Abstract
IT is difficult to lay too much stress on the practical value of this small collection of essays written by members of the Melanesian Mission and others, The fact that the volume is edited by the late Dr. W. H. R: Rivers is a guarantee both of accuracy and impartiality. Sir Wm. Macgregor and Mr. C. M. Woodford, who write from the point of view of the official, and Dr. Speiser of Basle, who writes as an anthropologist, fully bear out the contentions of the members of the Mission. The authors, without exception, agree that depopulation in Melanesia is to be attributed largely to the breaking up of custom which has followed contact with the white man. When the spiritual power of the chief has been discredited in the eye of the native by the white man, the temporal authority, which is based upon it, fails to preserve traditional law, order, and morality. Dr. Rivers, in a concluding essay, however, suggests that the most important factor is psychological. The native, he maintains, has lost all interest in life through the suppression of customs such as head-hunting, with which have disappeared a large number of closely related social activities. His suggestion that total suppression of such customs could be avoided by substitution of harmless elements is deserving of careful consideration.
Essays on the Depopulation of Melanesia.
Dr.
W. H. R.
Rivers
Edited by. Pp. xx + 116. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1922.) 6s. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Essays on the Depopulation of Melanesia . Nature 111, 145 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111145b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111145b0