George Alexander Wilken
| Prof. Dr George Alexander Wilken | |||||||
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| Born | 1847 | ||||||
| Died | 1891 | ||||||
| Residence | University of Leyden | ||||||
| Occupation |
administrative ethnologist | ||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1891.06.23 proposed for election as Hon. Member at the next meeting
1891.10.27 death reported
* died before official election
1892 E.B. Tylor's presidential address: A great loss sustained by anthropology during the past year has been the death of Professor G. A. Wilken, of the University of Leyden. His father was a Dutch missionary stationed in Celebes, and his mother partly of Malay descent. Sent to Holland for education, he distinguished himself from the first by that untiring zeal which made his short life exceptionally productive. From 1869 till 1880 he went back to the East Indies, employed in outlying districts, where he made his official duties a help to intimate knowledge of the people, which in its turn no doubt told favourably on his administrative work. His friend and pupil, Dr. Pleyte, relates how in Boeroe at sunset, after the day's work, the notables of the island would gather round him and go down to the cool sea-shore, where he would sit on a rock in the midst of an improvised assembly, and the old men would tell traditions of past glories in the days when every year a maiden chosen for her beauty was led down to the sea as a sacrifice to the crocodile-god for the prosperity of the people. After an official career which he ended as Controleur of the Batak district of Sumatra, Wilken returned to Leyden, succeeding the aged Professor Vetli as Professor of Geography and Anthropology of Netherlands' India. The only time I saw him was there, and I well remember his surprised interest at finding his writings known and appreciated in England. They are indeed distinguished by scientific scholar- ship worthy of the old reputation of the Dutch. Nowhere has native life been mnore accurately described than in Malay districts by the Dutch officials and missionaries; and Wilken, guided by his own wide and careful observation, has been able to generalize the whole massive record as bearing on principles of law, custom, and religion, in a series of articles of which his Animism among the Peoples of the Indian Archipelago " is the fullest. These are of' the utmost value to anthropology, and it is to be Loped that the scheme of Wilken's colleagues and pupils, of publishing a collected edition of his principal writing,sl with his MS. notes, may be carried out. Professor Wilken did not live to return to the East Indies on the scientific mission with which he was to have been charged. His health undermined by extreme labour, he died at the age of forty-four. It is some satisfaction to record that the message of English appreciation, involved in an honorary membership of this Institute, reached him in time to give a moment's pleasure.
Notes From Elsewhere
George Alexander Wilken (born March 13, 1847 in Menado (Minahassa) on Celebes , † August 28, 1891 in Leiden ) was a Dutch colonial official and ethnologist .
The son of Nikolaus Philipp Wilken (1813-1878), was 1869-80 worked in the Dutch-Indian services and was in 1881 head of the Institute for Indian officials. In 1884 he received his doctorate from the University of Leiden for a doctor honoris causa. In 1885 he was appointed Professor of Language, Agriculture and Ethnology of the Indian Archipelago there. His works deal especially with the marital, family and inheritance relations of the Malay peoples. He earned a reputation for exploring the Malayan tribes of the East Indian archipelago .
Publications
External Publications
About the matriarchy of the old Arabs (also German, Leipzig 1884)
Het animisme bij de volken of the Indian Archipelago (1884-85, 2 parts)
"Het Shamanisme bij de Volken van de Indian Archipelago," in Bijdragen tot de Taal, Landen en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië , xxxvi. (1887). On-line
Over de Verwantschapen het huwelijks-en pleased bij de volken van het maleic ras (1888)
Het criminal law bij de volken van het maleic ras (in the " Bijdragen tot de taal, länder folk customer van Nederlandsch-Indië ", Haag 1883)
Het pandrecht bij de volken van the Indian archipelago (Haag 1888).
Handleiding voor de vergelijkende volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (Leiden 1893) - Digitized