Collections : [Lyrasis Special Collections]

The papers of Harold Scheffler, anthropologist and ethnographer, relate to Scheffler's field research on ambilineal descent groups on Choiseul Island in the Solomon Islands between 1958 and 1961 and to his comparative study of religious revitalization movements, especially the Christian Fellowship Church, conducted on Rendova Island between 1967 and 1968. Scheffler studied social structure, kinship and ethnographic semantics among Varisi language speakers on Choiseul Island (1958-1961), among Baniata language speakers on Rendova Island (1967-1968), and among Simbo islanders (1960). Materials include correspondence with colleagues and students; manuscripts of journal articles and published works; ethnographic data collected in diaries, field notes, genealogies, photographs, and audiorecordings. Also included are grammars, vocabularies and linguistic materials for the Varisi and Baniata languages of the Solomon Islands. Of particular interest are manuscript notes by Bernard Deacon, a British anthropologist, and typescript transcriptions of Deacon's notes by Camilla Wedgewood on Ambryn Island, New Hebrides. The papers span the period from 1926 to 1981 with the bulk of the material generated between 1958 and 1971. The papers are arranged in eight series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS BY SCHEFFLER, 3) CHOISEUL ISLAND FIELDWORK, 4) RENDOVA ISLAND FIELDWORK, 5) MISCELLANEOUS FIELDWORK, 6) WRITINGS OF OTHERS, 7) PHOTOGRAPHS, and 8) AUDIORECORDINGS.