Abstract
LONDON. Royal Anthropological Institute, April 8.—Sir Everard im Thurn, president, in the chair.—Lieut. E. W. Pearson Chinnery: Reactions of certain New Guinea primitive people to Government control. It is the desire of Australia to put down cannibalism and general savagery and introduce civilisation among people of the Stone age in Papua without injury to them. Cannibalism and savagery are essential parts of the social and religious fabric of an uncivilised community. If they are to be suppressed without injury to the people, alternative practices of equal potency must be substituted to perpetuate material welfare and develop cultural institutions in accordance with the laws of the Government. Since the wild tribes of Papua received their first alien stimuli through the ' magistrates of their districts, progress depends on the ability of these officers to establish a proper relationship of mutual understanding and confidence between Government and subjects. When this is attained the officers, by intensive study of the culture of their people, can acquire a knowledge of the modes of thought that produce customs antagonistic to civilised standards, and safely guide the people through the stages of transition. If a system of training district magistrates in anthropological methods is added to existing methods of administration, Australia should, in the shortest possible time, achieve the credit of having conducted the savage of the Stone age, without injurv to him, to an attainment of the ideals of civilisation.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 103, 199–200 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/103199a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/103199a0