- Also known as
-
Ben W Burt
-
primary name: Burt, Ben W
- Details
- individual; curator; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1948-
- Biography
- Anthropologist and educator, British Museum. Education Officer, Museum of Mankind from 1974, then Dept of Africa, Oceania and Americas and later curator in the Oceania section. Researched with the Kwara'ae people of Malaita, Solomon Islands, from 1979 and published books and papers on colonial history and conversion to Christianity, land tenure, forest resource use, oral literature, body ornaments and pictorial history.
The British Museum has 16 Solomon Island objects collected by Burt, including combs, figures and bags. Burt has also acquired for the Museum several major collections of photographs from Solomon Islands, including 600 by Beattie taken c.1906 and given by the Melanesia Mission in 1991, over 500 by David Lloyd Francis and digital copies of around 750 from Thomas Edge-Partington’s collection from c.1900 – c.1910.
- Bibliography
- 2014 Les Maisons-sanctuaires des Kwara’ae a Malaita. 74-79 in L'éclat des ombres. L'art en noir et blanc des îles Salomon. Editions d’Art Somogy SAS, Paris. (chapter for Qai Branly exhibition volume)
2014 Parures corporelles de Malaita. 101-109 in L'éclat des ombres. L'art en noir et blanc des îles Salomon. Editions d’Art Somogy SAS, Paris. (catalogue entry for Qai Branly exhibition volume)
2014 (ed., with Lissant Bolton) The Things We Value: Culture and history in Solomon Islands. Sean Kingston Publishing. (collection of 13 papers)
2013 (ed. and part-author) section 4, Solomon Islands. in L. Bolton, N. Thomas et al (eds) Melanesia: Art and encounter. British Museum Press.)
2013 World Art: An introduction to the art in artefacts. Berg, London. (textbook, 260 pages, 70 illustrations)
2012 (with Michael Kwa’ioloa) The Chiefs’ Country: Leadership and Politics in Honiara, Solomon Islands. University of Queensland Press. (autobiographical account by Kwa’ioloa, 280 pages)
2010 Body ornaments of Solomon Islands. 488-492 in Berg Encyclopaedia of World Dress and Fashion vol. 7 Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Berg, Oxford
2009 Body Ornaments of Malaita, Solomon Islands: British Museum Press & University of Hawai'i Press. (book, 176 pages, 266 illustrations)
2008 Cultural Research as Exchange. in La Restitution du Patrimoine Material et Immaterial: Regards croises Canada / Melanesia. Les Cahiers du CIÉRA No.2:115-130
2007 (with Michael Kwa'ioloa) 'The Chiefs' Country': A Malaitan view of the Conflict in Solomon Islands. Oceania Vol.77:111-127
2002 The Story of Amasia: Whose History and Whose Epistemology? Journal of Pacific History Vol.37:187-204
2001 (editor, with Michael Kwa’ioloa) A Solomon Islands Chronicle, as told by Samuel Alasa’a The British Museum Press, London (book, 128 pages)
2001 (with Michael Kwa’ioloa) Na Masu’u kia ’i Kwara’aeTualaka ’i Solomon Islands fa’inia logo na rū ne’e bulao saena fanoa kia kī: Our Forest of Kwara’ae: Our life in Solomon Islands and the things which grow in our home. The British Museum Press, London (book, bilingual, 280 pages)
1998 Writing Local History in Solomon Islands. in J. Wassmann (ed.) Pacific Answers to Western Hegemony: Cultural Practices of Identity Construction, pages.97-118 Berg Publishers, Oxford & New York
1997 editor (with Christian Clerk) Environment and Development in the Pacific Islands. Pacific Policy Paper 25, National Centre for Development Studies, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, with the University of Papua New Guinea Press. (18 chapters, 299 pages)
1997 Living Tradition: A Changing Relationship with Solomon Islands. British Museum Magazine No.29:26-29
1997 (editor, with Michael Kwa'ioloa) Living Tradition: A Changing Life in Solomon Islands. British Museum Press, London, and University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu (autobiograpy of Kwa’ioloa, 170 pages)
1995 Cultural Development and Anthropology in Kwara'ae. in White, G. and Lindstrom, L. (eds.) Cultural Development in Melanesia. Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, & PNG National Research Institute.
1994 Tradition and Christianity: The Colonial Transformation of a Solomon Islands Society. Harwood Academic Publishers, New York. (monograph, 300 pages)
1994 Land In Kwara'ae and Development in Solomon Islands. Oceania Vol.64 pages.317 335
1993 (with Jill Crawford) Literature from Solomon Islands. WWF (UK) (Teaching book for multicultural English, 56 pages)
1992 (with Michael Kwa'ioloa) Falafala ana Ano 'i Kwara'ae / The Tradition of Land in Kwara'ae. Institute of Pacific Studies and Honiara Centre, University of the South Pacific. (bilingual book on Kwara'ae land rights, 49 pages)
1991 Land Rights and Development: Writing About Kwara'ae Tradition. Cultural Survival Quarterly Vol.15 No.2:61 64
1990 (editor and part-author) Choices in Development: Case Studies from Solomon Islands. WWF (UK) (secondary school Geography students’ and teachers’ booklets, 96 and 45 pages)
1990 Kwara'ae Costume Ornaments: A Solomon Islands Artform. Expedition Vol.32:3 15
1990 (editor and translator) Falafala 'i Kwara'ae ki / Kwara'ae Traditions University of the South Pacific, Suva and Honiara (bilingual booklet of oral traditions, 25 pages)
1988 Abu'a 'i Kwara'ae: The Meaning of Tabu in a Solomon Islands Society. Mankind Vol.18:74 89
1983 The Remnant Church: A Christian Sect of the Solomon Islands. Oceania Vol.53:334 346
1982 Custom and Christianity in the Solomon Islands. Hemisphere Vol.26, 1982
1982 Kastom, Christianity and the First Ancestor of the Kwara'ae of Malaita. Mankind Vol.13:374 399
1981 Solomon Islanders: The Kwara'ae. British Museum Publications (booklet, 16 pages)
