RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.
The Stone Age in Oceania--/I/. _Australians_: Uniformity of
the Australian race--Language and manners and customs of the
Australians--Extinct _Tasmanians_--/II/. _Populations of the
Asiatic or Malay Archipelago_: Papuan and Negrito elements in the
Archipelago--Indonesians and Malays of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes,
etc.--/III/. _Melanesians_: Papuans of New Guinea--Melanesians
properly so called of the Salomon and Admiralty Islands, New
Hebrides, New Caledonia, etc.--/IV/. _Polynesians_: Polynesians
properly so called of Samoa, Tahiti, and Sandwich Islands, New
Zealand, etc.--Micronesians of the Caroline and Marianne Islands,
etc.--Peopling of the Pacific Islands and of the Indian Ocean.
“Oceania” appears to me the term best adapted to designate
comprehensively all the insular lands scattered in the immensity of
the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These in their entirety are, from the
ethnographic point of view, divided into a continent, Australia, which
shelters a distinct race, the Australians, and into two groups of
islands. The western group, that of the Asiatic Archipelago, formed
especially of large islands, is peopled principally by Indonesians,
pure and mixed. As to the eastern group, it falls into two regions: one
region consisting of New Guinea (which, after Greenland, is the largest
island of the world), together with the neighbouring archipelagoes
peopled by the Melanesian race; and the other region formed of the
innumerable islands, islets, rocks, and atolls situated farther east,
and occupied by the Polynesian race. I shall describe separately the
populations of these four regions, but I must say a few words in
advance in regard to the _prehistoric periods of Oceania_.
With the exception of Sumatra, Java, and perhaps Borneo, still
connected with Asia at the end of the tertiary period, the rest of
Oceania formed an insular world apart, of ancient geological origin.
Except the discovery of the _Pithecanthropus_ in Java (see p. 360),
hardly any finds relating to quaternary man can be pointed to in this
part of the world. The objects in chipped or polished flint noted here
and there in Malaysia, Australia, or New Zealand, as having been found
at a certain depth of earth, have no fixed date, and, seeing that all
Oceania, except West Malaysia, was up to the end of the last century
still in the “stone age,” and remains in that age yet at several
places, it will be understood that these finds may hardly be dated back
further than some tens or hundreds of years, and have no connection
with geological periods.[544] As to the megalithic monuments,--the
ruins of “Morai” and other erections in Oceania, of which the best
known are those of Easter Island, but which exist also in the
Marquesas, Tahiti, Pitcairn, and Caroline Islands,--a precise date can
with no greater certitude be assigned to them.[545]
The long duration of the stone age in Oceania may be explained
especially by the absence of metallic deposits in Polynesia, and by the
relative difficulty of working the iron and copper ores of New Zealand
and of the rest of Oceania.[546]
The contemporary stone age, together with the affinity of the Malay,
Polynesian, and Melanesian languages (Von Gabelentz), are perhaps the
most characteristic traits of Oceanic ethnography.
1. /Australia/.--The Australians form a distinct ethnic group,
even a race apart from the rest of mankind. Notwithstanding some local
differences, they exhibit great unity, not only from the somatic point
of view, but also from the point of view of manners, customs, and
speech. Up to a certain point this unity may be explained by the fact
that the nature and surface of the soil, as well as the climate, the
fauna and flora, vary to a relatively slight degree throughout the
whole extent of the continent.[547]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 145.--Ambit, Sundanese of Java (Preanger prov.),
30 years old; height, 1 m. 67; ceph. ind., 85.7; nas. ind., 88.6.
(_Phot. Pr. Roland Bonaparte._)]
Formerly owners of the entire face of their country, the Australians
are now driven back farther and farther into poor, sterile, and
unhealthy regions. Those who remain in contact with the invading
European colonists are debased and degenerate, and disappear rapidly.
The tribes of purest type, those of the mid-region and of the north
coast, have recently been well studied by Stirling, Baldwin Spencer and
Gillen, and W. Roth.[548]
The census of 1851 included 55,000 natives in Australia; that of 1881
declared only 31,700; and that of 1891, no doubt better compiled and
including newly-discovered districts, gives a return of only 59,464
natives and cross-breeds.[549]
Between 1836 and 1881 the number of natives in Victoria fell from
5000 to 770; the tribe of the Narrinyeri in South Australia, which in
1842 was composed of 3,200 members, was by 1875 reduced to only 511
individuals. But no positive proof has been obtained of diminution in
the number of the natives of the interior, nor of those of the west and
north coasts.
Most Australians exhibit the sufficiently pure type of the _Australian
race_ as I have already described it (p. 285): dark chocolate-brown
skin, stature above the average (1 m. 67); frizzy or wavy hair, very
elongated dolichocephalic head (av. ceph. ind., 71.2 in skulls, and
74.5 on the living subject), prominent superciliary arches, nose
flat and often convex, sunken at the root, where it is very thin,
but much enlarged on the level of the nostrils, thick and sometimes
protruding lips, etc. The cranial capacity is rather low (see p. 99).
The pilous system is well developed over the whole body (Figs. 14, 15,
149, 150). Some of these characters, the dolichocephaly and crooked
nose, are common both to the Australians and the Melanesians of the
archipelagoes extending north-east of the continent; while other traits
(wavy or frizzy hair, etc.) differentiate these two races, and connect
the Australians with the Veddahs of Ceylon and with certain of the
Dravidian populations of India.
Deviations from the type just described are very slight, and have
been attributed, without, I think, much justice, to intermixtures
with Malays and Papuans on the coasts; elsewhere deviations are quite
limited.
The Australians have great powers of endurance, are temperate and
fairly agile; they climb trees readily with the aid of a rattan rope,
in the style of natives of India, of the Canacks and the Negroes (p.
275 and Fig. 81).
Most travellers agree in regard to the low intellectual development
of the Australians. However, they have sufficiently complex social
customs, an extensive folk-lore,[550] and their children have been
known, in the missionary schools, to learn to read and write more
quickly than European children; arithmetic only appearing to be
outside the limits of their intelligence. It should be remarked in
regard to all Australian dialects that they have special words only
for the figures one and two, occasionally for three and four; but most
frequently “two and one” is used for “three,” and “two and two” for
“four” (see p. 223).
The Australian languages present great resemblances to each other;
they all belong to a single family, having no affinity with any other
linguistic group. All these languages are agglutinative. The various
forms of the words are produced by the addition of suffixes, while in
the Malay and Papuan languages they are produced by means of prefixes.
Abbreviations, slovenliness of pronunciation, and neologisms are very
constant, and rapidly lead to changes in these dialects.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 146.--Natives of Livuliri (near Larantuka,
Floris). Indonesian race with intermixture in varying degrees of Papuan
blood. Height from 1 m. 55 to 1 m. 64; ceph. ind., 76.6 to 86.9.
(_Phot. and particulars, Lapicque._)]
Gesture language is fairly developed, especially as an ideographic
mode of communication between tribe and tribe. Very often a gesture
completes the phrase, even in a colloquy between two members of
the same tribe; certain of these gestures recall those of European
children, such as lightly rubbing the stomach to signify “I have had
enough” (W. Roth).
[Illustration: /Fig./ 147.--Buri, a Solorian of Adanara Island (close
to Floris); Mussulman. Height, 1 m. 64; ceph. ind., 85.1.
(_Phot. and particulars, Lapicque._)]
The Australians are typical hunters (for their weapons, see pp. 259 and
267, and Figs. 75 and 78). They know nothing of cattle-raising; their
only domestic animal, the dingo, is half wild. Fruit gathering and
the digging up of roots of wild plants are the principal occupations
of the women. Intoxicating drinks, apart from the regions penetrated
by colonists, are unknown; the custom of chewing “pituri” leaves
(_Duboisia_) as a narcotic is fairly widespread.
Most of the tribes live under such shelters as nature affords, or in
huts made of leafy branches, hemispherical or semi-ovoid in shape, and
very low (p. 161); even these they do not take the trouble to put up if
they have other means of protecting themselves from cold, such as the
woollen blankets distributed by the Colonial Governments.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 148.--Same subject as Fig. 147, seen in profile;
a striking blend of Melanesian and Indonesian traits.
(_Phot. Lapicque._)]
Sundry particulars have already been given in regard to the ornaments
of the Australians (p. 178, and Figs. 59, 149, and 150), in regard to
their marriage customs (p. 232), their system of affiliation (p. 234),
the “corroborees,” and their ceremonies of _initiation_ (p. 241), at
which time are practised the circumcision and urethral sub-incision
(_mika_ operation, p. 239) of the young people. On p. 210, _et seq._,
I have already given some details in regard to the music, poetry, and
arts of these people.
In most ethnographical works, the extinct _Tasmanian_[551] people are
described side by side with the Australian. The only reason of this
lies in the proximity of their habitat, for really the Tasmanians
recall rather the Melanesians, both in somatic traits and in mode of
life. The language of the Tasmanians, which is agglutinative with
prefixes and suffixes, presents no analogy either with Australian or
Melanesian tongues. The Tasmanians appear to have been of stature
below the average (1 m. 66); head, sub-dolichocephalic (ceph. ind.,
76 to 77); broad and prognathous face; flattened and very broad nose;
frizzy hair (which last constituted their chief difference from the
Australians).[552]
II. /Asiatic Archipelago or Malaysia/.--The population of this
part of Oceania may be separated into four great ethnic groups: Malays,
Indonesians, Negritoes, and Papuans. The first two form the basis of
most of the ethnic groups of the Archipelago, while the Negrito element
is represented only in the Malay peninsula (which from the ethnic point
of view may be associated with the Archipelago), in the Andaman Islands
(see p. 397), in the Philippines, and perhaps in Riu-Linga; and the
Papuan element in the Aru and Ke Islands, and in a lesser degree in the
South-West Islands, Ceram, Buru, Timur, Floris, and the neighbouring
islets. It has long been supposed that the interior of the Malay
Islands is occupied by negroid races akin to the Negritoes or Papuans;
but no explorer of Sumatra, Borneo, Java,[553] or Celebes has yet
encountered Negritoes there, although the centres of these islands have
repeatedly been traversed; hence there is little hope of discovering
negroid races in them. Besides, the assumed Negritoes of the Mergui
Archipelago, of Nicobar and of Engano, described by Anderson, Lapicque,
Man, Sherborn and Modigliani, have been shown to be simply Indonesians.
The existence of true Negritoes has been affirmed only in the extreme
north of the Archipelago, in the spots named above, the Andaman
Islands, etc. If there be any trace whatever of intermixture with these
races, it should not be necessary to search beyond the north parts of
Sumatra and Borneo--in other words, beyond the equator going south.
I have already given some particulars in regard to the Negritoes
of Malacca and the Andamanese (p. 397). As to the people of the
Philippines,[554] known under the name of _Aeta_ or _Aita_ (a
corruption of the Malay word “hitam,” meaning black), they occupy the
interior of Luzon Island in little groups, and are to be met with also
in the Mindoro, Panay, and Negros islands, and in the north-east part
of Mindanao. They are shorter (1 m. 47) than the Andamanese and the
Sakai, but are very like them generally. They are uncivilised hunters;
in certain districts where they are crossed with Tagals they have begun
to till the soil.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 149.--“Billy,” Queensland Australian;
height, 1 m. 51; ceph. ind., 70.4; nas. ind., 107.5.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
The Papuans (see p. 493) are still less numerous than the Negritoes
in the Asiatic Archipelago. They are to be found, more or less pure,
only in the Aru, Salawatti, and Waigiu Islands, etc. All these islands
form part of the Archipelago only from the political point of view;
they belong by their climate, their flora and fauna, to the New Guinea
and Australian world. There are also tribes which recall the Papuans in
Ceram and Buru, in the Ke and Tenimber islands; but in the remainder
of the Moluccas, and in Floris and Timur islands, only traces of
Papuan or Melanesian blood can be discovered, generally in the form
of intermixture with or modification of the Malay or Indonesian type
(see p. 491, and Figs. 46 to 48). Such at least is the conclusion to
which lead the researches of Ten Kate and Lapicque,[555] the only
anthropologists who have studied the question on the spot.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 150.--Same subject as Fig. 149, in profile.
Tattooing by cicatrisation.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
There remain the two principal groups of the population of the
Archipelago: the _Indonesians_ and _Malays_, who differ from each other
much less than till recently was supposed.
It has been said and frequently repeated, though without precise
documents to warrant the assertion, that the Indonesians resemble the
Polynesians, and the Malays the Mongols, but recent anthropological
research has proved that this is not the case.[556] The Indonesians,
which is the collective name under which, since Junghuhn, Logan, and
Hamy,[557] have been comprised the little intermixed inland populations
of the large islands (Dyaks of Borneo, Battas of Sumatra, various
“Alfurus” of Celebes and certain Moluccas, etc.), have none of the
special characters of Polynesians. They are of very short stature (1 m.
57 on the average), mesocephalic or dolichocephalic (av. ceph. ind.,
78.5 on the liv. sub.), while the Polynesians are very tall (1 m. 72 on
the average) and brachycephalic; and if the yellow colour of the skin
and the nature of the hair (straight or slightly curled) are almost the
same in the two races, the form of the nose, of the lips, of the face,
as well as various other traits, present notable differences.
On the other hand, the Indonesians singularly resemble the Malays.
Speaking generally, the Malays are somewhat taller (av. height, 1 m.
61) and brachycephalic (av. ceph. ind., 85 on the liv. sub.), but there
is a great variety of type in this group, which is much more mixed
than the Indonesian. It is even possible that the Malays (that is to
say, the Malays properly so called of Malacca and of Menangkabau in
Sumatra, as well as the Javanese, Sundanese, and the riverine “Malays”
of the other islands) are a mixed nation, sprung from the intermixture
of Indonesians with various Burmese, Negrito, Hindu, Chinese, Papuan
and other elements. In this case, the Indonesians would be of the
pure Malay type, the real Protomalays. Intermixtures of Indonesians
and Chinese are especially pronounced in Java, in the north of Borneo,
and in the Philippines of the north; while in Mindanao, in Sulu and
Palawan islands, Arab elements (_Moros_) dominate, and Hindu elements
in certain parts of Java, Sumatra, Bali, and of the south of Borneo.
As to intermixtures with Negrito blood they are, as I have already
said, specially notable in the north of the Archipelago, while Papuan
influence predominates in the south-east.
Apart from some savage tribes like the Olo-ot, the Punan of Borneo, and
the Kubus of Sumatra, all the Indonesians and Malays are tillers of the
soil, using the hoe. The plant most extensively cultivated is rice,
a foreign importation; it has replaced the indigenous plant, millet
(_Panicum italicum_), which only some backward Dyak tribes, the Alfurus
of Buru, and the natives of Timur continue to cultivate. Mention has
already been made of the use of _siri_ or _betel_ (p. 158), and of
geophagy and anthropophagy (p. 145, _et seq._) in the Archipelago. The
characteristic dress of the Indonesians and Malays is the _kaïn_, a
piece of stuff passed round the loins and between the legs; also the
“sarong,” which appears to have been imported from India--a piece of
stuff enveloping the body (Figs. 126 and 146), worn by both sexes; the
women wear besides the _javat_ or chastity belt. Among other ethnic
characters special to the Malay-Indonesians should be mentioned the
quadrangular houses on piles,[558] the use of the “sumpitan” (p. 261),
the bow being of foreign importation, either from India (in Java
and Bali) or from Melanesia (in the islands of the south-east and
south-west, in Timur, and the east of Floris); the national weapon, the
“kris,” an inlaid dagger with slightly bent handle and sheath in the
form of an axe; the large quadrangular or hexagonal shield (Fig. 79);
tattooing, practised among the Dyaks, the Igorrotes of the Philippines,
the inhabitants of Ceram, of Timur Laut, the Tenimber Islands, etc.
Among the customs of the family life should be noted the alterations of
names (the father at the birth of a son takes the name of “the father
of so-and-so”); exogamy in relation to the clan (the “saku” of the
Malays of Sumatra, the “marga” of the Battas), practised everywhere
in Malaysia except by the Dyaks and the Alfurus to the north of
Celebes; the patriarchate, existing everywhere except in the “Padangshe
Bovenlanden” (upper Padang district, Sumatra), among the Nias and
the Alfurus of Baru and Ceram; the universal custom of carrying off
the bride and the indemnity paid at once to the relatives (“halaku”
of the Dyaks, the “sompo” of the Bugis). The barbarous practice of
head-hunting, either to be assured of servitors in the other world,
or to lend importance there (see p. 251), is in vogue with the Dyaks,
the Nias, the Alfurus of Minahassa (north Celebes), the Toradja (mid
Celebes), as well as in Ceram and Timur islands.[559] Family property
exists almost throughout the Archipelago, side by side with individual
property.
The Malay languages, which form part of the Malayo-Polynesian family,
are of agglutinative structure, with prefixes and suffixes; by the
introduction of _infixes_ they have a tendency towards flexion. Many
words, however, do not change at all, and represent at the same time
noun, verb, adjective, etc. Among the dialects, Tagal is the richest
in affixes and gives to its words the finest shades; then comes the
Batta dialect, the dialect of the Alfurus of Minahassa, and lastly,
Javanese (see also p. 133). The dialect least complicated grammatically
is the Malay properly so called; it has become the _lingua franca_ and
official language of the Mussulmans throughout the Archipelago. Among
other dialects may be mentioned Mangkassarese and the “Behasa tanat” of
the Moluccas.
The Javanese make use of a special alphabet; the inhabitants of the
south of Sumatra have a hooked mode of writing, different from the
rounded writing of the Battas; finally, the Bugis and Mangkassars of
Celebes, as well as the Bisayans and Tagals of the Philippines, have
special forms of writing derived probably from the Devanagari. The
Malays employ the Arabo-Persian alphabet.
I will now add some particulars of the population of each of the large
islands of Malaysia.[560]
The interior of the island of Sumatra is inhabited by independent
populations, known in the north under the name of Battas (with whom
should probably be associated the Ala and the Gaja of the interior
of Achin), and under the name of Kubu and Lubu in the south. All
these tribes, who are primitive tillers of the soil, are famous as
man-eaters and head hunters. As to the regions contiguous to the east
and west coasts, they are inhabited (as well as in part the middle
of the island, between the Kubu and the Batta) by the so-called
Menangkabau Malays (the name of the ancient native kingdom). The
north coast is taken up by the Achinese, a mixed Arabo-Indonesian
people; while the south part of the great island is occupied by other
compound populations, the Palenbangs or Javanese of Sumatra, the
Rejangs (Malayo-Javanese), the Passumahs (Indonesians intermixed with
Javanese blood), and finally the Lampongs, cross-breeds of Passumahs
with Sundanese (see below) and the natives of the south, such as the
Orang-Abong, who have to-day almost disappeared. The islands skirting
west Sumatra are peopled with tribes resembling the Battas, like the
islanders of Nias, of Engano (p. 486, note), etc. The islands to the
east are peopled by Malays, except Riu and the middle of Biliton, which
are occupied by the Baju, a tribe perhaps of Negrito race. The island
of Bangka is occupied mostly by a branch of the Passumahs.
In Java are to be noted the Sundanese in the west, the Javanese in the
east, the former being less affected by Hindu elements. The Madurese
of Madura and Bavean islands, as well as the Balinese of Bali, are
like the Javanese. In the less accessible mountains of the province
of Bantam (west of the island) live the Baduj, and in those of the
east (province of Pasuruan) the Tenggerese. These are two fairly pure
Indonesian tribes, who have preserved their heathen customs in the
midst of the Mussulman population of Java. There are people like them
in Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa.[561]
In Borneo, the coast is occupied by Malays, except the north-east part,
where are found Suluans (Arabised Indonesians from the Sulu Islands),
Bugis, and the Bajaus or Sea Gypsies, analogous to those of Riu and
Mergui (p. 396).
The interior of the large island is, however, the exclusive domain
of the Dyaks, the numerous tribes of which may be divided into two
great groups, the one of stationary, the other of nomadic habits. The
sedentary tribes, more or less intermixed with immigrant elements,
Chinese, Malay, and Bugi, are more or less civilised. First come the
Kayans, the Bahau, and the Segai; then the Tagans, among whom, it is
said, the practice obtains of girls being deflowered by their fathers;
and, lastly, the Dusuns or Sun Dyaks, the Baludupis, the Land Dyaks,
and the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, etc. Second, the nomads, who are purer
than the fixed tribes, and sometimes half savage, as, for example,
the Punan and Olo-ot of the middle of the island, are still little
known.[562]
The Philippine archipelago[563] contains, besides Negritoes (p. 483),
a crowd of Indonesian tribes, which, from the linguistic and ethnic
point of view, may be grouped as follows:--Starting in the north-east
we meet first the Cagayanes or Ibangs around Lake Cagayan in the
island of Luzon, and their neighbours the Ifugaos, who are hunters of
skulls; then farther south we find the Igorrotes and their congeners;
then the Tagals; then, still farther south, in the interior, on all
the east coast of Luzon, as well as on the coast of Mindoro, are found
the savage Mangianes. At many points these peoples are intermixed with
Chinese blood. The west coast of Luzon is occupied by the Ilocanos,
who are bold colonists, and, farther south, towards Manilla, tribes
of the Zambales and Pangasinanes. The quite southern extremity of
Luzon is occupied by the Bicols, nearly related to the Tagals, whom
one finds again also scattered over the islands (Catanduanes Islands,
north Masbate Island, etc.). West Mindanao is taken up by the mixed
population (Arabo-Negrito-Indonesian) of pirates, Mussulman fanatics,
known by the name of Moros; the east of this island being inhabited
by several tribes as yet little known, such as Mandayas in the south,
Bogobos in the north, etc., and the Caragas tribe of Bisaya or Vissaya.
Most of these last people occupy the rest of the archipelago north
of Mindanao, as far as and including the south of Masbate and Samar
and Tablas islands. They are met again beside the Moros in Palawan
Island between the Philippines and Borneo. The Tagaloc language is
largely superseding other dialects in the archipelago; it has already
displaced Bicol in the north of the province of Camarine, Bisayan on
Marinduque Island, etc. Besides, Tagals emigrate to the other parts
of the archipelago and even to Marianne Islands. Most of the Tagals
are Christians; many can read and write Spanish, and not a few have
received a superior education.
Celebes Island is peopled in the north (Minahassa province) by the
Alfurus; in the south by Mangkassars and Bugis, and by various tribes
(Toraja, Gorontolo, etc.), who as yet have been little studied, in the
middle. The Moluccas are inhabited by other “Alfurus,” with a greater
strain of Papuan blood. Timur, apart from its Malay or Indonesian coast
populations, contains also tribes imbued with Papuan blood; such are
the Emabelo of the middle of the island; the Timur-Atuli of the east
coast; the Helong-Atuli in Samu Island opposite Kupang, the capital of
Timur; and lastly, the Rottinese of Rotti Island, south-west of Timur,
etc.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 151.--Young Papuan woman of the Samarai people
(Dinner Island, Moresby group, south of the south-east extremity of New
Guinea). Mixed type (Papuan-Melano-Polynesian).
(_Phot. Haddon._)]
In Floris Island, the Sikanese of the central isthmus and the east part
possess traits intermediate between Papuans and Indonesians, while the
Ata-Krowé of Koting and the Hokar mountaineers are almost pure Papuans.
The Lios to the west of the Sikanese present again a mixed type, as do
also the inhabitants of the region of Larantuka (Fig. 146), among whom
may be found all the degrees between Indonesian and almost pure Papuan.
This applies also to the Solorese of the Solor Archipelago, east of
Floris (Figs. 147 and 148).[564]
III. /Melanesia/.--The Melanesians are a well-characterised
race. However, they exhibit in somatic type differences sufficiently
marked to separate the Melanesian race into two sub-races. The one,
Papuan, with elongated face and hooked nose, is especially spread over
New Guinea; the other, or Melanesian properly so called, with broader
face, straight or concave nose, has a geographical area which covers
(from north-west to south-east) the Admiralty Islands, New Britain
(Bismarck Archipelago), Solomon, Santa-Cruz, and Banks Islands, the New
Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and the Fiji Archipelago. Further, there are
a certain number of ethnic characters which also justify the separation
of the Papuans from the Melanesians properly so called. (See pp.
494-495.)
The Papuans[565] are found in the large island of New Guinea and the
coast islets; for the most part they present the more or less uniform
type of the Papuan sub-race (long face, convex nose, etc.), but the
Melanesian type properly so called is also to be found among them. The
frequency of individuals with a skin relatively fair, chocolate colour,
especially in the south-east of the island (British New Guinea), joined
to the frequency of wavy and straight hair, which, in the case of the
children, is sometimes chestnut or sandy at the ends and black at the
roots, has given the impression that there was a strong infusion of
Polynesian blood in the veins of the Papuans; but this idea has been
refuted by all ethnologists who have studied the populations on the
spot--Miklukho-Maclay, Finsch, Haddon. According to the last, the
evidence is in favour of some intermixture with the Melanesians, who,
in general, are fairer than the Papuans, and have often wavy hair.[566]
Some anthropologists (Miklukho-Maclay, Meyer, Hamy, Mantegazza)
have also pointed out the presence of Negritoes or Negrito-Papuan
cross-breeds in New Guinea, basing their opinion on the study of
skulls. These Negrito-Papuans appear to be localised at a single spot
on the island, at the mouth of the river Fly.[567]
It should also be said that some Polynesian customs, kava drinking,
tattoo by pricking, the possession of outrigger canoes, etc., to be
met with at certain points of New Guinea, are equally to be found in
Melanesia (New Hebrides, Fiji, etc.). Many ethnic characters may be
brought forward which are proper to the Papuans, or in which either
Indonesians or Australians resemble them--large phalanstery-houses (up
to 300 feet) on piles with roofs of the shape of a reversed boat; the
ceremony of initiation for the young of both sexes; the use of the
bull-roarer and of very elaborate masks in religious ceremonies, the
seated attitude of limbs crossed tailor-fashion, in which last they
differ from the Melanesians, who rest squatting.
The Papuans (perhaps a million in all) are divided into a great number
of tribes. In the west (Dutch) portion are the Mafors or Nofurs; the
Varopen or Vandamenes in Geelvink Bay and the islands lying within it;
the Arfaks, their neighbours of the interior; then, on the north coast,
the Amberbaki, the Karons, one of the tribes practising anthropophagy
(tolerably rare among Papuans); lastly, the Talandjang, near Humboldt
Gulf; the Onimes in the neighbourhood of McClure Gulf, and the Kovai
farther to the south. The Papuans of German New Guinea present
linguistic differences: those of Astrolabe Bay do not understand the
natives of Finsch Haven, etc. In British New Guinea the following
tribes are known: the Daudai to the west of the mouth of the Fly, the
Kiwai in the mouth of this river; the Orokolo and the Motu-Motu or
Toaripi in the Gulf of Papua; the Motu or Kerepunu (Fig. 152) of Port
Moresby;[568] the Koitapu and the Kupele more in the interior of the
country, near the Owen Stanley range; the Loyalupu and the Aroma to
the south of the foot of Moresby; finally, the Massim of the extremity
of the peninsula, the Samarai (Fig. 151) and their congeners of the
Entrecasteaux Islands and the Louisiade archipelago.[569]
The Papuans are tillers of the soil, and especially cultivate sago,
maize, and tobacco; occasionally they are hunters and fishers, and
are then very adroit in laying snares and poisoning waters; their
favourite weapons are the bow and arrow with flint heads. Excellent
boat-builders, they merely do a coasting trade, and while understanding
well how to handle a sail, rarely ever venture into the open sea.
Graphic arts are developed among them (see p. 202, and Figs. 60 to 62).
The practice of chewing betel is universal. The dress of the men is a
belt of beaten bark (Fig. 60); that of the women an apron made of dry
grasses. Funeral rites vary with the tribe: burial, exposure on trees,
embalmment. Very superstitious, living in dread of “spirits” at the
merest whispering of leaves in the forest, of a bad augury at the least
cry of a bird, the Papuans have no religion properly so called any more
than they have “chiefs”; all public matters are discussed at meetings
where, however, individual influences are always predominant. Among
their principal customs may be noted the vendetta and the headhunt.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 152.--Papuans of the Kerepunu tribe at
Tamain-Hula (New Guinea), ready to turn up the soil with their pointed
sticks.
(_Phot. Haddon._)]
[Illustration: /Fig./ 153.--Woman of the Fualu clan (east coast of New
Caledonia), of pure Melanesian race.
(_Phot. E. Robin._)]
The inhabitants of Torres Straits very much recall the Papuans; they
have nothing in common with the Australians.[570]
The Melanesians properly so called[571] are for the most part of the
variety with large square or lozenge-shaped face, with the straight or
_retroussé_ nose of the Melanesian race (Fig. 153). In general they
are taller and more dolichocephalic than the Papuans. (See Appendices
I. and II.) All tillers of the soil, cultivating especially the yam and
taro, they practise hunting and fishing only at times; the pig is their
only domestic animal. Most of the Melanesians still live in the stone
age, but the former fine axes of polished serpentine, artistically
hafted, are disappearing more and more. They also make many weapons
and tools of wood, of shells, and of human humerus bones. The favourite
weapons are the club, bow, and spear, this last being used only in war
(except in New Caledonia, where the bow is little employed).
The arrow and spear heads are most often of human bone, barbed, and
sometimes poisoned with juices of plants or microbes from the ooze of
ponds or lagunes.
The Melanesians build outrigger and twin canoes, but they do not
sail far from the coasts. Pottery in certain islands is unknown; the
dwellings are little houses on piles, except in New Caledonia, where
circular huts are met with. Communal houses (“Gamal”) exist everywhere.
Tattooing, little practised, is most often done by cicatrices. The
habit of chewing betel is general, except in New Caledonia; but kava is
almost unknown. Anthropophagy is now indulged in only on the Solomon
Islands and in some islands of New Britain and New Hebrides, although
the custom of preserving the skulls of the dead, and of hanging them
near the hut side by side with those derived from head-hunting, is
general. As in New Guinea, there exists a mob of dialects and tongues
in each of the Melanesian Islands, and even in different parts of the
same island. Melanesian women are very chaste and virtuous, and that
notwithstanding the absence of the sense of modesty, at least in New
Britain, where they go completely naked, as also do the men. The men,
in certain islands, wear only antipudic garments (see p. 170). Taboo in
Melanesia assumes a less clear form than in Polynesia, where it amounts
to simple interdiction without the intervention of mysterious forces.
As in Australia there are no “tribes” among the Melanesians (except
perhaps in New Caledonia), but in each island there exists two or more
exogamous “classes” or clans (as in Australia), and the regulations of
group marriage (p. 231) are observed as strictly in the Solomon Islands
as in Viti-Levu (the largest of the Fiji Islands). Secret societies
(Duk-Duk, etc., p. 253) flourish especially in Banks Islands, but are
met with also in the rest of Melanesia and even in the Fijis, where,
especially in the west islands, the population is already intermixed
with Polynesian elements.[572]
IV. /Polynesians/.[573]--Seeing that the Polynesians are
distributed over a number of islands, and exist under the most varied
conditions, we might expect to find a multitude of types. This is
not the case; the Polynesian race shows almost the same traits from
the Hawaii Islands to New Zealand. This fact is due to the constant
migrations from island to island, and the active trading conducted by
all the Polynesians with each other, the effect of which is to efface,
by process of intermixture, differences arising from insular isolation.
From the physical point of view the Polynesian is tall (1 m. 74,
average of 254 measurements), sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind., 82.6
according to 178 measurements on the living subject, 79 according to
328 skulls), of a fair complexion (warm yellow or brownish), with
straight or curly hair, most often straight nose, the cheek-bones
fairly projecting, the superciliary arches little marked, and,
especially among the women, something languorous in the look (Figs.
154 to 156). The Polynesian therefore differs completely from the
Melanesian, whose stature is below the average (1 m. 62 according
to 295 measurements), and who is dolichocephalic (ceph. ind., 77
according to 223 measurements on living subject); he has dark skin,
woolly or frizzy hair, concave or convex nose, and, lastly, prominent
superciliary arches, which, combined with the pigmentation of the
cornea, give a fierce and suspicious look. The Polynesian is more
subject to obesity than the Melanesian. He is more lively, more
imaginative and intelligent, but also more dissolute in his habits than
the Melanesian.
Before the advent of Europeans, the Polynesians of the upper volcanic
islands were expert tillers of the soil (as witness the ruins of
irrigation works in Tahiti, New Zealand, and elsewhere), and in
the lower coral islands lived on the produce of the cocoa-nut and
bread-fruit trees. Everywhere they were accustomed to fish. They cooked
their foods by means of heated stones (p. 153), having (except in
Micronesia, in the Tonga and Easter Islands) no knowledge of pottery;
they excelled in the art of plaiting, in the preparation of _tapa_ (p.
183), and especially in navigation. Their light canoes with outriggers
(Fig. 82), or their large twin canoes connected by a platform and
always carrying a single triangular sail of mat, furrowed the ocean
in all directions. For weapons they had short javelins, slings, and
wooden clubs, but neither bow nor shield. They made tools of shell
and polished stone, and were proficient in the art of wood-sculpture
(Fig. 71). Pictography appears to have been known only in Easter
Island (p. 140). Kava (p. 158) was their national drink; tattooing
had reached the condition of an art in New Zealand only. The custom
of taboo (p. 252) probably originated in Polynesia, where also two or
three social classes are to be met with. After the arrival of Europeans
the Polynesians, adopting the customs of the new-comers, underwent
rapid changes. For the most part Christians, especially Protestants,
they have modified their very rich old mythology by the incorporation
of Christian legends. In several islands, in Hawaii, Samoa, and New
Zealand, the Polynesians have even risen to the height of having
parliamentary institutions, in the management of which they themselves
take part. On the other hand, civilisation, in ensuring peace, has had
the effect of making the Polynesians unenterprising and lazy, and more
inclined to dissipation than they were formerly. And the population is
diminishing, owing either to imported epidemic diseases (particularly
syphilis and tuberculosis), or to cross-breeding.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 154.--Tahitian woman of Papeete, twenty-six years
old. Pure Polynesian race.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
In the Sandwich Islands, now subject to the United States, the
Hawaiians do not number more than 31,019 out of the 109,020
inhabitants registered by the last census (1896), or 28 per cent. of
the population; while in 1890 there were 34,436, constituting 38 per
cent. of the total population. The chief causes of this reduction
are phthisis and leprosy, as well as the Sino-Japanese and European
immigration. In the Marquesas Islands, belonging to France, the native
Polynesians numbered only 4,304 at the census of 1894, while in 1887
there were still 5,246; the principal cause of this diminution being
tuberculosis (Tautain). The Moriori of Chatham Island (east of New
Zealand) are reduced to fifty in number; and the Maoris of New Zealand,
so celebrated for their tattooings, their legends, and their ornamental
art, do not count more than 41,933 (census of 1891), distributed over
the northern island and over the northern part of the southern island.
They are also losing their native originality, are growing civilised,
and intermix with the Europeans.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 155.--Same subject as Fig. 154, seen in profile.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
The Samoans (35,000), and their neighbours the Tongans (25,000), who
have frequent relations with the Fijians, seem to remain stationary in
number. The native population (1,600) of Tahiti has not varied since
the establishment of the French dominion. The Hervey or Cook Islands
shelter 8000 Polynesians, the Tuamota Islands 7000, and the remaining
islands less than 2000 each.
[Illustration: /Fig./ 156.--Tahitian of Papeete; pure Polynesian race.
(_Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte._)]
The Polynesians of the western islands situated north of the equator
(Gilbert, 35,000; Marshall, 12,000; Caroline, 22,000; Marianne) are
called Micronesians. They differ slightly in type from the Polynesians;
they are more hairy, are shorter, their head is more elongated, and
they possess some ethnic characters apart: rope armour, weapons of
shark’s teeth, special money (p. 271), etc.[574]
The peopling of the innumerable islands of the Pacific and Indian
oceans by three distinct races whose languages have affinities
with Malay dialects, forms one of the most interesting problems
of ethnology. Anthropologists have largely discussed the point of
departure of these races.[575] According to common opinion it is from
the south-east of Asia, from Indo-China, that the peoples now scattered
from Madagascar to Easter Island originally set out; on the one hand
driven by the monsoons of the Indian Ocean, and on the other by the
monsoons of the Pacific, both of which, during a period of the year,
are contrary to the directions of the prevailing winds. The peopling
of Melanesia and Polynesia from west to east becomes very probable if,
as Bernard[576] has justly remarked, the distribution of lands and
islands, the disappearance of continents in proportion as we proceed
eastward, is taken into account. It is in fact evident that migrations
were effected more easily across large islands fairly near each other,
like those of the Indian Ocean or the western Pacific, even granted
contrary winds and currents, than across very small and very distant
islands like those of the western Pacific, even granted favourable
currents. If it is a question of involuntary migrations, the cyclones
and tempests which drive canoes afar amount to an inversion of normal
winds, and migrations of this kind are effected in all directions.[577]
As to voluntary migrations, they are also deliberately made in a
direction opposite to that of the prevailing winds. It was in order
to ensure their safe return that primitive peoples noted the regular
winds and currents, merely taking advantage of some chance breeze in
setting off. Legends afford little help to determine these migrations
in detail, and, apart from some historic facts, it is difficult to
state precisely the origin of the populations of each of the Oceanian
islands.