The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1905, 1895-11-11
In Defence of Cannibals.

OdLuuSi L lChWlOh, haJCi NuPh'"'i
Weller, and Mary, listening to the
members of the British Association
at their recent meeting there urging
the dissertation Of graves, defending
cannibalism, attacking civilization
and the efforts OF missionaries, and
advocating the teaching OF the
customs and habits OF savage ma
tions in the schools, may have
wondered deeply il their words were
not used in purely Pickwickian
sense.
Prof. Flinders Petrie's address
against the dwelling and destruc-
tive tendencies Of our so-called
civilization, already noticed in The
Sun, was a natural protest against
interference with the materials with
which his profession deals, and, in a
measure, will meet with sympathy
from many. We must all regret,
for instance, the almost total dis
appearance in Europe OF national
cost ume, of quaint superstitons and
local usages, OF the picturesque indi-
viduality of many towns and dis
tricts swept away by the coming OF
the railroad and her inventions.
One need be no follower Of Mr..
Ruskin to lament the change.
Hideous, ill-6tting black silk gowns
have taken the place OF the gayly
colored Sunday dress OF German
and Italian peasant women; an
elevator is to be put into the jung
frau, Venice's canals are filled in, an
asphalt road with electric lights
takes the place of the beach at
Naples, rack railroads run to the
top of Snowdou, of the Rigi, of
Vesuvius, Paris, and London
fashions are adopted in Japan, all
things that jar on our sense of
artistic fitness. To the anthro-
pologist and the ethnologist, study
ing man as a product of nature,
trying to make out what manner Of
beast he is and has been in the past,
apart from his pretence to be lord
OF creation and the messenger of
progress, he efforts OF civilization
are merely hindrance, impairing
existing evidence of development.
A polygamous, man-eating African
tribe converted to semblance of
Christianity is distinct loss to
science. The potsherd with which
the patient patriarch beguiled his
affection on his dunghill, would
have for the authropologist no re-
ligious or human or historic interest,
but would serve as starting point
from which to reconstruct the
characteristics, and degree of civil
ization, and the origin and develop
ment of the Jewish race.
But the search for knowledge has
not before so frankly exposed itself
as to the ideas and deeds with which
it serves the cause of science. An
American ethnologist was adopted
as son by an Indian chief, and in
trusted with the sacred religious
secrets Of the tribe, which, of course,
he made known. One person at
Ipswich proclaimed that he had
married native wife to enable him
TO gain efficiency as a missionary,
and to acquire knowledge of the
aboriginal tribes of central India
Prof. Flinders Petrie himself, in
common with all Psychologists, has
rendered great service to science by
violating the sepultures OF the dead
He earnestly urged that, as the
Jews are pure race, the old Jew
ish cemeteries OF Europe be riaed in
order to compare the measurements
Of the skulls contained in them with
those of living Jews. The Indiar
mounds in our own country arc
looked upon as the fair prey of the
ethnographer. English graveyard'
are ransacked for British and Celtic
skulls, and cremation seems to bt
the only means by which the re-
mains Of our poor historic deac