Abstract
LONDON. Royal Anthropological Institute, November 12.—Dr. A. P. Maudslay, president, in the chair.—R. W. Williamson: The Mekeo people of New Guinea. Mr. Williamson gave an account of the Mekeo modes of courtship and ceremony of marriage. For the former, love charms and philtres are extensively used, and the rising sun is appealed to for help. The negotiations for the marriage involve substantial gifts by the boy's family to that of the girl, including ornaments, &c., which are presented at the time of the negotiations, and pigs, which the girl's relatives afterwards secure by means of a mock hostile raid upon the boy's clan. The author also described some of their ceremonial dances, which he believed to have an origin in an imitation of the dancing movements during the courting season of the goura pigeon, and elaborate ceremonial performances, at which much coveted decorations are bestowed upon warriors who have slain an enemy in battle; also their funeral and mourning ceremonies, the former of which includes a comic feast and a game of “bob-apple”—the apple being the leg of a pig or kangaroo.
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Societies and Academies. . Nature 90, 324–325 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090324a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090324a0