Appell, George N. (1926–2020)

Abstract

George N. Appell was an American anthropologist and philanthropist, known primarily as the ethnographer of the Rungus Momogan, a Dusunic‐speaking group of Sabah, Malaysia, and the founder of academic institutions, publications, and foundations to support anthropological research among Indigenous peoples in Borneo and elsewhere. In his efforts to find a more universal analytical framework, free from cultural bias, he reframed the concept of social grouping as jural rights to property . In moving away from kinship, and turning instead to customary law, land tenure, and property inheritance as fundamental to social structure, he made an important contribution to developing legal anthropology. This turn also had important impacts on Appell's advocacy for Rungus land and human rights, which initially led to a twenty‐three‐year ban on further research in Sabah, but then to a lifetime of institution building and fundraising in support of Rungus, Bornean, and, eventually, all Indigenous peoples' rights to land, language, and culture.