HELD, Gerrit Jan. Kampen (Overijssel) 1.7.1906 — Jakarta 28.9.1955. Dutch Anthropologist in Indonesia. Son of Andries H. (d. 1908) and Hermina Rozenberg. After gymnasium in Kampen and military service, from 1926 studied Sanskrit, Old Javanese and Ethnology at Leiden. Ph.D. 1935 Leiden (under Josselin de Jong). In service of Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap went soon to New Guinea with his wife and never returned to Europe. During the war in military service, then interned by the Japanese. He was the first to study the Waropen language and ethnography in New Guinea. After the war Professor of Cultural Anthropology at University of Indonesia in Batavia/Jakarta in 1946-50. In 1951-52 Visiting Professor at Yale. In 1952-55 fieldwork in Bima, Sumbawa. Sudden death impended his plan of return to the Netherlands, Married 1932 Bouwina H. G. Haan.
Publications: Diss. The Mahabharata, an ethnological study. 7+348 p. Amsterdam 1935.
– Several books on Waropen.
Sources: *J. van Baal, Nieuw-Guinea Studiën 1, 1959, 3-9; Josselin de Jong, BTLV 112, 1956, 343-354 with photo; R. Needham, Man 55, 1955, 153f.; bibliography of Dutch Indologists in Internet; parents in geni.com (with small photo); Dutch Wikipedia.
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