THE EEGULATION OF NUMBERS 213 



shirked his work \ l In New Ireland, ' should a man neglect his 

 family, a mode of punishment very similar to one practised by 

 schoolboys among civilized races is adopted. A double row of 

 men, women, and children the whole population of the village 

 armed with stiff birches is formed ; and at a signal from the chief 

 the delinquent is obliged to run a certain number of times through 

 the lines and receive a general castigation from the rods of the 

 villagers '. 2 Of the Pawumwa Haseman says ' all work together. 

 ... If any one refuses to assist in planting, the chief forces him to 

 work. I saw one Indian with a long scar on the side of his head 

 and neck, the result of punishment for laziness.' 3 



6. It is thus clear that within any group in any primitive race, 

 the members of which co-operate together to obtain their food 

 from a definite area to which they are confined, the principle of the 

 optimum number holds good. There is, that is to say, taking into 

 account the abundance of game, the fertility of the land, the 

 skilled methods in use, and all other factors, a density of popu- 

 lation which, if attained, will enable the* greatest possible average 

 income per head to be earned ; if the density is greater or if it is 

 less than this desirable density, the average income will be less 

 than it might have been. Obviously it must be a very great 

 advantage for any group to approximate to this desirable density. 

 There are three possibilities open to any group. The desirable 

 number may be approached, it may be exceeded up to the point 

 where men can only just exist, or it may not be reached. Extreme 

 departures from the optimum number must be very disadvan- 

 tageous ; if numbers increase until they are limited by starvation 

 only, then no benefit arises from the use of any skilled methods 

 that may be known. Under such circumstances all inventions in 

 the methods of hunting, fishing, and cultivating the ground profit 

 nothing. Social conditions must also inevitably be unstable where 

 starvation alone limits numbers. 



This being so, how are numbers regulated ? We may observe 

 to begin with that there is a number of factors at work among all 

 these races which incidentally limit increase. This they may do 

 either by decreasing fertility or by increasing elimination. To the 

 former class belong pre-puberty intercourse and prolonged 

 lactation, to the latter war and lack of care of children. Two 



1 Thomson, Fijians, p. 229. 2 Angas, loc. cit., p. 373. 3 Haseman, 



Am. Anth., vol. xiv, p. 338. 



