Ernest Beaglehole was born in Wellington on August 25, 1906. He attended Mount Cook School and Wellington College. He also went to Victoria University College, where he graduated with a first-class Masters Degree in 1928 (Ritchie 2002). He then traveled to London to do research for his PhD. He conducted this research at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Beaglehole published his thesis, entitled Property in 1931. This piece was well received and his research techniques were copied by many.
Beaglehole was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship and journeyed to Yale University with the founders of psychological anthropology (Ritchie 2002). To fulfill his contract Beaglehole became a consultant to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. He completed his work, and married Pearl Malsin, a fellow social anthropologist, on May 24, 1933.
Peter Buck, a Professor at Yale University, "arranged for the Beagleholes to go to Pukapuka, a remote northern Cook Islands atoll, as part of his comprehensive Pacific island ethnographic survey," (Ritchie 2002). Ernest and Pearl spent a year in Pukapuka gathering research, and then moved to Hawaii to write of what they saw. In 1938, the Beagleholes published their Ethnology of Pukapuka which reported on the culture found on the island. They also wrote Some Modern Hawaiians, which continued their studies of Polynesian life (Ritchie 2002). The Beagleholes went on to write many more books on social change.
Beaglehole won the Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1950 from the Royal Society of New Zealand, of which he was a member (Ritchie 2002). He was also a member of other prestigious societies: the Polynesian Society, the British Psychological Society and the American Anthropological Association. He died October 23, 1965 at the age of 59. He was survived by his wife Pearl and their two children.
Ritchie, James & Jane Ritchie, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, 1906-1965, Updated December, 2002
Written By: Cristen Schnabel, 2003
Edited By: David Gardner 2007