.array of 
May 20, 1915] 
NATURE 319 

ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES IN 
MELANESIA.* 
HE two volumes of “The History of Melan- 
esian Society,” by Dr. Rivers, represent two 
methods of the study of mankind, the ethno- 
graphical and the ethnological. The first volume 
is devoted to an ethnographical study of a con- 
siderable portion of southern and central Melan- 
esia and of various Polynesian islands; the 
account of Tikopia is of especial interest, as, 
although situated in Melanesia, it is inhabited by 
Polynesians, who have scarcely been affected by 
external influences. Most of the data were col- 
lected under the auspices of the Percy Sladen 
Trust. In the second volume the author breaks 
new ground in ethnology, as 
he synthesises and gives ex- 
planations of an even wider 
facts than those 
accumulated in. the first 
volume. 
Those who are acquainted 
with the previous writings of 
Dr. Rivers are well aware 
that, whether recording new 
facts or correcting and. ex- 
panding information — ac- 
quired by others, he has 
always paid great attention 
to method; indeed, he has 
perhaps done more than any- 
one else in this country to 
establish ethnology on scien- 
tific methods. It is interest- 
ing to note that until he 
began writing the theoretical 
discussion in the second 
volume, he was a firm ad- 
herent of the current English 
school, being almost exclu-: 
sively interested in the evolu- 
tion of belief, custom, and 
institution, and paying little 
attention to the complexity 
of the several cultures. He 
came to see, however, that 
Melanesian culture was more 
complex than had at first 
appeared, and that it was necessary to dissect 
out, so to speak, the associated elements in each 
of the component cultures. 
Graebner was the first to study this problem 
systematically, but he approached it from the 
point of view of the museum curator without ex- 
perience as a field ethnologist. Dr. Rivers states 
that the chief aim of his book “has been to show 
how social institutions and customs have arisen 
as the result of the interaction between peoples, 
the resulting compound resembling that produced 
by a chemical mixture in that it requires a process 
of analysis to discover its composition. To 
1 ‘Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to Melanesia. The History of 
Melanesian Society.” Ry W. H. R. Rivers. Vol. i., pp. xii+too; Vol. ii, 
pp. 610. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1914.) Price 36s. net two 
volumes, 
NO. 2377, VOL. 95] 
ih 
Fic. 1.—Pudding-knives from Ureparapara, Banks Islands. 
| 
Graebner, on the other hand, the process of blend- 
ing of cultures resembles rather a physical mix- 
ture in which the component elements exist side 
by side readily distinguishable from one another. 
. He assumes that social institutions and 
religious practices can be carried about the world 
and. transplanted into new homes as easily, and 
with as little modification, as weapons and im- 
plements. Such an assumption is impossible 
to anyone who appreciates the far more vital and 
essential character of the less material elements 
| of culture” (ii., p. 585). 
By means of the genealogical method Dr. 
Rivers has discovered several remarkable forms 
| of marriage in Melanesia, or has deduced forms 
| which have existed previously. For example, 
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From “‘ The History of Melanesian Society.” 
cross-cousin marriage (i.e., between the children 
of a brother and those of his sister) occurs in 
widely separated parts of Melanesia, and 
wherever found is accompanied by features of the 
systems of relationship which are clearly the direct 
result of this form of marriage; these features are 
found in places where cross-cousin marriage does 
not now take place, but they must certainly be 
survivals of it. The same applies to marriage 
| with the wife of the mother’s brother. The extra- 
ordinary system of the island of Pentecost owes 
its special features to two anomalous forms of 
marriage which either still exist or have been 
practised on the island, viz., marriage with the 
wife of a mother’s brother, and with the grand- 
daughter of the brother. For the latter, there 
