A Day Out With Canberra Anthropologists

By Gordon Russell

PACIFIC Islands folk on leave in Australia, when a little frayed by life in the major human jungles, will find their equanimity restored by a visit to Canberra, capital city and political and cultural centre of the Common wealth.

No pall of gas monoxide lies over Canberra’s streets; nor is heard the clamour of trams, the screech of brakes, the roar of railcars, the muffled oaths of frustrated com muters.

Here the modest traffic purrs serenely on, well spaced, and jay walkers meander with impunity.

No garnish note obtrudes, the air is crisp, the vista park-like, the tempo a la Pacifique.

The civic effort devoted to keep ing this model city clean, aesthetic ally, communally, and commercially, was brought to my notice forcibly.

Passing a substantial building of severe lines, I read over the portal, the words: “Gate to Hell and In fidelity.”

A new cult, perhaps? No. Just a local picture house discreetly an nouncing its current double-feature programme.

Here, in this 40-odd-year-old, ever-growing garden city, is manu factured most of the ammunition that is fired, by the P-NG Admin istration, at its two million subjects.

Here, too, some good work is be ing done in basic research on social problems peculiar to the mixture of races that co-exist in all the islands territories of the South Pacific.

The Australian National Uni versity was founded 9 years ago and embraces four major schools of scientific research —the John Curtin School of Medical Research, and the Research Schools of Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, and Pacific Studies.

Many top flight scientists have been attracted to the ANU and already it has achievements to its credit that have received world re cognition.

Perhaps of most direct interest to Pacific Islands folk is the Re search School of Pacific Studies, embracing the five departments of Anthropology and Sociology, Geography, Pacific History, Far Eastern History and International Relations.

Most of us have encountered one or more anthropologists in our time and there is a tendency to re gard them as rather odd types, somewhat divorced from reality.

There is nothing odd or remote about the anthropologists at the

Anu.

In the Department of Anthro pology it is normal practice for a graduate to spend a year at the University in prenaration for his

assignment, then a year or long “in the field,” and a further yei preparing a thesis on his findings Should his thesis qualify him f the PhD degree, he can then app for a fellowship in any Universi that promotes his subject. If h interests lie in the Pacific, he mi apply for, and may be accepted, a Research Fellow of the ANUJ In such case his work will coi tinue much as before, with wid interests and increasing contacts so much field work and so mu< preparation of material for practic application by administrations j any reputable organisation coi cerned with advancing the welfaj of Pacific peoples.

Frequent seminars provide for full exchange of ideas between st£ members.

Field work is taken seriously. ] acquire the necessary knowledj atmosphere and background, t! graduate or fellow must identi himself completely with the peop to whom he is assigned. For year or more all “mod. cons.” a eschewed and for him (and perhai his wife, too) it is the simple li] It is then, as one wife put I that one feels like a goldfish in bowl —one’s every action and i action is public property.

Disastrous results can follow t imposition of Western concepts a: methods upon a primitive peoj unable to assimilate them.

THIS is well illustrated in the ca of the natives of the Mada; District in New Guiena, wl exposed to a succession of contra ing Western impacts, evolved I remarkable “Cargo Cult,” a rid( of social anthropology that si occupies the attention of Dr. Pel Lawrence, an Englishman, and Research Fellow of the Australii National University.

In simple terms, these people, w! believe that their own limit material resources were furnish by their gods, became acquisiti for the white man’s apparently i exhaustible wealth, or “cargo.” I Regarding white men as deiti from initial contact with a Russij noble, in 1871, they were soon d: illusioned by the harsh exploitatii of the German settlers that f( lowed from 1884.

Rebelling against the yoke, tb were transported to New Brita and later brought home aga when Australia took over Ni Guinea from the Germans in 19 More confusion of ideas follow with the Japanese occupation 1 World War 11.

Seeking always a share of I white man’s “cargo,” they ultimati

t faith in both Christianity and the Administration. 70-day they have turned back to iir old gods, and, to rituals dified by their conflicting ex ■iences, seek the “cargo” direct. >r. Lawrence, at grips with this ial conundrum, is now bound •th on his third, and likely final, 11 of field work with the Cargo i. lr. R. Bulmer, another English n, has recently returned with his e from field work among the Iyer Valley people, near Mt. gen, in the P-NG Western High ds, an area opened up only a r years ago.

Comparatively untouched, these iples are at present receptive to stern ideas and white settlers, their traditional laws, customs i ways of life, as established by ! anthropologist, are respected their new white neighbours, rich rards for all parties should re b. )r. J. D. Freeman, a New Zea der, and Senior Research Fellow the ANU, has done anthro ogical work in Samoa and Sara s' and will likely return to Samoa An. He is at present deputising Dr. Stanner, Research Reader Anthropology, now on study leave rseas. he Department sustained a severe ; recently in the death of Pro sor S. F. S. Nadel, on January who had occupied the chair of hropology since 1951. rofessor Nadel, an Austrian n British subject, was an nowledged leader in his field I it is said that social anthro- Dgy came of age as a science with publication of his volume, The nidations of Social Anthropology.

Ed. Note: Cargo Cult is not, of rse, confined to Mad a n g trict. Outbreaks of it or similar vements have occurred in the : 50 years in many places from Dua to the New Hebrides and the omons. It has received a great ,1 more attention since the war— eral anthropologists are currently king it their pet study—probably ause it fits in with the post-war iception that what even the liest Melanesian thinks and is is important).

Ir. J. K. Brownlees has been jointed British Judge on the nt Court of the New Hebrides, til recently, he was a Commis ler for Lands in Nigeria. He .lifted as a barrister in 1932, and sequently served in various cial capacities in the Solomons, was Secretary to the Govern at of Tonga, with judicial duties, ore going to Africa. He was ex ted to arrived in Vila, with his e and two children, at the end May.