Report of the Director for 1922 il 



Tahiti, Rimatara, and islands in the eastern Tuamotus. Abstracts of 

 selected parts of the preliminary report of Mr. Stokes follow : 



In Rurutu the dialect seems phonetically to be the most emasculated among 

 the Polynesians. The consonants 'k,' 'ng,' and the aspirates are lacking. 



In Rapa tlie mortuary customs have some interesting features' in connection 

 with the drying of bodies. The sepulchers yielded specimens of garments, one of 

 which, a fragment of the early Rapa dress, is in technique identical with the Maori 

 rain cloak. The hill forts or fortified villages, analogous to the Maori pa, show 

 primitive engineering features'. Stone fish weirs are common and one of the old 

 marae (temples) remains. The clans of former times still exist, but with much 

 intermixture. Land is communal with the clan. The Rapa customs are interesting 

 on account of the absence of certain Polynesian features. It is said that there 

 were no tattooing, no awa drinking, no fish-poisoning, no mat-making, no feather- 

 work, no pigs' and no dogs. Other Polynesian characteristics but slightly developed 

 were temples, priestcraft, veneration for chiefs, knowledge of great Polynesian 

 heroes, and stone platforms for houses. The original dialect retained the 'k' and 

 'ng,' but dropped the 'h.' 



Raivavae has a population of 380 and presents an appearance of great pros- 

 perity, in strong contrast with Rapa. The material culture has changed to a greater 

 extent than elsewhere in the Austral Group. The island has a special interest on 

 account of its archaeology. Many large stone images hewn out of red tufa remained 

 until the decade 1890-1900, when they were cut into building blocks for a church 

 structure. More than sixty images or fragments of images were found, the largest 

 of which stood eight and a half feet above ground. About sixty temples were noted 

 and it is not improbable that about one hundred of these establishments were for- 

 merly maintained. War retreats in the mountains were also found. The Raivavae 

 genealogies indicate a common origin of the chiefs of the Austral Group. In the 

 original dialect the Polynesian 'k' had been dropped, the 'ng' was in process of 

 changing to 'n,' and the 'r' was pronounced as '1,' 'gh,' or 'g.' 



Physical measurements of 335 people were obtained — 133 in Rurutu, 113 in 

 Rapa, and 89 in Raivavae. 



The customs of the Austral Islanders have been greatly modified through their 

 conversion to Christianity by native missionaries from the Society Group. The 

 latter, themselves Polynesians, imposed upon the people a Tahitian civilization partly 

 modified by the secular teachings of the white missionaries from England. In the 

 process, which has been under way since 1821, a complex has been formed which 

 makes it extremely difficult to differentiate Austral Island ethnology from that of 

 the Society Group. (See also Annual Report of the Director for 1921 ; Occ. Papers 

 Vol. VIII, No. 5, pp. 206-207, 1922.) 



Louis R. Sullivan, Research Associate in Anthropology, in co-opera- 

 tion with the American Museum of Natural History, has continued his 

 investigations of the physical characteristics of the Pacific races. During 

 the year the results of his studies on Tongan somatology were published. 

 (See p. 13.) A manuscript on Marquesan somatology was submitted 

 for publication and considerable progress made on a study of Hawaiian 

 racial relations. A popular article, "New light on Polynesian races," was 



