Robert Hamilton Mathews

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report. In March 1833 Robert's father, William Mathews, his three uncles and a journeyman employed in the mill were arrested for Lampen's murder. They were incarcerated until May that year when the charges were dropped, reportedly because of the disappearance of a key witness and the failure to find a body, despite a substantial search. It was believed within and outside the Excise office that the Mathewses were guilty of murder. From the time of the brothers' release, Excise officers, protected by an armed guard, monitored the mill around the clock. Prevented from trading illegally, the business collapsed and eventually all the brothers emigrated to various destinations. In later years, bodies were exhumed from bog near the mill, thought to belong to Lampen and an itinerant worker in the paper industry. This raises the possibility that R. H. Mathews' father and uncles were involved in a double homicide.

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beings were related: in other words, that they were part of the same social order." More controversially, Elkin argued that anyone "familiar with Radcliffe-Brown's writings on this subject since 1913 will realise the extent to which he used Mathews's concepts and generalisations." Elkin claimed Radcliffe-Brown was familiar with Mathews's writings but, regarding him as an amateur, "underestimated his ability for careful recording and sound generalisation. This, however, did not prevent him adopting the results of much which Mathews had accomplished." Twenty years later, Elkin built substantially on his earlier argument for Mathews' importance. This was published as a three-part journal article titled "R. H. Mathews: His Contribution to Aboriginal Studies". A draft "Part IV" in the University of Sydney Archives indicates that Elkin was planning further writings on Mathews before his death in 1979.

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was revealed to an outsider. That Mathews was permitted even this degree of access is evidence of the degree to which he was trusted. He was given a number of sacred instruments relating to initiation ceremonies, now in the collection of the Australian Museum. Information documented by Janet Mathews, originating from Aboriginal elders on the South Coast of New South Wales in the 1960s, indicates that Mathews was himself initiated. Thomas argues that Mathews' refusal to write directly about these experiences shows that his loyalty to the secret culture was "more important than whatever kudos he might have won as an anthropologist in revealing these secrets to the world."

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initiation at a time when the ceremonies were endangered by colonisation and the consequent loss of access to sacred ceremonial sites. Many of the performers in ceremony who were known to Mathews were employed in the pastoral industry. Mathews' reports show that these historical changes found expression in ceremonial life. Motifs of cattle, locomotives, horses and white people were carved into the ground at ceremonial sites in New South Wales. Mathews' work on Kamilaroi initiation was cited extensively in a famous debate between Lang and Hartland about whether Aborigines "possessed the conception of a moral Being".

440:", were evident in Aboriginal marriage rules. Group marriage, as defined by Morgan, presupposed that groups of men who called each other "brother" had collective conjugal rights over groups of women who called each other "sister". Thomas argues that Mathews found the idea of group marriage in Aboriginal society "counterintuitive" because "the requirements of totems and sections made marriage a highly restrictive business." The idea that group marriage exists in Aboriginal Australia is now dismissed by anthropological authorities as "one of the most notable fantasies in the history of anthropology." 570:, who became a major proponent of diffusionist theories. Early in their anthropological careers, Mathews and the Melbourne-based Spencer themselves corresponded, and they were sufficiently close in 1896 for Spencer to be listed as having communicated Mathews' article "The Bora of the Kamilaroi Tribes" to the Royal Society of Victoria. By 1898 they had completely fallen out and Spencer commenced a behind-the-scenes campaign against Mathews. Spencer wrote to British anthropologists, among them 424:

governed these relationships. Despite these departures from the standard rules, it remained a highly ordered social system. Mathews pointed out that in Kamilaroi society there were some marriages, such as those between people of the same totem, that were never deemed acceptable. Mathews' rival Howitt denounced these findings, arguing that this information was imparted by "degraded" tribes, corrupted by European influence. However, later anthropologists, including

331:(also spelled Baiamai and Baiami). The encounter with the Baiame site, and the favourable reception of Mathews' paper by the Royal Society of New South Wales, marked a turning point in his career. His biographer, the Australian historian Martin Thomas, describes it as the onset of his "ethnomania". Mathews was further encouraged when he prepared a long paper on Sydney rock art which was awarded the Royal Society's Bronze Medal essay prize for 1894. 530:"The Family", "The Human Body", "Natural Surroundings", "Mammals", "Birds", "Fishes", "Reptiles", "Invertebrates", "Adjectives" and "Verbs". Mathews' vocabularies typically number about 300 words, rising on occasion to 460. Mathews studied language in this manner because he believed that comparative linguistic study would provide evidence of the successive waves of migration into Australia when the continent was originally populated. 673:". The contemporary anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose and colleagues take the opposite view, describing Mathews as "a more sober and thorough researcher" than Howitt. They claim that "Mathews did not share Howitt's penchant for suppressing the particular in favour of the grand theory, or for suppressing women in favour of men." Unusually for a male anthropologist, he acknowledged "the existence of women's law and ritual." 521:, spoken in western New South Wales): "I personally collected the following elements of the language in Kurnu territory, from reliable and intelligent elders of both sexes." A few of his linguistic studies were carried out with aid of correspondents. A 210 word vocabulary of the Jingili language was prepared with the aid of a Northern Territory grazier. The Lutheran missionary and anthropologist 29: 126:. His elder siblings Jane and William were born in Ulster before the family's flight from Ireland in 1839. Robert and his younger sisters Matilda and Annie were born in New South Wales. Before they emigrated, Mathews' father, William Mathews (1798–1866), was the principal co-proprietor of Lettermuck Mill, a small papermaking business near the village of 102:. This affected Mathews' reputation and his contribution as a founder of Australian anthropology has until recently been recognised only among specialists in Aboriginal studies. In 1987 Mathews' notebooks and original papers were donated to the National Library of Australia by his granddaughter-in-law Janet Mathews. The availability of the 604:. Howitt was by this time mortally ill. His final contribution to anthropology, written on his death bed, was a denunciation of Mathews titled "A Message to Anthropologists". It was posthumously printed as a circular letter by members of the Howitt family and posted to a list of anthropological luminaries that included 577:

Spencer was closely allied to A. W. Howitt who was also hostile to Mathews. Mathews had initially assumed a collegial attitude to Howitt, describing him in 1896 as a "friend and co-worker". Until 1898, Mathews' references to Howitt's work were invariably respectful, even when their opinions differed.

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Mathews wrote primarily about the early stages of male initiation. However, he published some data on female initiation in Victoria and he was attentive to the activities that occurred in the women's camps while neophytes were out in the bush being inducted into rituals by the men. Mathews documented

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From this time, Mathews became a fanatical student of Aboriginal society. He familiarised himself with the fledgling discipline of anthropology by studying in the library of the Royal Society of New South Wales which exchanged publications with 400 other scholarly and scientific institutes around the

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After two years in Singleton Mathews resigned from his post as a licensed surveyor. From that time his surveying was confined to a part-time practice. From May 1882 until March 1883 Robert and Mary made a world tour, visiting the United States, Britain and possibly Europe. In Ireland, Mathews visited

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In explaining his success in working with Aboriginal people, Mathews claimed that "black children were among my earliest playmates". This could refer to the family's time at Richlands where William Mathews worked as a shepherd, as did several Aboriginal men from the area. At Mutbilly the family lived

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Disagreement about the value of Mathews' work has continued. In a 1984 article the historian Diane E. Barwick, made a damning appraisal of Mathews, criticising his Victorian research for perpetrating a "sometimes ignorant and sometimes deliberate distortion has so muddled the ethnographic record ".

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dated 1956, Elkin declared that Mathews' work on Australian kinship marked a significant intellectual breakthrough. He listed eleven key achievements in the field of kinship study, including Mathews' realisation that the totemic heroes "were related to one another in the same kinship manner as human

529:

A consistent template was used throughout Mathews' linguistic writings. First, the grammar was explained. This was followed by vocabulary, first with the word in English and then its equivalent in the Aboriginal language. Words are grouped in categories which were loosely replicated in each article:

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man Jimmy Nerang, in his survey team. Mathews joined the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1875 but never published in the society's journal until he took up anthropology in 1893. Private correspondence shows that he collected some linguistic data and artefacts during his early days as a surveyor.

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Mathews had no academic qualifications and received no university backing for his research. Mathews supported himself and his family from investments made during his lucrative career as a licensed surveyor. He was in his early fifties when he began the investigations of Aboriginal society that would

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reveals the extensive use he made Mathews' writings. Tindale wrote in 1958 that in "going through Mathews' papers for the purpose of checking the second edition of my tribal map and its data, I have been more than ever impressed with the vast scope and general accuracy of this work. Despite earlier

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Despite these limitations, Mathews' publications and unpublished notes preserve significant examples of Aboriginal folklore that might otherwise have been lost. Mathews' most substantial documentation of Aboriginal mythology can be found in his account of the creation of the Blue Mountains, as told

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Much of Mathews' research on ceremony was conducted during preparatory and rehearsal periods, rather than during the initiation rituals themselves. Thomas suggests that this may have been intentional on the part of Mathews' informants, since it allowed them to control what secret-sacred information

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In the intervening years, Mathews wrote extensively on ceremonial life, mostly in southeast Australia. More limited descriptions of ceremonies in South Australia and the Northern Territory were developed from data supplied by correspondents. Of his 171 anthropological publications, 50 are partly or

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Mathews believed that ceremonial life was integral to the social cohesion of Aboriginal communities. Initiation, he explained, was "a great educational institution" intended to strengthen the civil authority of the elders of the tribe. Mathews' first publication on initiation was a description of a

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people of New South Wales whose country he knew from his surveying. Mathews noted that the Kamiliaroi community was divided into two cardinal groups, these days known as moieties (although Mathews more often called them "phratries" or less often "cycles"). Each moiety was divided into a further two

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in other caves in the vicinity. From these observations he prepared a paper that he read before the Royal Society of New South Wales and subsequently published in the 1893 volume of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. He identified the human figure as a depiction of

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As a licensed surveyor in colonial New South Wales, Mathews was entitled to do government work that fell within his assigned district while also maintaining a private practice. His earnings were considerable, and rapidly eclipsed the salary of the colony's Surveyor-General. In the 1870s Mathews was

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in which he complained that Howitt had consistently overlooked his own work. Considering it too prominent a forum to ignore, Howitt wrote a rejoinder and thus engaged in dialogue with Mathews for the first time. Howitt made the unlikely claim that he had only ever seen two publications by Mathews

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The first language documented by R. H. Mathews was Gundungurra in a paper co-authored with Mary Everitt, a Sydney school teacher, dated 1900. From that time, linguistic study was a major part of his research. Language elicitation can be found in 36 of his 171 works of anthropology. His linguistic

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Mathews' approach to kinship was very different from that of Howitt who, as John Mulvaney has written, sought "to lay bare the essentials of primeval society, on the assumption that Australia was a storehouse of fossil customs." Mathews reacted against this approach, which was based on the social

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Occasional visits by large survey teams inspired Mathews' interest in his future profession. After his father's death in 1866, he became an assistant to surveyor John W. Deering in 1866–67. He later trained with surveyors Thomas Kennedy and George Jamieson and in 1870 he passed the government-run

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Mathews' coronial work exposed him to the sufferings of Aboriginal people in the districts around Singleton. He officiated at the magisterial inquiry into the death of a Singleton Aborigine known as Dick who died of malnutrition and exposure in 1886. James S. White, the minister of the Singleton

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Throughout his studies of Aboriginal kinship, Mathews claimed that some marriages occurred that were outside the standard marriage rules as generally understood by the community, although they were nonetheless accepted. He called them "irregular" marriages and argued that a further set of rules

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Hostile relations developed between the Mathewses and the Excise officers who regularly inspected their business. In 1833 an Excise officer named James Lampen disappeared, having last been seen entering the Lettermuck premises. A witness heard the discharge of a firearm according to a newspaper

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said of Mathews that "I don't know whether to admire most his impudence his boldness or his mendacity—they are all of a very high order and seldom combined to so high a degree in one mortal man." Spencer said of Mathews' writings that they merely "corroborate or make use of" other scholarship

474:. He republished them as a short book the following year. Over the next decade, Mathews published another dozen articles describing Aboriginal myths. While a few legends from Western Australia were documented by a correspondent, the great bulk of Mathews' folklore research was done in person. 533:

Mathews used a system of orthography developed from advice on the elicitation of native terms, circulated by the Royal Geographical Society. Mathews' documentation was not sufficiently extensive so as to allow someone to learn or speak the language. Even so, his work constitutes an important

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were among his admirers. Lang regarded him as the most lucid and "well informed writer on the various divisions which regulate the marriages of the Australian tribes." Despite endorsement abroad, Mathews was an isolated and maligned figure in his own country. Within the small and competitive

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by Gundangara (or Gundungurra) people. The story involves an epic chase between the quoll Mirragan and the great fish Gurangatch who tore up the ground to create rivers and valleys. Mathews' surveying background and his interest in topography made him attentive to the route of the journey.

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Mathews noted that marriage rules similar to those of the Kamilaroi occurred across much of Australia. Some communities had intermarrying moieties without further divisions within the moiety groups. Others had moieties divided into four sections (now known as sub-sections). He plotted the

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Presbyterian Church where Mathews worshipped, was an active campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Mathews was friendly with White, but never became a political agitator, preferring instead to document the complexity of Aboriginal culture. In 1889 the Mathews family moved from Singleton to

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wholly concerned with ceremony. The majority consist of a detailed description of the initiation ritual practised by a particular community. By 1897, Mathews could claim to have documented the male initiation ceremonies of about three quarters of the land mass of New South Wales.

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When Mathews became interested in anthropology, he found his status as a magistrate advantageous. Contacts in the police force supplied information on Aboriginal ceremonies while others informed him about the location of potential informants or collected data on his behalf.

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was published in 1904. By that time Mathews had published more than 100 works of anthropology, but he received not a footnote in Howitt's book. The extent to which Mathews was being overlooked by his Australian contemporaries became apparent to British anthropologists.

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supplied information for a paper on Luritja, spoken in Central Australia. Mathews' publications seldom name the Aboriginal people who tutored him in language, but this information can often be found in notebooks or offprints of articles among the R. H. Mathews Papers.

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sections. Particular sections (from opposite moieties) were expected to intermarry. The community was also divided into totems, which were also taken into consideration when marriages were being arranged. Particular totemic groups were expected to intermarry.

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Howitt, however, consistently refused to acknowledge Mathews' scholarship, possibly because Mathews had queried his reports that the kinship systems of south Queensland descended through the paternal line. Mathews was enraged when Howitt's magnum opus

402:. When writing about areas he could not personally visit, he used data supplied by rural settlers whom he persuaded to collect information according to his instructions. The R. H. Mathews Papers contain many examples of this incoming correspondence. 410:

Of Mathews' 171 publications, 71 are to do with Aboriginal kinship, totems or the rules of marriage. His first publication on kinship was read before the Queensland branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia in 1894. It concerns the

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Bora ceremony, held by Kamilaroi people at Gundabloui in 1894. He returned to the subject of Kamilaroi initiation in his last paper, "Description of Two Bora Grounds of the Kamilaroi Tribe" (1917), published the year before his death.

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for "not having gone out among the blacks themselves in all cases." However, Mathews' personal investigations were confined to southeast Australia while his publications concerned all Australian colonies (states from 1901) except

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to Ireland in 1798, adversely affected profitability. Many Irish papermakers made efforts to evade the tax on paper and the Mathews family became "notorious for crimes against the Excise". They were regularly summoned before the

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style, Mathews tended to rephrase Aboriginal narratives into respectable English. This was acceptable to his allies Hartland and Lang, both prominent in folklore studies. However, Mathews' rephrasing was queried by

469:

Mathews' first contribution to the study of myth was a series of seven legends from various parts of New South Wales, published in 1898 as "Folklore of the Australian Aborigines" by the anthropological magazine

134:. The other partners were his three brothers, Robert, Hamilton and Samuel Mathews. When first established by Robert's grandfather (also named William Mathews), Lettermuck was a successful business. Changes in 644:

Thomas notes that professional anthropologists have often been cautious in acknowledging the contribution of their "amateur" forebears. Mathews had few champions among academic anthropologists until

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This allowed him to serve as a magistrate in local courts. He did this regularly after he moved to Singleton where he also served as district coroner. This experience inspired his first publication,

362:. He capitalised on the considerable international interest in Aboriginal Australians in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. His reports were read and cited by major social scientists including 587:

observed in 1906 that Mathews had written "numerous articles", all of which had "either been ignored or dismissed in a footnote by experts such as Dr. Howitt and Prof. Baldwin Spencer".

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distribution of marriage rules and other cultural traits in his "Map Showing Boundaries of the Several Nations of Australia", published by the American Philosophical Society in 1900.

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has allowed greater understanding of his working methods and opened access to significant data that were never published. Mathews' work is now used as a resource by anthropologists,

393:

Mathews gathered information by forging links with Aboriginal communities that he visited in person. This was his preferred method of data collection, and he criticised Howitt and

322:. A worker on the property pointed out a rock shelter where a large man-like figure had been painted by Aboriginal artists. Mathews measured and drew the painting and documented 210:

neighbours and was several times prosecuted for minor assaults against them. R. H. Mathews and his younger siblings were educated by his father and at times by a private tutor.

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people (also spelled Gundungurra). Mathews' father was, according to his grandson William Washington Mathews, a "broken man" by the time they settled at Mutbilly. He had

252: 517:

Most of Mathews' linguistic research was conducted in person during visits to Aboriginal camps or settlements. He wrote in his study of Kurnu (a major dialect of the

161:) falsified their ages so as to qualify for assisted migration to New South Wales. In the company of R. H. Mathews' two elder siblings, they arrived in Sydney on the 680:

legislation in Australia has created new interest in Mathews' work. His writings are now routinely cited in native title claims put forward by Aboriginal claimants.

181:, southwest of Sydney, on 21 April 1841. The family's fortunes improved when they acquired a farm of 220 acres (89 ha) at Mutbilly near the present village of 554:

Spencer provided little explanation of why he objected to Mathews so strongly. Theoretical differences are thought to have been a factor. Spencer believed in

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historical record of many tongues that are no longer spoken. It has been used extensively in more recent historical investigations of Aboriginal linguistics.

485:, formed in 1878, was dedicated to the study of traditional music, customs, folk art, fairy tales and other vernacular traditions. The society published 2585:

Mathews, R. H.; Everitt, M. M. (1900). "The Organisation, Language and Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of the South-East Coast of N. S. Wales".

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Handbook to Magisterial Inquiries in New South Wales: Being a Practical Guide for Justices of the Peace in Holding Inquiries in Lieu of Inquests, etc

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who found Mathews' understanding of topography and cartography invaluable to his project of mapping tribal boundaries. The bibliography of Tindale's

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Barwick claimed that from 1898 Mathews "contradicted, ridiculed or ignored" the "careful ethnographic reports" of Howitt for whom he had an "almost

436:, a patron of both Howitt and his collaborator Fison. Howitt and Fison argued that the vestiges of a primitive form of social organisation, called " 2197: 292:

Handbook to Magisterial Inquiries in New South Wales: Being a Practical Guide for Justices of the Peace in Holding Inquiries in Lieu of Inquests

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Thomas, Martin (2007b). "The Ethnomania of R. H. Mathews: Anthropology and the rage for collecting". In Poiner, Gretchen; Jack, Sybil (eds.).

574:, urging them never to quote him. Frazer agreed, promising Spencer that "I shall not even mention him or any of his multitudinous writings." 2721:

Thomas, Martin (2007a). ""Birrarak is the name given to me by the natives": Ethnological Notes on R. H. Mathews". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

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running to approximately 2200 pages. Mathews enjoyed friendly relations with Aboriginal communities in many parts of south-east Australia.

287:

Mathews was appointed a justice of the peace for the colonies of Queensland and South Australia in 1875 and for New South Wales in 1883.

267:. He donated his outstanding collection of Australian books to the National Library of Australia. His collection of bird skins, sold to 94:

anthropological scene in Australia his work was disputed and he fell into conflict with some prominent contemporaries, particularly

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Aboriginal tribes of Australia, their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names (with four sheet map)

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his parents' village of Claudy, seemingly unaware that his father had been suspected of involvement in the murder of James Lampen.

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region of Victoria to describe persons who communicated with the spirits of the deceased, from whom they learned dances and songs.

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and the journals of various Australian royal societies including the Royal Australasian Geographical Society (Queensland Branch).

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to answer charges of avoidance. Between 1820 and 1826 penalties of £3,300 were imposed on William Mathews, none of which he paid.

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Mathews, R. H. (1907b). "Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria". Letter to the Editor.

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and van Gennep. Apart from a few short books and booklets, Mathews published almost entirely in learned journals, including

346:

In addition to documentation of rock art, which appears in 23 published papers, Mathews published on the following themes:

597:"neither of which recommended itself to me by its accuracy". Mathews replied, questioning the veracity of this assertion. 2967: 2827: 2806: 2785: 2764: 2732: 2672: 2575: 256: 2700:

Thomas, Martin (2004). "R. H. Mathews and Anthropological Warfare: On writing the biography of a "self-contained man"".

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Marginalia in a book owned by Mathews suggest that Aboriginal people gave him the nickname Birrarak, a term used in the

2604: 2242: 1956: 272: 2433: 2972: 386:. In addition to these specialist anthropological journals, he published in general scientific periodicals including 336: 307: 56: 359: 60: 2682:

Mulvaney, D. J. (1971). "The Ascent of Aboriginal Man: Howitt as Anthropologist". In Walker, Mary Howitt (ed.).

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Barwick, Diane E. (1984). McBryde, Isabel (ed.). "Mapping the past: an atlas of Victorian clans 1835–1904".

182: 636:. Martin Thomas argues that "A Message to Anthropologists" did significant damage to Mathews' reputation. 319: 2216: 260: 232: 224: 2743: 2334:

Proceedings and Transactions of the Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia

239:. As a surveyor he had many opportunities to meet Aboriginal people and he employed at least one, the 2419:

Mathews, R. H. (1900–1901). "Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Northern Territory".

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In early 1892 Mathews returned to the Hunter Valley to survey a pastoral property near the hamlet of

248: 2306:

Mathews, R. H. (1893). "Rock Paintings by the Aborigines in Caves on Bulgar Creek, near Singleton".

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critics I am coming to believe that he was our greatest recorder of primary anthropological data."

2896: 2237: 1951: 625: 571: 555: 371: 339:). Mathews' work would now be classified as social or cultural anthropology. He did not practise 170: 2837:

Thomas, Martin (July 2008). "Word Territory: Recording Aboriginal language with R. H. Mathews".

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Mathews, R. H. (2007). "Language of the Kurnu Tribe, New South Wales". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

156: 2906: 2599: 2406:

Mathews, R. H. (1900). "The Origin, Organization and Ceremonies of the Australian Aborigines".

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in 1872. They had seven children, two of whom became prominent later in life. Their first-born

144: 95: 2660: 2184: 2148: 670: 543: 340: 99: 82: 2962: 2957: 2371:

Mathews, R. H. (1897). "The Burbung, or Initiation Ceremonies of the Murrumbidgee Tribes".

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Thomas, Martin (2007c). "Rock Art and Daily Life: Introduction". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

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Elkin, A. P. (1976). "R. H. Mathews: His Contribution to Aboriginal Studies: Part III".

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Elkin, A. P. (1975b). "R. H. Mathews: His Contribution to Aboriginal Studies: Part II".

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Thomas, Martin (2007d). "Kinship and Marriage: Introduction". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

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Mathews, R. H. (1894–1895). "The Kamilaroi Class System of the Australian Aborigines".

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Elkin, A. P. (1975a). "R. H. Mathews: His Contribution to Aboriginal Studies: Part I".

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Koori: A Will to Win: The Heroic Resistance, Survival & Triumph of Black Australia

489:, an internationally distributed journal, to which Mathews contributed five articles. 2928: 2858: 2823: 2802: 2781: 2760: 2728: 2668: 2631: 2623: 2613: 2571: 2269: 2261: 2251: 2208: 1983: 1975: 1965: 617: 123: 86: 67:

dominate the last 25 years of his life. During this period he published 171 works of

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Mathews, R. H. (1908). "Some Mythology of the Gundungurra Tribe, New South Wales".

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on territory that R. H. Mathews later identified as the traditional country of the

2543: 19:"R. H. Mathews" redirects here. For the Australian missionary and sinologist, see 2901: 2551:

Mathews, R. H. (1917). "Description of Two Bora Grounds of the Kamilaroi Tribe".

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Penniless after the collapse of the business, William Mathews and his wife Jane (

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and a corresponding member of the Anthropological Institute of London (later the

48: 2924: 2875: 657: 559: 437: 207: 107: 40: 2942: 2488: 2141:

Arguments about Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Social Anthropology

177:. They seem to have been itinerant for some years. R. H. Mathews was born at 103: 2951: 2817: 2796: 2775: 2754: 2722: 2627: 2565: 2434:"Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria" 2265: 2212: 1979: 629: 522: 394: 323: 264: 236: 2795:

Thomas, Martin (2007e). "Mythology: Introduction". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

2635: 2273: 1987: 114:, heritage consultants and by members of descendant Aboriginal communities. 2868:

The Many Worlds of R. H. Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist

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Thomas, Martin (2007f). "Language: Introduction". In Thomas, Martin (ed.).

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The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life: A Study in Religious Sociology

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Mathews, R. H. (1907a). "Languages of some Tribes of Western Australia".

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CBE, FRSE (1876–1949), their third child, won international renown as an

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Mathews and Howitt subsequently debated each other at greater length in

621: 351: 303: 199: 52: 2727:. Aboriginal History Monographs. Canberra: ANU Press. pp. 19–20. 477:

Mathews' interest in mythology connected with the British interest in

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in early 1840. William Mathews found labouring work for the family of

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Robert Hamilton Mathews was the third of five children in a family of

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who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of

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Mathews, R. H. (1894). "Aboriginal Bora held at Gundabloui in 1894".

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study that was a serious branch of inquiry during his lifetime. The

2822:. Aboriginal History Monographs. Canberra: ANU Press. p. 158. 2819:

Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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Culture in Translation: The anthropological legacy of R. H. Mathews

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writings describe a total of 53 Australian languages or dialects.

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Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales

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Mathews, R. H. (1898). "Folklore of the Australian Aborigines".

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Mathews, R. H. (1896b). "The Būrbŭng of the Wiradthuri Tribes".

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world. He also studied at the Public Library in Sydney (now the

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