Explorers & agents · 1894–1966; in Liberia 1926–1960
George Way Harley
Medical missionary at Ganta whose fieldwork produced the standard documentation of Poro, masks and medicine.
Biography
Harley ran a mission hospital in Mano country for three decades and used the position to record what no visiting scholar could: the structure of Poro, the meaning and ownership of masks, and the pharmacopoeia of local practitioners.
His work is not neutral — he was an evangelist collecting the material of a religion he opposed — and his mask collection raises real questions of consent. It remains indispensable.
Historical significance
The fullest ethnographic record of Liberian forest institutions, and a case study in how missionary observation both preserves and distorts.
Timeline
- 1926Establishes the mission and hospital at Ganta
- 1941Publishes Notes on the Poro in Liberia
- 1950Publishes Masks as Agents of Social Control
Related entries
References
- Harley, G. W. (1941). Notes on the Poro in Liberia.
- Harley, G. W. (1950). Masks as Agents of Social Control in Northeast Liberia.
Suggested reading
- Harley (1941).