Abstract
THE war in the Philippines has not been forgotten, nor has the courageous part played by the Filipinos alongside their American allies. But the average individual knows little about the geography of the Philippines, and less about the folk who inhabit them. To remedy this state of affairs, the Smithsonian Institution has produced War Background Studies No. 4, “Peoples of the Philippines”, by Herbert W. Krieger ; it contains 86.pages of interesting print, a number of well-chosen illustrations, and an extensive bibliography. An account of the topography, climate, and kindred subjects is given, but most of the work is devoted to a description of the people. As might be expected, they are for the most part very mixed in origin and are the result of more than one culture contact in the past. This is clearly apparent in the realm of religion, where it appears that many pagan Indonesian ideas and superstitions still persist, although the large majority of the inhabitants are Christians. The material culture of some pf the more primitive tribes includes knives of various kinds, bows and arrows, and the blow gun. The darts in use with the latter are often poisoned, there resulting an exceedingly effective weapon for killing small game silently. Various types of houses are illustrated, and a description of the language given. But anyone wanting to know more about these islands and their interesting inhabitants, who surely will have a not unimportant part to play in the post-war world in the Pacific, should read for himself about the islands and their inhabitants.
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Peoples of the Philippines. Nature 151, 445 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151445a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151445a0