ART. 30 DESIGN AKEAS IN OCEANIA KRIEGER 27 



Stirling found the Negrito, a negrillo pygmy people, in possession 

 of a sedentary, comparatively high culture based on agriculture, on 

 the one hand far outranking neighboring Papuan peoples while 

 offering in almost every respect a marked contrast culturally to the 

 physically related groups of Malaysia. Characteristic of the Negri- 

 to or negrillo pygmies throughout the range of their distribution, 

 notably in the interior of the Malay Peninsula, in the Philippines, 

 and in the Andaman Islands, is their isolated habitat, which is 

 usually a mountainous more or less inaccessible interior plateau 

 region where they are surrounded entirely by stronger and more 

 numerous lowland peoples. Characteristic of the Negrito of central 

 New Guinea is the diminutive stature, which in males is less than 

 152 centimeters, in females 145 centimeters, and the dark skin color 

 and frizzy black hair. Stirling found several individual Negritos 

 of the Nassau Mountains with hair of a reddish tinge. The Negritos 

 of the Upper Rouffaer River valley were found in possession of 

 a well-developed economic system based on agriculture, but with 

 no governmental organization extending beyond the isolated villages. 

 It becomes necessary, as a result of the discoveries of the expedition, 

 to enlarge our conception regarding the commonly attributed cultural 

 characteristics of the Negrito. 



The pygmy Negrito of the Nassau Mountains lives in a region 

 inaccessible alike to hostile Papuan and to the white race. There 

 they have developed a culture unique to science, differing in many 

 respects from that of the Papuans and from Negrito tribes living 

 elsewhere. Stirling found wide variations in the language spoken 

 by different pygmy Negrito groups. Just what this variation sig- 

 nifies will be indicated after further study. Whether all of the 

 observed linguistic differences will prove to be variants of existing 

 Papuan stock languages, presenting a condition similar to that pre- 

 vailing in the Philippine Islands, where Negrito spoken language 

 has been revealed as variant of the Malayan stock language, or 

 whether there may be different languages existing among the New 

 Guinea Negritos themselves will undoubtedly be established after 

 Mr. Stirling has made a thorough study of the linguistic data 

 obtained. 



Animistic tendencies were noted in the observation that the Negrito 

 believes spirits of dead relatives to inhabit various natural objects, 

 such as stones and water, also different kinds of animals. Another 

 observation of considerable interest is that the Papuan groups do 

 not bury their dead, but instead leave the bodies exposed near the 

 villages, producing a condition which does not tend to enhance the 

 pleasure of sojourning in the vicinity. A gruesome ornamental 



