Biography
Albert Gosewijn van Beek studied Social Geography and obtained a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Groningen in 1975.
From 1976 to 1978 he was employed at the museum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden, where he studied Melanesian weaponry.
With a bursary from the Tropen Institute van Beek spent the subsequent year conducting field work among the Bedamuni tribe in the Western province of Papua New Guinea. This resulted in the book ' The way of all flesh' (1987), which focuses on hunting practices.
From 1983 onwards he has been teaching Museology in Leiden and from 1985 Material Culture in Amsterdam.
In 1982 and 1986 Gosewijn van Beek respectively sold and donated a collection of Bedamuni objects to the Horniman Museum. The 1982 material was specifically collected for the Horniman by Prof. Van Beek and his wife, during their trip to the Bedamuni area, Western province of Papua New Guinea, 1978-1979.
Brief biography
anthropologist, collector and academic (1947 - )
