John Derek Freeman

"John Derek Freeman (15 August 1916 – 6 July 2001)[1] was a New Zealand anthropologist best known[2] for his criticism of Margaret Mead's work on Samoan society, as described in her 1928 ethnography Coming of Age in Samoa. His effort "ignited controversy of a scale, visibility, and ferocity never before seen in anthropology."[2]

Freeman initially became interested in Boasian cultural anthropology while an undergraduate in Wellington, and later went to live and work as a teacher in Samoa. After entering the New Zealand Naval Reserve in World War II, he did graduate training with British social anthropologists Meyer Fortes and Raymond Firth at London School of Economics. He did two and a half years of fieldwork in Borneo studying the Iban people. His 1953 doctoral dissertation described the relations between Iban agriculture and kinship practices. Returning to Borneo in 1961 he suffered a nervous breakdown induced by an intense rivalry with ethnologist and explorer Tom Harrisson. This experience profoundly altered his view of anthropology, changing his interests to looking at the ways in which human behavior is influenced by universal psychological and biological foundations. From then on Freeman argued strongly for a new approach to anthropology which integrated insights from evolutionary theory and psychoanalysis, and he published works on the concepts of aggression and choice."

John Derek Freeman (15 August 1916 – 6 July 2001)[1] was a New Zealand <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Anthropologist%26item_type=topic" title="Anthropologist" class="info_link" topic="Anthropologist" target="blank">anthropologist</a> best known[2] for his criticism of <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Margaret%20Mead%26item_type=topic" title="Margaret Mead" class="info_link" topic="Margaret Mead" target="blank">Margaret Mead</a>'s work on <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Samoa%26item_type=topic" title="Samoa" class="info_link" topic="Samoa" target="blank">Samoan</a> society, as described in her 1928 <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Ethnography%26item_type=topic" title="Ethnography" class="info_link" topic="Ethnography" target="blank">ethnography</a> <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Coming%20of%20Age%20in%20Samoa%26item_type=topic" title="Coming of Age in Samoa" class="info_link" topic="Coming of Age in Samoa" target="_blank">Coming of Age in Samoa</a>. His effort "ignited controversy of a scale, visibility, and ferocity never before seen in anthropology."[2]

Freeman initially became interested in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Franz%20Boas%26item_type=topic" title="Franz Boas" class="info_link" topic="Franz Boas" target="blank">Boasian</a> cultural anthropology while an undergraduate in Wellington, and later went to live and work as a teacher in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Samoa%26item_type=topic" title="Samoa" class="info_link" topic="Samoa" target="blank">Samoa</a>. After entering the <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Royal%20New%20Zealand%20Naval%20Volunteer%20Reserve%26item_type=topic" title="Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve" class="info_link" topic="Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve" target="blank">New Zealand Naval Reserve</a> in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/World%20War%20II%26item_type=topic" title="World War II" class="info_link" topic="World War II" target="blank">World War II</a>, he did graduate training with British social anthropologists <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Meyer%20Fortes%26item_type=topic" title="Meyer Fortes" class="info_link" topic="Meyer Fortes" target="blank">Meyer Fortes</a> and <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Raymond%20Firth%26item_type=topic" title="Raymond Firth" class="info_link" topic="Raymond Firth" target="blank">Raymond Firth</a> at <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/London%20School%20of%20Economics%26item_type=topic" title="London School of Economics" class="info_link" topic="London School of Economics" target="blank">London School of Economics</a>. He did two and a half years of fieldwork in <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Borneo%26item_type=topic" title="Borneo" class="info_link" topic="Borneo" target="blank">Borneo</a> studying the <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Iban%20people%26item_type=topic" title="Iban people" class="info_link" topic="Iban people" target="blank">Iban people</a>. His 1953 doctoral dissertation described the relations between Iban agriculture and <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Kinship%26item_type=topic" title="Kinship" class="info_link" topic="Kinship" target="blank">kinship</a> practices. Returning to Borneo in 1961 he suffered a nervous breakdown induced by an intense rivalry with ethnologist and explorer <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Tom%20Harrisson%26item_type=topic" title="Tom Harrisson" class="info_link" topic="Tom Harrisson" target="blank">Tom Harrisson</a>. This experience profoundly altered his view of anthropology, changing his interests to looking at the ways in which human behavior is influenced by universal psychological and biological foundations. From then on Freeman argued strongly for a new approach to anthropology which integrated insights from <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Evolutionary%20theory%26item_type=topic" class="info_link" title="Evolutionary theory" topic="Evolutionary theory" target="blank">evolutionary theory</a> and <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Psychoanalysis%26item_type=topic" title="Psychoanalysis" class="info_link" topic="Psychoanalysis" target="blank">psychoanalysis</a>, and he published works on the concepts of <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Aggression%26item_type=topic" title="Aggression" class="info_link" topic="Aggression" target="blank">aggression</a> and <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Choice%26item_type=topic" title="Choice" class="info_link" topic="Choice" target="_blank">choice</a>.

This new interest in biological and psychological universals lead him to take issue with the famous American anthropologist <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Margaret%20Mead%26item_type=topic" title="Margaret Mead" class="info_link" topic="Margaret Mead" target="blank">Margaret Mead</a> who had described Samoan adolescents as not suffering from the "coming of age" crisis which was commonly thought to be universal when the study was published in 1923. Mead argued that the lack of this crisis in Samoan adolescence was caused by the youths' greater degree of sexual freedom, and that adolescence crises were therefore not universal, but culturally conditioned. In 1966-67 Freeman conducted fieldwork in Samoa, trying to find Mead's original informants, and while visiting the community where Mead had worked he experienced another breakdown. In 1983 Freeman published his book Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth in which he argued that Mead's data and conclusions were wrong and that Samoan youths suffered from the same problems as Western adolescents. He also argued that Samoan culture in fact put greater emphasis on female virginity than Western culture and had higher indices of <a href="https://www.revolvy.com/topic/Juvenile%20delinquency%26item_type=topic" title="Juvenile delinquency" class="info_link" topic="Juvenile delinquency" target="blank">juvenile delinquency</a>, sexual violence and suicide. He later published "The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead" in which he argued that Mead's misunderstandings of Samoan culture were due to her having been hoaxed by two of her female Samoan informants, who had merely joked about sexual escapades that they did not in fact have.

This page goes into greater detail and continues beyond what I share. The author states that "[Judith Heimann's---not to be confused with Frank Heiman] published account is consistent with, but more detailed than the Caton, Heimans and Tuzin versions. Yet her published account covers but a fraction of the evidence she collected."

"The conversion occurred in Kuching, Sarawak on March 10, 1961, where Freeman was on a mission to rescue a student from depredations visited on him by Tom Harrisson. Agreement with the Sarawak government was quickly reached (on March 6), but suddenly, contrary to the agreement, he undertook to persuade the government to dismiss Harrisson from his post, and to expel him from the country, on the grounds that he was a dangerous psychopath suffering from “extreme paranoia.” The anti-Harrisson crusade set in train a series of events that must be among the most bizarre in post-war anthropology. The conversion experience is nested in this event series, and, as Freeman insisted, is inseparable from them.

All but one of the accounts available depend exclusively on Freeman’s selfreports. Thus G. N. Appell and T. N. Madan, former Freeman students and Borneo ethnographers who were on fieldwork at that time, based their brief remarks about the Sarawak events on an autobiographical statement that Freeman prepared for their use (Appell and Madan 1988:21, n. 1). The present writer interviewed Freeman in 1985 and again in 1988; Freeman discussed the sources of his reputation for “breakdowns” at length. Frank Heimans’ 2001 interview for the Australian Oral History Project—Freeman’s last interview— contains about 1000 words on the topic. Donald Tuzin’s interview, conducted in 2000, also runs to about 1000 words; the account is consistent with Heimans’ material.[2]

The exception is Judith M. Heimann’s research for her biography of Harrisson, The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life. Heimann interviewed Freeman at length in 1992, but she also interviewed numerous persons who were observers or participants in events. Her published account is consistent with, but more detailed than the Caton, Heimans and Tuzin versions. Yet her published account covers but a fraction of the evidence she collected. An important novelty is that he modeled his action in Sarawak on St. George’s encounter with the dragon.[3] Heimann believes that this symbolism warrants interpreting the conversion event as an “epiphany” rather than as an“abreaction” or other psychopathology. Regrettably, Heimann states that she has no plans to publish this interpretation in the immediate future.

Mention must be made of David Williamson’s play, Heretic: Based on the Life of Derek Freeman (1996). The dramatic core of the play is Freeman’s two breakdowns (the second occurred in Ta’ū, Samoa in 1967). The accuracy of this biographical drama could not be assessed until the archive records were examined. They confirm that Williamson’s depiction is very accurate where there is overlap.[4]

The present study enriches knowledge of this defining moment in Freeman’s career by bringing to bear records held in the University Archives of the Australian National University. They consist of internal communications and of correspondence with Sarawak government officers and Australian External Affairs officers who had an involvement. The bulk is authored by Freeman, by his department head Professor John A. Barnes, and by the Director of the Research School of Pacific Studies, Sir John S. Crawford. It is a substantial mass of records. I selected about 250 pages from the period February 1961-May 1962 for the present study. The records are accessible under provisions of the Commonwealth Archives Act 1983.[5]

My objective is to construct a critical narrative of the Sarawak episode and its aftermath, with a view to assessing the conversion event. The narrative is dominated by two cleavages. One is the antagonism between Freeman’s anti- Harrisson crusade and his university’s position respecting conditions of fieldwork in Sarawak. The university’s position was that its staff and students were to have no contact with Harrisson, whereas Freeman urged that the university use its influence to effect Harrisson’s dismissal. The second cleavage is between Freeman’s account of what happened in Sarawak and during his return to Canberra, and the information the university received about Freeman’s behavior. Freeman maintained that his conduct was at all times based on rational and humane considerations and hence was warranted. He urged this contention against the university’s (i.e., Crawford’s) view that his conduct was significantly irrational, that it compromised himself and the university, and that it was to be evaluated as temporary “emotional stress” or “panic” involving “delusional” states.[6] The key university officer, Crawford, regarded Freeman highly and strove to avert a confrontation that would damage his career or place the university’s reputation at risk."

<a href="http://www.anthroglobe.org/docs/conversion_sarawak.htm">http://www.anthroglobe.org/docs/conversion_sarawak.htm</a>

"My objective is to construct a critical narrative of the Sarawak episode and its aftermath, with a view to assessing the conversion event. The narrative is dominated by two cleavages. One is the antagonism between Freeman’s anti- Harrisson crusade and his university’s position respecting conditions of fieldwork in Sarawak. The university’s position was that its staff and students were to have no contact with Harrisson, whereas Freeman urged that the university use its influence to effect Harrisson’s dismissal. The second cleavage is between Freeman’s account of what happened in Sarawak and during his return to Canberra, and the information the university received about Freeman’s behavior. Freeman maintained that his conduct was at all times based on rational and humane considerations and hence was warranted. He urged this contention against the university’s (i.e., Crawford’s) view that his conduct was significantly irrational, that it compromised himself and the university, and that it was to be evaluated as temporary “emotional stress” or “panic” involving “delusional” states.<a id="ftnref6" href="http://www.anthroglobe.org/docs/conversion_sarawak.htm#ftn6" name="ftnref6">[6]</a> The key university officer, Crawford, regarded Freeman highly and strove to avert a confrontation that would damage his career or place the university’s reputation at risk."

<a id="ftn6" href="http://www.anthroglobe.org/docs/conversion_sarawak.htm#ftnref6" name="ftn6">6</a>UA 6.2.2.6c Part I Vice Chancellor L. G. H. Huxley to His Excellency Sir Alexander Waddell, Governor of Sarawak 1 May 1961.

John Derek Freeman

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