Abstract
SOME further particulars of the hitherto unknown people found in Papua by Mr. J. G. Hides (see NATURE, August 17, p. 251) are given in extracts from the official report and an article by the Australian correspondent of The Times in the issue of August 14. The report stresses the interest of the people in afforestation, the exactness of the division of the fields for cultivation into squares and the straightness of the field drains, ranging from eight to ten feet in depth, the mode of burial in the open in wooden coffins surrounded by a picket fence, and the non-Papuan character of the people, shown especially in the lightness of their colour, their high cheekbones and finely moulded features. It is stated that, while anthropologists hesitate to express any opinion, owing to the lack of confirmation on investigation of previously reported marvels from the interior of Papua, Mr. E. W. P. Chinnery, Government anthropologist of Papua, has suggested their identity with the unknown tribes of Mount Hagen discovered in 1932 by Messrs. J. L. Taylor and M. Leahy (see NATURE, 134, 328; 1934). Mr. Hides, however, maintains that he has discovered a new people, but identifies tribes whom he afterwards encountered to the south-east with the people of Mount Hagen. His own theory is that the light-skinned people escaped years ago up the limestone cliffs after defeat in battle by other tribes and, discovering this fertile valley, settled, multiplied, and developed an entirely self-contained community. Until photographs are available, no judgment is possible, and until much more is known of the physical characters of the inhabitants of Papua, there is little utility in the discussion of theories of the survival of races. In the meantime Mr. Leahy and his brother confidently claim priority of discovery, and assert that light-skinned natives, common to many tribes, are pathological cases and usually exhibit symptoms of a mild form of St. Vitus's dance. Mr. M. Leahy, it is reported, is now on his way to submit photographs, films and other data to the Royal Geographical Society.
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Unknown Papua. Nature 136, 290–291 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136290d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136290d0