1883-1966

Anthropologist

The close of the Congress also marked his retirement from the University of the Philippines. He was retired as Professor Emeritus of Anthropology with Prof. Marcelo Tangco taking over the chairmanship of the Department of Anthropology. But he continued to work by putting in shape such papers as New finds of fossil Mammals from the Pleistocene Strata of the Philippines (1957) and just as product of his pre-World War II listings.

He continued to receive students, scholars, visitors and experts in the Museum housed in the Watson building on Aviles Street as he used to after the liberation of the country from the Japanese occupation. Now he did have enough time to talk about his collections whether the visitor was an anthropologist, archaeologist, collector, or just a curious outsider. He loved to reminisce about the past and the personalities he knew best including governors-general and Filipino leaders who at one time or another sat in his classes.

He was an inveterate smoker and could consume half a dozen cigars a day. He would invite friends and visitors to Jai Alai, his favorite sport, after the day’s work or interview, entertaining them in this hectic game of calculation, chance, give and take.

One late evening as he came home from Jai Alai he rolled down the stairway and sustained some bruises. He appeared not show any concern the following day.; he explained that he used his elbows rolling down as he used to in his youth when he played football and this trick saved him from being hurt. But he fell again downstairs afterwards and he lost some blood, but he never consulted any doctor. He must have been missing the steps.

In spite of having started for a medical career, he feared the mention of hospital and doctor. When a friend died, he did not like the idea of seeing him for the last time in the funeral parlor. He said he wanted to have a picture of him in his memory as when he was alive, never of a years, even before the war. His friends said it was not going to be any major operation and he understood it. But he never submitted to surgery until he was almost dying of it when the doctor said it was just a matter of hours if he did not submit. He yet lived for some ten years after that operation.

He suffered one more from loss of blood when he bumped his head against one of the showcases one night as he came home from Jai Alai. Professor Beyer got hospitalized in 1966. At the end of that year he died.

After the necrological rites on the U.P. Campus, his body was brought up to Banawe where he wished to rest. All sorts of honors and last rites were performed over him – Catholic, Pagan and official honors (and previous Protestant ceremony on the U.P. Campus). His body was also brought to Amganad village where the old house stood since his early married years. Another modern house was constructed after the war to attract Professor Beyer back, but work prevented him from ever going back to his first love after the war years. The traditional rituals were performed; there was singing of the two Ifugao epics, the Hudhud and Alim, for that would please the dead accoding to his kinsmen. His body was finally laid on an open platform with galvanized iron for a roof on a mountain shoulder below his son’s cottage.

The contributions of Professor Beyer to Philippine culture studies are both wide and deep. They have attracted attention here and abroad. They have not only illumined Philippinesian backgrounds, but that of Eastern Asia and Oceania as well. Before Beyer came there was no Philippine prehistory to speak of. When he started his career in research he practically did so grom scratch. After a generation of dedicated labor he gave us a chronology and a prehistory. In the absence of ancient writings, the historian folds his arms. Professor Beyer does not claim that his works are free from imperfections and gaps. His contemporaries and successors are eager to puncture his theories the best way they can, with new methods and othr findings. Others are glad to add new knowledge. Prospects are bright that with many more workers in the field, with the groundwork laid for them and awareness of the problems, anthropologists now and in the future will be a better position to contribute their share to a review and refinement of Professor Beyer’s conclusions and each others findings.