Tahitian villagers’

vanished way of life

to focus on the “economic” aspects of the communities stu died, to add a little ethno graphic learning to the hard discipline of economics. As Oliver says, however, it is prob able that his account of a unique and vanished way of life will prove to be the most useful part of his monograph.

There are certainly some de lightful descriptions. Speaking of preliminary courtship be havior, Oliver says, “To my age-jaundiced eye, there was nothing more comical than a young male in courting posture: wandering along the road or sitting beside it with others like himself; his fine physique hid den in poor fitting garments decorated with Hong Kong ver sions of Polynesian designs; his great spreading feet painfully inserted into unaccustomed and unlaced shoes; his head brilliantined with oily scent and

crowned with flowers: and his heavy-browed and usually handsome face drawn up into a sick-cow expression as he sang to the accompaniment of some body’s guitar the latest Papeete inanity about love and moon light and absence.”

An appendix contains a very readable summary of the com parison the author was finally able to make between the societal economies of the vil lages of Atea and Fatata. The study is based on two char acteristics: each village’s widely shared goals, and the extent to which they were actually achieved, and the natural and cultural factors responsible for the gaps between the achiev able goals and their actual attainment.

As an anthropological docu ment, the book is limited by its unfortunate lack of an index, and by language which is at times quite unscientific, though appealingly naive. As an inti mate look at a recently vanished way of life with some excellent photographs

it is well worth reading.

Rudd.