“Sound Social System’’
p. 57 · Read in the full issue
New Guinea Natives Have
PROFESSOR A. P. ELKIN, professor of anthropology at the University of Syd ney, just back in Sydney after a tour in New Guinea, told reporters in August that primitive natives in the heart of New Guinea have an astonishingsly sound social and economic system.
Professor Elkin said that he found
around Wabag, almost at the centre of New Guinea, a community of more than 120,000 people, mostly farmers. Trade with coastal and other centres is arranged through local native agents who fix the barter scale and distribute goods which arrive in exchange for local products.
The community has its own compensation system for the relatives of those killed in battle. Pigs are generally given, the num ber varying with the importance of the dead man.