A. Aiyappan
{{Short description|Indian anthropologist and museologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Ayinapalli Aiyappan
| image = A. Aiyappan.jpg
| imagesize = 150px
| office1 = Superintendent of the Government Museum, Chennai and Connemara Public Library
| term_start1 = 1940
| term_end1 = 1960
| predecessor1 =F. H. Gravely
| successor1 = S. T. Satyamurthi
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|2|5|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Pavaratty, Thrissur, British Raj
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|06|28|1905|02|05|df=yes}}
| death_place = Pavaratty, Thrissur, India
| party =
| religion =
| alma_mater = University of Madras
| profession = Anthropologist
| spouse =
}}
Ayinapalli Aiyappan (5 February 1905 – 28 June 1988) was a museologist who served as Superintendent of the Government Museum, Madras from 1940 to 1960.{{cite journal |url=http://www.cds.edu/admin/homeFiles/chronicle.pdf |journal=Chronicle |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=January–March 2005 |publisher=Centre for Development Studies |title=Remembering The Founder Chairman: A. Aiyappan |page=2 |first=P. K. Michael |last=Tharakan |accessdate=2011-06-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314220722/http://www.cds.edu/admin/homeFiles/chronicle.pdf |archivedate=2012-03-14}} He was the first Indian to occupy the post. Aiyappan was also an amateur archaeologist who did pioneering excavations on the archaeological site at Arikamedu.{{cite news|title=Setting the record straight on the Arikamedu finds|url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-arikamedu-finds/article2151055.ece|date=1 July 2011|first=A.|last=Srivathsan|work=The Hindu}}
Life
Aiyappan was born into the Thiyya community.{{cite book |title=Social Mobility in Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict |first1=Filippo |last1=Osella |first2=Caroline |last2=Osella |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780745316932 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMRw0gTZSJwC&pg=PA8}} He obtained an MA in economics from the University of Madras in 1927, and in 1929 he joined the Government Museum, Madras. He continued to study, taking a PhD in 1937 after being a student of Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics. He became head of the museum in 1940 and continued there until 1958, whilst also being a visiting professor at Cornell University during 1954–1956. He became professor and head of the Department of Anthropology at Utkal University in 1958, and filled the same role at Andhra University in 1966–1967. In 1969 he was appointed vice-chancellor of Kerala University, a post in which he stayed for either 18 months or until 1972,{{cite news |url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/04/04/stories/2005040400100300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026025920/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/04/04/stories/2005040400100300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 October 2012 |title=Pioneering Indian museologist |first=S. |last=Muthiah |date=4 April 2005 |newspaper=The Hindu |accessdate=2011-06-08}}
dependent on the source selected.
In 1970 he became a sponsoring founder and first chairman of the Centre for Development Studies. He was also a sponsoring founder and director{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} of the Tribal Research Bureau of Odisha (now known as Tribal and Harijan Research and Training Institute), and director of the Department of Rural Welfare of Odisha.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}
Aiyappan was involved in the reorganisation of the Odisha Museum as a multipurpose museum with the addition of natural history, mining and geology, and anthropology galleries.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} He was awarded the Saratchandra Roy Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society in Bengal. He was also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He died on 28 June 1988.Akhilavijnanakosam; D.C.Books; Kottayam{{full citation needed|date=April 2014}}Sahithyakara Directory; Kerala Sahithya Academy, Thrissur{{full citation needed|date=April 2014}}
Works
- Iravas and Cultural Change (PhD thesis, published in Bulletin of the Madras Museum, 1945){{efn|Originally submitted to the London School of Economics in 1937 as Culture Change in South-Western India.}}
- Social Revolution in a Kerala Village (1965)
- Nayads of Kerala
- The Personality of Kerala
- Physical Anthropology of the Nayadis of Malabar
- Bharathappazhama ( Malayalam)
References
Notes
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Citations
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Category:Indian anthropologists
Category:People from Thrissur district
Category:Academic staff of the University of Kerala
Category:Academic staff of the University of Madras
Category:20th-century Indian historians