Die Unvollendete – Die größte Expedition des Museums für Völkerkunde Berlin, unternommen nach West-Papua, Neuguinea

Abstract

This paper analyses the history of the largest anthropological project of the Museum für Völkerkunde (now Ethnologisches Museum) in Berlin in the 1970’s. A group of German scholars and scientists carried out research with the Eipo, a small group in the eastern highlands of West Papua, Indonesia. The research aimed at a comprehensive documentation of the Eipo which required the interdisciplinary work of a large number of scientists. Based on until now unpublished archive material the article demonstrates how the scientific personnel reacted to the requests of the museum to engage in this expedition. The project was stopped by two heavy earthquakes and Indonesian obstacles to continued fieldwork by not prolongating research permits. Difficulties to find researchers with field experience to work in this rugged mountain area, mainly from anthropology, had an impact on the composition of the scientific team. As the results of the project were mainly published in German language they have not become widely known in the scientific community. A number of research results have never been published. Thus the largest interdisciplinary project of the museum could never be finalised.

[culture, ecology, interdisciplinarity, anthropology, Eipo]