Birth-Control among the New Zealand Maori

Abstract

In NATURE of October 17, p. 575, Miss Ettie A. Rout has made some interesting remarks concerning sexual life and birth-control among the Maori of New Zealand. Anthropologists and students of social hygiene will be grateful to her for directing attention to facts which have previously received little notice—the value attached by the native to physical fitness, its importance as one of the criteria of marriage, and the consequent influence of this ideal upon the general physique of the race. At the same time, it should be recognised that such important social institutions as betrothal, marriage and family life were not regulated by physical fitness alone, as Miss Rout seems to imply. Despite my sympathy with her views, I cannot help wondering whether these have not unconsciously coloured her statements about Maori life.