be the first of a three volume series on the "small islands of Malekula," Vao, Atchin and Rano. The book ultimately was the only monographic treatment of Layard's New Hebridean materials, although he continued to analyze and write about it in numerous publications in psychoanalytic journals.
