Daniel P. Biebuyck


Daniel P. Biebuyck was an authority on Central African art with contributions to contextual African art studies, oral literature, and the sociopolitical structure of numerous groups in the DRC.

Biography

Biebuyck was born in 1925 in Deinze, Belgium. He studied classical philology, law, cultural anthropology, and African art at the State University of Ghent, where he obtained his doctorate in Philosophy and Letters. He conducted post-graduate study in social anthropology and Bantu Linguistics at University College London, LSE, SOAS.
Under the auspices of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique central, he was involved in field research from 1949–1957 among ethnic groups in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From 1957-1961 he taught at the University of Lovanium and as a member of the land tenure commission for the Belgian Congo, he conducted brief field research among over 40 different populations where he studied questions pertaining to the relationships between sociopolitical structures, administrative interferences, and land tenure.
His fieldwork concentrated on the Lega, Bembe, Zyoba and Nyanga peoples.Biebuyck was initiated to the various grades of the Bwami initiation of the Lega.

Fieldwork

In 1989, Biebuyck retired from the University of Delaware as H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Anthropology and the Humanities. As professor, adjunct or visiting professor, he taught at the following universities: University of Delaware, Lovanium University, Liège University, London University, University of California at Los Angeles, Yale University, New York University, University of Southern Florida: Golding Distinguished Professor of African art.

Publications

Biebuyck's major publications are in the fields of central African Art, Epic literature, systems of land tenure, and general ethnography. Many were sponsored by grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Science Research Council and the universities of Delaware and California. In addition to numerous articles and reports on different facets of African arts.
Books
Short Monographs
1977 Symbolism of the Lega Stool. Working Papers in the Traditional Arts. Philadelphia: ISHI.
1966 Rights in Land and its Resources among the Nyanga. Brussels: Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer.
1962 Les Mitamba: système de mariages enchaînés chez les Babembe. Brussels: Académie royale des Sciences d’Outre-Mer.
1961 With Mary Douglas. Congo Tribes and Parties. London: Royal Anthropo. Institute.
1957 With Jean Dufour and Y. Kennes. Bibliographie sur la tenure des terres et les problèmes fonciers. Léopoldville: Gouvernement Général.
1957 With Jean Dufour. Le problème foncier: synthèse et propositions. Léopoldville: Land Tenure Commission.
1956 Bibliographie sur la tenure et les problèmes fonciers. Léopoldville: Gouvernement Général.