Ernest Beaglehole

Ernest Beaglehole (25 August 1906 – 23 October 1965) was a New Zealand psychologist and ethnologist best known for his work in establishing an anthropological baseline for numerous Pacific Island cultures.

Early life and education Beaglehole was born to David Ernest Beaglehole and his wife Jane Butler in Wellington as the youngest of four children. He attended Mount Cook School until he left for Wellington College. He continued to Victoria University College, where his abilities first began to receive some notice. There he completed his master's degree in 1928. He studied in London for his PhD work on acquisitiveness and the psychological basis of property. While in London, Beaglehole met Pearl Malsin, an American student from Wisconsin. After completing his PhD, he received the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship. At Yale, Beaglehole met Peter Buck, a professor who "arranged for the Beagleholes to go to Pukapuka, a remote Northern Cook Islands atoll, as part of his comprehensive Pacific island ethnographic survey". Hector Memorial Medal and Prize Polynesian Society British Psychological Society American Anthropological Association