Tom Harrisson

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Tom Harrisson (1911-1976) was a British polymath (although often described as an anthropologist his degree studies at Cambridge were in ecology before he left to live in Oxford). In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, mass-observer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeologist, film-maker, conservationist, and writer.

He was born in Argentina, educated at Harrow School in England, conducted ornithological and anthropological research in the New Hebrides, spent much of his life in Borneo (mainly Sarawak) and finished up in the USA, the UK and France before dying in a road accident in Thailand.

He was involved in the British social research organization Mass-Observation.

During the Second World War Harrisson put forward a plan to use the native peoples of Borneo against the Japanese. He was attached to Z Special Unit (also known as Z Force), part of the Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD: a branch of the combined Allied Intelligence Bureau in the South West Pacific theatre). On March 25, 1945, he was parachuted with seven Z Force operatives from a Consolidated Liberator onto a high plateau occupied by the Kelabit people. An autobiographical account of this operation (SEMUT) is given in "World Within" (Cresset Press, 1959).

Following the war, he was Curator of the Sarawak Museum 1947-1966.

The title of his biography, The Most Offending Soul Alive, gives a flavour of the strong feelings he engendered, but he also had many admirers and is recognised as a pioneer in several areas.

[edit] Publications

As well as numerous papers and monographs in scientific journals, especially the Sarawak Museum Journal, books he authored include:

Harrisson, Tom. (1937). Savage Civilisation. Victor Gollancz: London.
Harrisson, Tom. (1943). Living Among Cannibals. George G. Harrap & Co: London.
Harrisson, Tom. (1959). World Within. A Borneo Story. Cresset Press: London.

[edit] References

Heimann, Judith M. (1999). The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life. University of Hawai'i Press: Honolulu. ISBN 0-8248-2149-1. Also published (2002)London : Aurum Press ISBN 1854108417