SAVAGE LIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20387, 16 October 1929, Page 10

SAVAGE LIFE.

ITS HUMAN SIDE,

SCENES IN THE SOLOMON^

HAPPY PRIMITIVE '

A large audience in the University Collttge Hall last evening was intimately introduced in most interesting fashion to the primitive life of the natives of the little isolated island of Tikopia, in the Solomon Group. The lecturer was Dr. Raymond! Firth, who recently spent a considerable time in anthropological research on that island. The very pleasing picture ho gave of life there was illus. trated by a number of lantern views. He took up the question of whether it i$ possible for a white man to enter into the mind of a. black and ultimately answered it by saying, "We can gfct at the back of the black man's mind to some extent if wo are prepared to take the trouble to arrive there." He applied this by saying that in view of our mandate over Samoa it was our duty to take some trouble to understand the mentality and outlook of the Samoans. At the outset Dr. Firth set out to remove some common misapprehensions about the savage. The lecture, which was given under the auspices of the Workers' Educational Association, was entitled, "The Human Side of Savage Life." Dr.. Firth explained that he did not by any means wish to suggest that the savage had a side that was not human. An Artificial View.

A somewhat artificial view was apt to prevail about persons whom we called savage and sometimes classed with tha monkey. That was passing away, but we still heard references to the "fierce and cruel, native, in whom the tender emotions are lacking," to his "inhuman rites" and "the degraded superstitions of the heathen." There was' a tendency to take some of the more fantastic and sensational manifestations of native life and accept them as typical. About their ordinary domestic habits we knew and perhaps cared very little. It was nod recognised that many of the savage customs at which we expressed superior contempt have curious parallels in our own civilisation. He instanced the painting of faces in preparation for the dance and the formation of secret societies, with their regalia and custom of exclusion of women. The theory had been put forward thai the mind of the savage was pre-logical, and that he lived in a world of categories quite different from those of tha civilised man. Dogmatic statements that a white man could never understand the mind of a black usually came from those who had a very superficial knowledge of the black and had never learned his language People of Tlkopia. Speaking of Tikopia, Dr. Firth said it was a small mountainous island with 1200 inhabitants. They were isolated and removed from any European influence, and spoko no language but their own. They were in much the same state as the Maoris of Captain Cook's day. The island was only about three miles by two in size. It had a crater peak about 1200 ft. high and a lako of 50 or 60 acres, and crowded many natural features into small spaca. As in every other human society that had been investigated family life had been found to exist in Tikopia. As a nil# husband and wife agreed fairly well, and there was a definite theory of domestic differences. Very rarely did the speaks come across a real domestic quarrel, but there were few open signs of affection between husband and wife. Nevertheless, there was a very real affection between them, which sometimes manifested itself in jealousy. As a general rule there was great faithfulness to the marriage bond. Respect lor Mother-in-law.

Tho mother-in-law joke as seen in onr comic papers would he regarded in Tikopia as extremely bad form. Even to a third person a man must not speak rudely of his parents-in-law, and this tended to the peacefulness of society. had -a great affection for their children, who were treated in a grave fand dignified manner. Fathers took their share in the nursing, and though they had no understanding of the physiological fact of paternity, jet there was undoubted proof of paternal affection. Ther« was no idea of beating the child for its own good. Old people were looked after with touching care by their children. Tho Rugby football of the island was their dart throwing, which drew great crowds of spectatqrs. Tho players took sides in it, but there was ample scope in it for individual skill and prowess. This game was the subject of many native songs, specimens of which the lecturer gave. He quoted other dirges and songs to show that the native shared with us the s.ame feelings and emotions, though they were expressed in a somewhat different vray. Their essential humanity was the same.

Tho thanks of the audience was expressed to Dr. Firth at the close by th# chairman, Mr. A. Fotheringham.