Maurice Vidal Portman (1860-1935) is a British naval officer, best known for the fact that in 1879-1901 he studied and pacified several Andaman tribes [1] .
| Maurice Vidal Portman | |
|---|---|
| Maurice Vidal Portman | |
| Date of Birth | March 21, 1860 |
| Date of death | February 14, 1935 ( 74) |
| Occupation | naval officer, researcher |
Content
Biography
Aristocratic origin. Born in Canada (at that time British). At 16, he entered the Bombay Flotilla and for some time was responsible for the vice-king’s yacht. In July 1879 he was transferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands , where he took the post of Officer in Charge of the Andamanese , who spent more than 20 years with several interruptions (from December 1880 to December 1883 on sick leave, from March 1887 to March 1888 he was fired on vacation) [1] . He managed to establish friendly relations with the natives and pacify previously hostile tribes, including Onga from the Lesser Andaman , but, if necessary, did not hesitate to use force [1] .
While serving in Port Blair, Portman took many photographs of the Andaman, some at his own expense for the British Museum , others for a fee for the British administration in India . Now these records are stored in several museums, perhaps some of them have not yet been published [1] . He also wrote two books: Notes of the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Languages (1898) [2] and A History of Our Relations with the Andamanese (1899) [3] . Maurice collected a valuable and sheathed ethnographic collection, today located in the British Museum [4] .
His obituary says Portman suffered from poor health. In 1901, he retired as a disabled person and returned to the UK, where he was engaged in journalism and “some valuable work in the secret service” during the First World War [5] . He was a member of the gentlemen's club Union Club [5] . Never married and did not leave heirs [1] .
Fact
He left a short note about the cuisine of the non-contact Sentinel people, information about which remains extremely scarce in the 21st century.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 George Weber, Maurice Vidal Portman (1861-1935) Archived on August 5, 2012. . In The Andamanese Archived July 24, 2013. , Appendix A - Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947 . Accessed on 2012-07-03. Archived copy . Date of treatment July 3, 2012. Archived on August 5, 2012.
- ↑ MV Portman (1898), Notes of the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Languages
- ↑ MV Portman (1899), A history of our Relations with the Andamanese , Volume I and Volume II . Office of the Government Printing, Calcutta, India.
- ↑ British Museum Collection [1]
- ↑ 1 2 (1935) OBITUARY - MR. MV PORTMAN - “FATHER” OF ANDAMAN ISLANDERS Archived on August 5, 2012. . The Times of London , February 22, 1935. Reproduced by G. Weber in The Andamanese , Appendix A Archived August 5, 2012 on Wayback Machine
Links
- Savage bodies, civilized pleasures: MV Portman and the Andamanese , Satadru Sen, American Ethnologist , Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 364—379, May 2009 DOI : 10.1111 / j.1548-1425.2009.01140.x
- 13-volume collection of photos held at the British Library: Andamanese Islanders (1893): Volume I ; Volume II ; Volume III ; Volume IV ; Volume V ; Volume VI ; Volume VII ; Volume VIII ; Volume IX ; Volume X Volume XI ; Volume XII ; Volume XIII The so-called Portman Collection .