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IX Our considerations thus indicate that the goal of ethnographic field-work must be approached through three avenues: . he organisation of the tri e an the anato of its cu ture must be recorded in firm, clear outline. The method of concrete statistica ocu entation is the means through which such an outline has to be given. . Within this ame, the i on era i ia of actua ife, and the t e of eha iour have to be filled in. They have to be collected through minute, detailed observations, in the form of some sort of ethnographic diary, made possible by close contact with native life. . A collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic narratives, typical utteran- ces, items of folk-lore and magical formulae has to be given as a cor us inscri tionu , as documents of native mentality. These three lines of approach lead to the final goal, of which an Ethnographer should never lose sight. This goal is, briefly, to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realise his vision of his world. We have to study man, and we must study what concerns him most intimately, that is, the hold which life has on him. In each culture, the values are slightly different; people aspire aer different aims, follow different impulses, yearn aer a different form of happiness. In each culture, we find different institutions in which man pursues his life-interest, different customs by which he satisfies his aspirations, different codes of law and morality which reward his virtues or punish his defections. To study the institutions, customs, and codes or to study the behaviour and mentality without the sub ective desire of feeling by what these people live, of realising the substance of their happiness is, in my opinion, to miss the greatest reward which we can hope to obtain om the study of man. These generalities the reader will find illustrated in the following chapters. We shall see there the savage striving to satis certain aspirations, to attain his type of value, to follow his line of social ambition. We shall see him led on to perilous and difficult enterprises by a tradition of magical and heroical exploits, shall see him following the lure of his own romance. Perhaps as we read the account of these remote customs there may emerge a feeling of solidarity with the endeavours and ambitions of these natives. Perhaps man’s mentality will be revealed to us, and brought near, along some lines which we never have followed before. Perhaps through realising human nature in a shape very distant and foreign to us, we shall have some light shed on our own. In this, and in this case only, we shall be ustified in feeling that it has been worth our while to understand these natives, their institutions and customs, and that we have gathered some profit om the Kula. . I — Sailing, and trading in the South Seas; the u a. II — Method in Ethnography. III — Starting field work. Some perplexing difficulties. Three conditions of success. IV — Life in a tent among the natives. Mechanism of „getting in touch” with them. V — Acti e etho s of research. Order and consistency in savage cultures. Methodological consequences of this truth. VI — Formulating the principles of tribal constitution and of the anatomy of culture. Method ot inference om statistic accumulation of concrete data. Uses of synoptic charts. VII — Presentation of the intimate touches of native life; of types of behaviour. Method of systematic fixing of impressions; of detailed, conse- cutive records. Importance of personal participation in native life. VIII — Recording of stereotyped manners of thinking and feeling. or us inscri tionu iri inensiu IX — Summary of argument. The native’s vision of his world. I The tribes who live within the sphere of the Kula system of trading belong, one and all — with the exception perhaps, of the Rossel Island natives, of whom we know next to nothing — to the same racial group. These tribes inhabit the easternmost end of the mainland of New Guinea and those islands, scattered in the form of the long-drawn archipelago, which continue in the same south-easternly trend as the mainland, as if to bridge over the gap between New Guinea and the Solomons. Argonauts of the Western Pacific New Guinea is a mountainous island-continent, very difficult of access in its interior, and also at certain portions of the coast, where barrier reefs, swamps and rocks practi- cally prevent landing or even approach for native cra. Such a country would obviously not offer the same opportunities in all its parts to the driing migrations which in all probability are responsible for the composition of the present population of the South Seas. The easily accessible portions of the coast and the outlying islands would certainly offer a hospitable reception to immigrants of a higher stock; but, on the other hand, the high hills, the impregnable fastnesses in swampy flats and shores where landing was difficult and dangerous, would give easy protection to the aborigines, and discourage the influx of migrators. The actual distribution of races in New Guinea completely ustifies these hypotheses. Map II shows the Eastern part of the main island and archipelagoes of New Guinea and the racial distribution of the natives. The interior of the continent, the low sago swamps and deltas of the Gulf of Papua — probably the greater part of the North Coast and of the South — West Coast of New Guinea, are inhabited by a „relatively tall, dark- -skinned, izzly-haired” race, called by Dr. Seligman Pa uan, and in the hills more especially by pygmy tribes. We know little about these people, swamp tribes and hill tribes alike, who probably are the autochtons in this part of the world¹⁷. As we shall also not meet them in the following account, it will be better to pass to the tribes who inhabit the accessible parts of New Guinea. The Eastern Papuasians, that is, the generally smaller, lighter coloured izzly-haired races of the eastern peninsula of New Guinea and its archipelagoes now require a name, and since the true Melanesian element is dominant in them, they may be called PapuoMelanesians. With regard to these Eastern Papuasians, Dr. A. C. Haddon first recognised that they came into the country as the result of a „Melanesian migration into New Guinea” and further, „That a single wandering would not account for certain puzzling facts”¹⁸ The Papuo-Melanesians again can be divided into two groups, a Western and an Eastern one, which, following Dr. Seligman’s terminology, we shall call the Western Papuo-Melanesians and the Massim respectively. It is with these latter we shall become acquainted in the following pages. If we glance at a map and follow the orographical features of Eastern New Guinea and its coast line, we see at once that the high main range of mountains drops off between the th and th meridians, and again that the inging reef disappears at the same point, that is, at the west end of Orangerie Bay. This means that the extreme East End of New Guinea, with its archipelagoes, in other words, the Massim country, is the most easily accessible area, and might be expected to be inhabited by a homogeneous stock of people, consisting of immigrants almost unmixed with the autochtons (Cf. Map II). „Indeed, while the condition actually existing in the Massim area suggests that there was no slow mingling of the invaders with a previous stock, the geographical features of the territory of the Western Papuo-Melanesians with its hills, mountains and swamps, are such that invaders could not have speedily overrun the country, nor failed to have been influenced by the original inhabitants…¹⁹ I shall assume that the reader is acquainted with the quoted work of Dr. Seligman, where a thorough account is given of all the main types of Papuo-Melanesian sociology and culture one aer the other. But the tribes of the Eastern Papuo-Melanesian or Massim area, must be described here somewhat more in detail, as it is within this fairly homogeneous area that the Kula takes place. Indeed, the Kula sphere of influence and ¹⁷The best accounts we possess of the inland tribes are those of W. H. Williamson, he afu u, , and of C. Keysser, Aus e e en er ai eute, in R. Neuhauss, eutsch eu uinea, Vol. III. Berlin, . The preliminary publications of G. Landtmann on the Kiwai, Pa uan agic n the ui ing of ouses, „Acta Arboenses”, Humaniora. I. Abo, , and he o a es of the i ai Pa uans, Helsmgfors, , promise that he full account will dispel some of the mysteries surrounding the Gulf of Papua. Meanwhile a good semi- -popular account of these natives is to be found n W. N. Beaver’s ne ore e uinea, . Personally I doubt ery much whether the hill tribes and the swamp tribes belong to the same stock or have the same culture. Compare also the most recent contribution to his problem igrations of u tures in ritish e uinea, by A. C. Haddon, Huxley Memorial Lecture for , published by the R. Anthrop Institute. [przypis autorski] ¹⁸See C. G. Seligman, he e anesians of ritish e uinea, Cambridge, . [przypis autorski] ¹⁹Cf. C. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. . [przypis autorski] Argonauts of the Western Pacific Yüklə 5,03 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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