Kalkspatel von hervorragender Qualität ·  Papua-Neuguinea, Provinz Ost-Sepik, Mittlerer Sepik, Iatmul · ID: 3050279

Paul Wirz (1892-1955), Zurich / Basel, Switzerland (field-collected in the 1930s)
John & Marcia Friede, Rye, USA

The manufacturer’s son Paul Wirz was born in Moscow in 1892. He studied ethnology in Zurich and Basel and graduated in 1920 with a Dr. phil. His dissertation on the Marind-anim people in New Guinea became a standard work in ethnology.

Numerous research and collecting trips as a private scholar took Wirz to North Africa (1912-1913), New Guinea (1915-1931 and 1949-1955, with interruptions), Sardinia, Tunisia, Morocco, West Africa, Spain and the Canary Islands (1932-1934), to India, East and Southeast Asia (1934–1940), the Caribbean (1941–1945), and to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka (1947–1948). In between his travels he worked on his research work. Among other things, he explored the mythical world of the Marind-anim in southern Dutch New Guinea (West Neuguinea). He also devoted research to the Sentani and Gogodara.