Evening star., 1942-10-22
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

| oy 4 ftOHLuS ". ICHf ".
Scattered in hamlets through the
forested mountains of Bougainville, larg-
est of the Solomons, dwells the earth's
least-known people-bearded, hairy
bodied pigmy negritos only "a few years
removed from headhunting.
| Few white men-other than Australian
administrative officers in recent years
have ventured beyond the thick ribbon
of dense swamp which rings the island.
Areas in the northern mountains prob
ably never have been entered by an
outsider
One of the few Americans who ever
have made any contact with these peo
pie is DR.. Douglas l.. Oliver, Harvard
University anthropologist, now working
with the Board of Economic Warfare,
who made study of their diverse Ian
| guages and cultures three years ago. He
| reported on his findings before the
| Anthropological Society of Washington
| the other night
They are, says DR.. Oliver, small farmers
with rather efficient primitive agricul-
| ture based on the root vegetable, taro,
| and pigs. Pigs dominate their lives.
| The animals are essentially members of
| the household. Often they are kept on
leashes. They eat the same food as the
rest of the family and often the women
| chew the tough taro roots before feeding
them to sickly runt.
pig owner never kills his own pig
He always sells or trades it to a neigh
boring farmer and slaughters the animal
received in exchange. A mans social
status in this world and his chances of
getting to the next one depend almost
entirely on the number of pigs he owns,
through the workings of curious
economic system described by Dr. Oliver.
Prestige among the Bougainville high
lands is based almost entirely on wealth,
but the only incentive for accommodating
wealth is to give it away in as ostenta-
tious fashion as possible. first step
of young man beginning to get ahead
in the world is to build clubhouse" in
his village and dedicate it with a great
feast Ths value of his clubhouse is in no
way dependent on its size or elaborate
ness. but on the number of pigs eaten at
the feast.
The next step is to purchase demon"
to haunt his clubhouse. For this he must
wait until he becomes lila sign that
such spirit is anxious to make contact
with him. He must set the demon first,
and he invokes the aid IF one or more
sorcerers. Coconut oil Is poured in shell
and the man instructed to gaze steadily
into it. Eventually the spirit will appear
This may require several days of steady
gazing. If a face does not appear in the
| oil in reasonable time, the sorcerer tells
his client that this particular demon is
offended because SO small fee has been
paid. The man parts with more shell
money, the currency of the island This
is repeated many times until the client
has given the sorcerer all his available
wealth. Then the demon makes his
appearance. Nobody would dream of
seeing the spirit while he had any money
left-because cheap demon would give
him no prestige.
Natives will point with awe at a certain
clubhouse, DR.. Oliver says. and explain
that it is haunted by ten thousand
shell-string demon" The possessor of
such a guardian spirit is a great man
locally.
But once he has acquired his demon
he is in a bad way for the rest of his
life. The spirit must be fed with the
blood of slaughtered plgs. The more pig
blood he gets the stronger he becomes.
| His appetite is Unsuitable. The more he
| has, the more he needs. So the man
| must continue to give ever more and
more elaborate public feasts with the
slaughter of more and more pigs or else
the demon will sicken and die Then the
man will die also, probably a horrible
death.
When he dies he is cremated by his
relatives, with big pig feast Spirits of
the other world feed on the blood of
these pigs, If they are satisfied with the
amount provided, they carefully escort
the deceased over the perilous path to
the other world. If they think his
relatives have been s.ingy, they throw
the disembodied soul into q volcano
|
| The most elaborate social affairs
among the highlanders, reports Dr.
Oliver, are "chief showings" The
Wealthiest man of one village invites the
wealthiest man of neighboring hamlet
to feast at which he serves as MANY
pigs and gives away as much other
wealth as he currently possesses. The
guest must respond by giving feast at
which more is given away. Thus a
vicious circle is set up with feast after
feast until one chief cries quits. Thence
forth he is despised man, ruined in this
world and the next. His relatives seldom
allow this to happen
Perhaps the saddest aspect of this
situation, according to DR.. Oliver, is the
fate of the child who must be introduced
to the world with an elaborate christen-
Ing ceremony, at which many pigs are
slaughtered. If his parents cannot afford
this, he remains nameless outcast, not
allowed to associate with the rest of the
tribe until somebody takes pity and
stakes him to christening.
But there probably is no instance, saws
Dr. Oliver, where a person has gone
through life without a name. It would
be too bad reflection on the clan to
which he belongs.
! COrrectS Statement
| About