CHAPTER XIII. 

 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The inhabitants of New Guinea are usually known by the name of Papuans, and 

 (see KEANE [1899, 126]) together with the Melanesians, called Papuasians, forming with 

 Australians, Tasmanians and Negritoes the group of Oceanic Negroes. The fact that really 

 black Papuans do not exist (see p. 329), is not necessarily an objection to the use of the 

 name ^negro"; ail African Negroes are not black. With the increased number of observations 

 such variety has been found to exist amongst the Papuasians, that HADDON [1894, 253] 

 names both groups merely "peoples". 



Supposing that the known Papuans form the autochthones of New Guinea a list of 

 characteristics was fixed upon for them, to which, however, only a provisional meaning must 

 be attached (see also MACGREGOR [1897, 31]), and will hâve to be revised before long. So, 

 for instance, the practice of tattooing is regarded as a characteristic of the Melanesian (HADDON 

 [1894, 254]), but in the ethnographical part (p. 40 et seq.) I pointed out that the Papuans 

 of the north coast are very generally tattooed. The use of the bull-roarer, by which in 

 British New Guinea the pure Papuan is said to be distinguished from the Melanesian (HADDON 

 1. a), has as yet only in a single instance been reported of the Netherlands territory (see 

 p. 306) and can therefore in no case count as a characteristic of the Papuan. 



As to the gênerai functions ofthe body some détails hâve already been reported 

 in the ethnographical part (food see p. 6, drink p. 14, sleeping p. 144). Belching is not 

 retained, neither does it offend, fia tu s only then when the smell is offensive. The act of 

 defaecation is always committed in secret; also for mixturiation one disappears or turns 

 away from the company. Squatting on the stage of a pile dwelling built in the water, the 

 urine is simply allowed to run away between the laths of the flooring. 



In squatting, in Papua Tâlandjang as in other parts of the north coast (MACLAY 

 [1873a, 247], COMRIE [1877, 104]), a position similar to that of the Malays is adopted, with 

 the haunches just off the ground. Often this position is changed into a sitting one, by pushing a 

 pièce of wood or something else under the nates. Frequently a man will let himself down on 

 the nates, without such a support, whilst the legs (the soles of the feet on the ground) remain 



