Ivor Hugh Norman Evans

Ivor Hugh Norman Evans BA
Born	1886
Died	1957
Residence	Perak Museum, Taiping, Federated Malay States [1917] Ring, O, Bells, Bound View Road, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Suffolk [1933] Kota Belud, Jesselton, British North Borneo [1949] c/o GPO, Victoria, Labuan Island, North Borneo [A31]
Occupation	anthropologist ethnographer archaeologist museum work
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1957 deceased elected_AI 1916.06.20 1919.06

Notes

House Notes

1916.05.16 proposed by H.C. Robinson, seconded by C. Boden Kloss, A.C. Haddon

1916 start in 1917 list, 1919 start in 1949 list
1957.05.04 deceased
1957.06.06 death noted

Notes From Elsewhere

Ivor Hugh Norman Evans (1886–1957) was a British anthropologist, ethnographer and archaeologist who spent most of his working life in peninsular British Malaya (now Malaysia) and in North Borneo (now Sabah, Malaysia).
Evans was educated at Charterhouse School and at Clare College, University of Cambridge, during which time he studied under Alfred Haddon. In 1910–11 he briefly served as a colonial administrator, as cadet district officer for the North Borneo Chartered Company, which administrated the independent state and British protectorate of North Borneo. He was based in the Tempasuk and Tuaran Districts.
Evans spent much of his career on peninsular Malaya from 1912 until 1932 at the Perak State Museum in Taiping, the first museum in Malaysia. He was appointed Curator there in 1917 and also worked as an ethnographer and archaeologist.
Evans took early retirement in 1932 and returned to England, settling at Oulton Broad in Suffolk. He remained there until 1938. However, he missed the East and decided to return to Borneo, where he was to spend the rest of his life. He carried out ethnographic research on the religious beliefs, practices and folklore of the Dusuns of the Kota Belud area.
During the Japanese occupation of Borneo in World War II, Evans was held as a civilian internee at Batu Lintang camp at Kuching in Sarawak. He died in Labuan on 3 May 1957.
A collection of Evans' material, including diaries and photographs taken on peninsular Malaya and in Borneo are held at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge (reference GB-1638-MS. Collections, BA5/9/1-7)
Evans left a bequest to Cambridge University which led to the creation of the Evans Research Fellowship and the Evans Fund, to promote anthropological and archaeological research in South East Asia

Publications

External Publications

1922 Among Primitive Peoples in Borneo: A Description of the Lives, Habits, and Customs of the Primitive Headhunters of North Borneo, with an Account of Interesting Objects of Prehistoric Antiquity Discovered in the Island London: Seeley, Service & Co. Limited
1923 Studies in Religion, Folk-Lore, and Custom in British North Borneo and the Malay Peninsula Cambridge: University Press
1927 Papers on the Ethnology and Archaeology of the Malay Peninsula Cambridge: University Press
1937 The Negritos of Malaya Cambridge: University Press
1953 The Religion of the Tempasuk Dusuns of North Borneo Cambridge: University Press

House Publications

Religious beliefs of the Dusuns of the Tuaran and Tempassuk districts, BN Borneo 1912
Folk stories of the Tempassuk and Tuaran districts, BN Borneo 1913
Beliefs and customs of the 'Orang Dusun' of BN Borneo 1917
Some Sakai beliefs and customs 1918
Schebesta on the sacerdo-therapy of the Semangs 1930

Related Material Details

RAI Material

photo in box 27 from Beliefs and customs of the 'Orang Dusun' of BN Borneo 1917

Other Material

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge