Lester Richard Hiatt: 1931-2008 (2008)

Les Hiatt was the doyen of the Australian anthropological community, held in high regard by anthropologists both here and abroad. His sudden and unexpected death in London on 12 February 2008 came as a great shock to his many friends and colleagues. Les was born in Gilgandra, New South Wales, and attended Hurlstone Agricultural High School in western Sydney before studying dentistry at The University of Sydney. Even as he was completing his degree, he re-enrolled in an arts degree to study anthropology and philosophy. Financial considerations led him to Bourke at the end of his second year of the arts degree to practice dentistry, and it was while he was there that he met his first wife, Betty Meehan. It was not long before he was back at The University of Sydney completing the arts degree and spending his spare time with members of the libertarian movement, whose members took much inspiration from John Anderson, the professor of philosophy at the university, whose teaching had a profound influence on him. Les completed his BA with an honours thesis on 'An analysis of conflict in some areas of Aboriginal Australia', reflecting a lifelong interest in sexual jealousy that even extended to the non-human world of crickets. With a doctoral scholarship from The Australian National University, and under the supervision of John Barnes, Les and Betty set out in 1958 for fieldwork at the newly established settlement of Maningrida, in central Arnhem Land. It was only the second year of the settlement's existence, so they lived in a canvas and stringybark camp on the banks of the Liverpool River. On completion of his doctorate, Les took up a lectureship at The University of Sydney, where he developed a lifelong friendship with Mervyn Meggitt, also a lecturer there. Les remained at Sydney until his retirement in 1991. Subsequently, he set up house in both Canberra and London, moving between them to avoid the worst of the winters in each. In England he was close to his son and daughter, made regular use of the library of the Royal Anthropological Institute and kept up his love of golf. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The scope of the debt that Australian anthropology owes to Les will take some time to be fully acknowledged, even given the excellent festschrift Scholar and Sceptic, edited by Francesca Merlan, John Morton and Alan Rumsey. Although there are appreciative essays celebrating his life and work by Annette Hamilton, Ken Maddock, John Mulvaney and a delightfully warm and intimate account by Betty, the focus of the other essays is ethnographic and theoretical, with little mention of his wider contributions to the discipline. The intellectual achievements are many and include his brilliant book Kinship and Conflict; his seminal theoretical papers on Aboriginal territorial organisation, totemism, incest, marriage arrangements, mythology and symbolism; and the magisterial overview of Aboriginal anthropology in Arguments about Aborigines. The latter was based on the lecture course he presented as the occupant of the Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard, his appointment to which was a national and international accolade but one that he should have received long before. I think there are four principal reasons for Les's other contributions being downplayed. First, there was his always measured and considered style, which often meant others, less thoughtful, grabbed the limelight before him. Second, his unswerving commitment to disinterested inquiry and his fearless intellectual integrity, which sometimes brought him into conflict with shallow political correctness. Third, his commitment to libertarianism, which made him wary of seeking influence through formal structures. And, fourth, the fact that he did not go out actively to recruit graduate students but waited for them to come to him. As one of those, I always found him marvellously supportive, collegial, insightful and, even better, a friend. …