Man, Past and Present - Agustus Henry Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, Alfred Court Haddon (most popular novels txt) 📗

Malays of history. Whether of Indonesian or of what is called "Malay" stock, the intruders were rude Oceanic peoples, who in the prehistoric period, prior to the spread of civilising Hindu or Moslem influences in Malaysia, had scarcely advanced in general culture much beyond the indigenous Papuan and Negrito populations of that region. Even at present the Gaddanes, Itaves, Igorrotes, and others of Luzon are mere savages, at the head-hunting stage, quite as wild as, and perhaps even more ferocious than any of the Aetas. Indeed we are told that in some districts the Negrito and Igorrote tribes keep a regular Debtor and Creditor account of heads. Wherever the vendetta still prevails, all alike live in a chronic state of tribal warfare; periodical head-hunting expeditions are organised by the young men, to present the bride's father with as many grim trophies as possible in proof of their prowess, the victims being usually taken by surprise and stricken down with barbarous weapons, such as a long spear with tridented tips, or darts and arrows carrying at the point two rows of teeth made of flint or sea-shells. To avoid these attacks some, like the Central Sudanese Negroes, live in cabins on high posts or trees 60 to 70 feet from the ground, and defend themselves by showering stones on the marauders.

A physical peculiarity of the full-blood Negritoes, noticed by J. Montano[362], is the large, clumsy foot, turned slightly inwards, a trait characteristic also of the African Negrilloes; but in the Aeta the effect is exaggerated by the abnormal divergence of the great toe, as amongst the Annamese.

The presence of a pygmy element in the population of New Guinea had long been suspected, but the actual existence of a pygmy people was first discovered by the British Ornithologists' Union Expedition, 1910, at the source of the Mimika river in the Nassau range[363].

The description of these people, the Tapiro, is as follows. Their stature averages 1.449 m. (4 ft. 9 in.) ranging from 1.326 m. (4 ft. 4-1/2 in.) to 1.529 (5 ft. 0-1/4 in.). The skull is very variable giving indices from 66.9 to 85.1. The skin colour is lighter than that of the neighbouring Papuans, some individuals being almost yellow. The nose is straight, and though described as "very wide at the nostrils," the mean of the indices is only 83, the extremes being 65.5 and 94. The eyes are noticeably larger and rounder than those of Papuans, and the upper lip of many of the men is long and curiously convex. A Negrito element has also been recognised in the Mafulu people investigated by R. W. Williamson in the Mekeo District[364], here mixed with Papuan and Papuo-Melanesian. Their stature ranges from 1.47 m. (4 ft. 10 in.) to 1.63 m. (5 ft. 4 in.). The average cephalic index is 80 ranging from 74.7 to 86.8. The skin colour is dark sooty brown and the hair, though usually brown or black, is often very much lighter, "not what we in Europe should call dark." The average nasal index is 84 with extremes of 71.4 and 100. Also partly of Negrito origin are the P[)e]s[)e]g[)e]m of the upper waters of the Lorentz river[365].

All these Negrito peoples, as has been pointed out, show considerable diversity in physical characters, none of the existing groups, with the exception of the Andamanese, appearing to be homogeneous as regards cephalic or nasal index, while the stature, though always low, shows considerable range. They have certain cultural features in common[366], and these as a rule differentiate them from their neighbours. They seldom practise any deformation of the person, such as tattooing or scarification, though the Tapiro and Mafulu wear a nose-stick. They are invariably collectors and hunters, never, unless modified by contact with other peoples, undertaking any cultivation of the soil. Their huts are simple, the pile dwellings of the Tapiro being evidently copied from their neighbours. All possess the bow and arrow, though only the Semang and Aeta use poison. The Andamanese appear to be one of the very few peoples who possess fire but do not know how to make it afresh. There seems a certain amount of evidence that the Negrito method of making fire was that of splitting a dry stick, keeping the ends open by a piece of wood or stone placed in the cleft, stuffing some tinder into the narrow part of the slit and then drawing a strip of rattan to and fro across the spot until a spark sets fire to the tinder[367]. The social structure is everywhere very simple. The social unit appears to be the family and the power of the headman is very limited. Strict monogamy seems to prevail even where, as among the Aeta, polygyny is not prohibited. The dead are buried, but the bodies of those whom it is wished to honour are placed on platforms or on trees.

Related in certain physical characters to the pygmy Negritoes, although not of pygmy proportions[368], were the aborigines of Tasmania, but their racial affinities are much disputed. Huxley thought they showed some resemblance to the inhabitants of New Caledonia and the Andaman Islands, but Flower was disposed to bring them into closer connection with the Papuans or Melanesians. The leading anthropologists in France do not accept either of these views. Topinard states that there is no close alliance between the New Caledonians and the Tasmanians, while Quatrefages and Hamy remark that "from whatever point of view we look at it, the Tasmanian race presents special characters, so that it is quite impossible to discover any well-defined affinities with any other existing race." Sollas, reviewing these conflicting opinions, concludes that "this probably represents the prevailing opinion of the present day[369]."

The Tasmanians were of medium height, the average for the men being 1.661 m. (5 ft. 5-1/2 in.) with a range from 1.548 m. to 1.732 m. (5 ft. 1 in. to 5 ft. 8 in.); the average height for women being 1.503 m. (4 ft. 11 in.) with a range from 1.295 m. to 1.630 m. (4 ft. 3 in. to 5 ft. 4-1/4 in.). The skin colour was almost black with a brown tinge. The eyes were small and deep set beneath prominent overhanging brow-ridges. The nose was short and broad, with a deep notch at the root and widely distended nostrils. The skull was dolichocephalic or low mesaticephalic, with an average index of 75, of peculiar outline when viewed from above. Other peculiarities were the possession of the largest teeth, especially noticeable in comparison with the small jaw, and the smallest known cranial capacity (averaging 1199 c.c. for both sexes, falling in the women to 1093 c.c.).

The aboriginal Tasmanians stood even at a lower level of culture than the Australians. At the occupation the scattered bands, with no hereditary chiefs or social organisation, numbered altogether 2000 souls at most, speaking several distinct dialects, whether of one or more stock languages is uncertain. In the absence of sibilants and some other features they resembled the Australian, but were of ruder or less developed structure, and so imperfect that according to Joseph Milligan, our best authority on the subject, "they observed no settled order or arrangement of words in the construction of their sentences, but conveyed in a supplementary fashion by tone, manner, and gesture those modifications of meaning which we express by mood, tense, number, etc.[370]" Abstract terms were rare, and for every variety of gum-tree or wattle-tree there was a name, but no word for "tree" in general, or for qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold, long, short, round, etc. Anything hard was "like a stone," round "like the moon," and so on, "usually suiting the action to the word, and confirming by some sign the meaning to be understood."

They made fire by the stick and groove method, but their acquaintance with the fire-drill is uncertain[371]. The stone implements are the subject of much discussion. A great number are so rude and uncouth that, taken alone, we should have little reason to suspect that they had been chipped by man: some, on the other hand, show signs of skilful working. They were formerly classed as "eoliths" and compared to the plateau implements of Kent and Sussex, but the comparison cannot be sustained[372]. Sollas illustrates an implement "delusively similar to the head of an axe" and notes its resemblance to a Levallois flake (Acheulean). J. P. Johnson[373] points out the general likeness to pre-Aurignacian forms and there is a remarkable similarity of certain examples to Mousterian types. Weapons were of wood, and consisted of spears pointed and hardened in the fire, and a club or waddy, about two feet long, sometimes knobbed at one end; the range is said to have been about 40 yards.

In the native diet were included "snakes, lizards, grubs and worms," besides the opossum, wombat, kangaroo, birds and fishes, roots, seeds and fruits, but not human flesh, at least normally. Like the Bushmen, they were gross feeders, consuming enormous quantities of food when they could get it, and the case is mentioned of a woman who was seen to eat from 50 to 60 eggs of the sooty petrel (larger than a duck's), besides a double allowance of bread, at the station on Flinders Island. They had frail bundles of bark made fast with thongs or rushes, half float, half boat, to serve as canoes, but no permanent abodes or huts, beyond branches of trees lashed together, supported by stakes, and disposed crescent-shape with the convex side to windward. On the uplands and along the sea-shore they took refuge in caves, rock-shelters and natural hollows. Usually the men went naked, the women wore a loose covering of skins, and personal ornamentation was limited to cosmetics of red ochre, plumbago, and powdered charcoal, with occasionally a necklace of shells strung on a fibrous twine.

Being merely hunters and collectors, with the arrival of English colonists their doom was sealed. "Only in rare instances can a race of hunters contrive to co-exist with an agricultural people. When the hunting ground of a tribe is restricted owing to its partial occupation by the new arrivals, the tribe affected is compelled to infringe on the boundaries of its neighbours: this is to break the most sacred 'law of the Jungle,' and inevitably leads to war: the pressure on one boundary is propagated to the next, the ancient state of equilibrium is profoundly disturbed, and inter-tribal feuds become increasingly frequent. A bitter feeling is naturally aroused against the original offenders, the alien colonists; misunderstandings of all kinds inevitably arise, leading too often to bloodshed, and ending in a general conflict between natives and colonists, in which the former, already weakened by disagreements among themselves, must soon succumb. So it was in Tasmania." After the war of 1825 to 1831 the few wretched survivors, numbering about 200, were gathered together into a settlement, and from 1834 onwards every effort was made for their welfare, "but 'the white man's civilisation proved scarcely less fatal than the white man's bullet,' and in 1877, with the death of Truganini, the last survivor, the race became extinct[374]."

FOOTNOTES:

[319] Cf. S. H. Ray, Reports Camb. Anthrop. Exp. Torres Sts. Vol. III. 1907, pp. 287, 528. For Melanesian linguistic affinities see also W. Schmidt, Die Mon-Khmer Voelker, 1906.

[320] C. G. Seligman limits the use of the term Papuasian to the inhabitants of New Guinea and its islands, and following a suggestion of A. C. Haddon's (Geograph. Journ. XVI. 1900, pp. 265, 414), recognises therein three great divisions, the Papuans, the Western Papuo-Melanesians, and the Eastern Papuo-Melanesians, or Massim. Cf. C. G. Seligman, "A Classification of the Natives of British New Guinea," Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst. Vol. XXXIX. 1902, and The Melanesians of British New Guinea, 1910.

[321] That is, the indigenous Papuans, who appear to form the great bulk of the New Guinea populations, in contradistinction to the immigrant Melanesians (Motu and others), who are numerous especially along the south-east coast of the mainland and in the neighbouring