Ethnographia • 115. évfolyam (2004)

Tudománytörténet - Vargyas Gábor: Bíró Lajos (1856—1931) emlékezete 441—455

LAMBRECHT Kálmán (szerk.) 1925 A gondolat úttörői. Második sorozat. Budapest, Dante Könyvkiadó [1925] MAY, Patricia and TUCKSON Margaret 1982 The Traditional Pottery of Papua New Guinea. Bay Books Pty Ltd., Kensington (NSW) VARGYAS Gábor 1986 Data on the Pictorial History of Northeast Papua New Guinea. (Occasional Papers in Anthropology 1.) Budapest, Ethnographical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1986, 90 pp. and 69 b/w photos. 1987 Field Notes from the Astrolabe Bay (Madang Province, Papua New Guinea). (Oc­casional Papers in Anthropology 2.) Budapest, Ethnographical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1987, 60 pp. and 195 b/w photos. 1991 „Biró, Lajos" szócikk. In: International Dictionary of Anthropologists. Compiled by Library-Anthropology Resource Group. General Editor: Christopher Winters. Garland Publishing, New York and London, 61-62. Gábor Vargyas THE MEMORY OF LAJOS BIRÓ This paper is the written version of a memorial speech given on 4 December, 2004 at the dedication of the new tombstone of L. Biró (1856-1931), Hungarian naturalist and eth­nographer, one of the great founders of the Oceanic collections of the Ethnographical Museum, Budapest. In the first part of the paper the author relates the vicissitudes of Biro's former graveyard and tombstone that necessitated the reburial of his remains. Then he briefly summarizes Biro's activity as a scientific collector, calling attention amongst others to the formerly unrealized high market value of his ethnographic objects. In the third part he evokes some memories and experiences of his 1981 fieldtrip con­ducted. That he aim of this fieldtrip was, first among Hungarian anthropologists and Oceanist. To revisit the most important places of Biró's former activity and to re-do­cument some of his objects. Finally, he quotes some hitherto unknown contemporary lit­erary sources (both Hungarian and foreign) concerning Biró's personality that cast a new light on his achievement and his dedication to science.

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