SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—H. 521 
Dr. L. S. B. Leaxkey.—Kikuyu marriage customs and problems arising 
therefrom as a result of contact with European civilisation (11.0). 
Mr. James HorNELL.—Indonesian contact with East African culture 
(11.30). 
Indian contact with Sumatra and Java, commencing before the opening 
of our era, gave rise to a rich civilisation, coupled with much maritime 
activity and the construction of large sea-going vessels with double-out- 
riggers. Voyaging in these, Sumatrans formed settlements in Madagascar 
about the second to fourth centuries A.D. The voyages were probably 
coastwise, with calls at Ceylon, Malabar, and the East African coast. Other 
settlements were made in the tenth century or possibly rather later. African 
slaves formed part of the tribute sent to China from Sumatra and Java and 
an Arab writer mentions a slaving expedition from Indonesia in the tenth 
century. 
The Bantu strain in Madagascar is probably the result of the importation 
of African slaves by the Indonesian colonists. 
Technological evidence also points to intimate contact. The presence 
of the coconut palm, the coconut scraper, the bar-zither and the double- 
outrigger canoe in East Africa is strong evidence of long-continued 
Indonesian influence radiating from coastal settlements. Arab writers 
mention Sumatran and Malagasy voyages to Kilwa and Mogadishu, and one 
records a definite tradition of the occupation of Aden by Malagasy people. 
Their influence has penetrated inland by diffusion; the Baganda canoe 
incorporates features of Javanese vessels, the bar-zither has penetrated to 
Lake Tanganyika and some of the beads in Rhodesian ruins have Indonesian 
counterparts. 
Dr. M. Fortes.—Some eae: of kinship and the family in West Africa 
(12.0). 
An area in the northern territories of the Gold Coast has been selected, 
and the structure and functions of the family investigated. The type of 
family found is common in many parts of West Africa. It is a joint family, 
acting as a unit in most departments of cultural life, under the control of 
a patriarchal head. While the type is constant, many variations occur. 
It is proposed to investigate, on the one hand, the factors which make for the 
internal cohesion of this type of family grouping, and, on the other, how its 
cohesion with the greater society is preserved. 
Dr. Lucy Mair.—The growth of economic individualism among African 
peoples (12.30). 
The essential difference between native and European economic organisa- 
tion lies, not in some form of communism, but in the fact that in the native 
system the mechanism of distribution did not consist in a series of exchanges 
of goods with a view to profit, but was closely correlated with the whole political 
system. Wealth was the privilege of political authority, and was acquired 
not by economic skill or effort but by the exercise of qualities approved 
by those in authority, especially wisdom in council and courage in war, and 
the desire for it was thus a motive for socially approved behaviour. Wealth 
carried with it the obligation of generosity to relatives or subjects, and one 
treason why it was sought was because it enabled the possessor to make the 
gifts required by custom on a more lavish scale than his neighbours. This 
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