462 Mcnioiis Bcniicc P. Bislwp Mitscum 



head hunting, preservation of the skulls of ancestors, exposure or preservation 

 of corpses, instruction or initiation of young men, absence of large governmental 

 units and chiefs of little power are all of wide occurrence in Melanesia although 

 lacking in western Polynesia. In spite of the general Melanesian tone of the 

 IMaori and Marquesan cultures, analysis shows that they are not closely linked 

 with the culture of any one Melanesian locality. The art resemblances are general 

 rather than specific and the Maori-Marquesan image conventions are practically 

 absent in Melanesia. The non-material traits common to the Maori-Marquesan 

 and Melanesian cultures are of very wide occurrence in Melanesia and are present 

 in cultures which differ considerably on the material side. Single traits of the 

 IMaori and Marquesan material cultures are often present in one or two of the 

 Melanesian cultures but the distribution of these traits is so irregular that little 

 can be deduced from it. 



Both the culture and physical type of the northern Maori and southern 

 Marquesans indicate that their ancestors had been in contact with some negroid 

 people. It has generally been assumed that this contact occurred in the course of 

 their migration from Indonesia and that the Melanesian elements present in 

 Polynesia reached that region as inclusions in some non-negroid race. Churchill 

 (69, p. 139) advances the theory that the Polynesian immigrants coasted along 

 Melanesia and made manv stops to rest and raise crops, in this way coming into 

 close contact with the negroid peoples of the region. The northern Maori and 

 southern Marquesans are predominantly of the Caucasic race and if this race came 

 by way of Melanesia and picked up negroid blood and Melanesian cultural traits 

 in transit, we should expect to find negroid blood and Melanesian traits in all 

 the groups where the Caucasic element is important. It is important in Hawaii, 

 where there is very little of the negroid element (Sullivan, 79, b, p. 19) and 

 where the culture shows hardly any Melanesian affinities. It seems probable, 

 therefore, that at least some of the Caucasic immigrants into Polynesia had had 

 little or no contact with Melanesians at the time of their arrival. The population 

 of Easter Island, which lies on the extreme eastern edge of Polynesia, shows a 

 larger proportion of negroid types than that of any other Polynesian locality 

 (Dixon, 70, a, p. 370). Stone implements which are of Melanesian type and 

 which differ considerably from those used by the historic population ha\'e been 

 found in Tahiti. It seems improbable that a racial element which entered Polv- 

 nesia as an inclusion would have retained its distinctive implement types or 

 would have been strong enough to dominate physicallv in the easternmost Polv- 

 nesian island thousands of miles from Melanesia. It is more probable that the 

 population of central and southeastern Polynesia was at one time predominantly 

 negroid in physical type and IMelanesian rather than Polynesian in culture. 



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