The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea: a Nature-Born Instance of Rousseau's Ideal Community

Abstract

THIS important volume constitutes a worthy successor to Dr. Landtman's previous publication on the folk-lore of the Kiwai Papuans, probably the most complete account in existence of the folk-lore of any primitive people. To collect the data for two such works is no mean test of physical and mental fortitude, as the writer of this notice knows from personal experience, having spent a few weeks in the Ply Estuary during the wet season some twenty years ago, when his visit was brought to an end by fever, which a medical colleague considered sufficiently serious to warrant his removal to Thursday Island in a pearling lugger. But he stayed long enough before being overcome to realise that the dominant qualities of the place were mud and mosquitoes. Dr. Landtman then showed decided pluck in enduring two years (1910–1912), including two rainy seasons, and he fully deserves the repute which these volumes should bring him on both sides of the Atlantic. How he came to Kiwai is explained by Dr. Haddon, who contributes a model ten-page introduction (0 si sic omnes):

The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea: a Nature-Born Instance of Rousseau's Ideal Community.

By Prof. Gunnar Landtman. Pp. xxxix + 485 + 64 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1927.) 30s. net.