Laura Appell interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 19^th April 2004

0:00:05 Background; degree in geography and geology at McGill University; met George Appell in the Peabody Museum; grandfather had been director of the Museum on retirement; honeymoon paddling down the Mackenzie River; went to Borneo with six-month old baby; took on work of interviewing Rungus priestesses as they would not talk to a man about family life; had no tape-recorder at that stage so wrote the ceremonial language; had help from a boy with more idiomatic language; wonderful people; reference to own grandson being entranced by them too; never afraid; did build a separate house as there was some T.B. in the longhouse; had malaria and dysentery once; there were European doctors

0:07:03 Advantage of  not being a career anthropologist; able to be the housekeeper too; assimilated the culture by doing chores with other women; never felt any difficulty in understanding the Rungus; they were always patient and helpful; in the U.S.A. people are not as warm or outgoing to people they do not know; Rungus are sensitive and delicate in social relations; love children, want big families

0:11.07 Chief informant was a priestess; they deal with illness and have to appease the spirits that cause it; ritual lexicon; later took tape recorder; never took moving pictures

0:13:28 Now trying to get as much translation done; filling in dictionary; documenting material to return it to the Rungus for them to use; Rungus now know our children and grandchildren; daughters all involved in some way with the Rungus too