Peabody Museum Explorer Tells of Peculiar Dietetics of New Guinea Natives--Papuans Are Linguistically Isolated

"Since the extinction of the Australian natives, Dutch New Guinea very probably is able to boast, the most primitive peoples still in existence", declared P. T. L. Putnam '25, who has recently returned from a sojourn in the Malay Archipelago where he was doing anthropological research under the auspices of the Peabody Museum. "New Guinea," Putnam went on to say, "In its interior is a country even less known than the interior of Africa and in its mystery rivaled only by the wilds of Brazil."

He explained that in the entire territory of Dutch New Guinea including thousands of square miles there are only three white settlements in each of which there are approximately 20 white inhabitants. Today, of course, the cannibalistic and head hunting proclivities of the natives are confined almost exclusively to the interior, where the inhabitants of one village not only hunt and eat the men, women and children of the next village, but speak an entirely different language.

"The linguistic feature is an interesting one," said Putnam. "With a focus at the Malay Peninsula the great Malay-Polynesian group of languages is spoken west to Madagascar, and east of New Guinea to Fiji, Hawaii, Samoa, and all the islands of Polynesia. But in the unattractive interior of New Guinea, untouched by the conquering Malay speaking peoples, are the Papuans, who speak about sixty languages, related neither to the Malay-Polynesian, nor to each other.

"The native tribes of New Guinea are in an unusually low state of civilization" declared Putnam. "In dealing with the average type of native, the African for example a man may court the favor of the tribal chief by the judicious bestowal of a few trinkets which may take his fancy, and in return for which he will force his humble subjects to pose for photographs etc. But not so with the aborigine of New Guinea. His is a communistic society and he recognizes no will but his own. It is therefore necessary to please each individual and the number of mirrors, glass beads and other trinkets which must be carried is deplored by the white trader or explorer. Furthermore the native's absolute disregard of social status based on property ownership and his perfect satisfaction with his lot makes him impossible as a laborer. In this respect the native of New Guinea furnishes a strong contrast to his industrious neighbor on the Island of Java.

"The only thing of interest to commerce so far discovered in Dutch New Guinea are the birds of paradise. In quest of these, adventurers, Australians. Chinamen, and Malays have performed exploits comparable only to those of the pioneers in our West. But with changes in styles, birds are no longer worth hunting, and while the boats of the bird hunters continue to rot on the strand, New Guinea will remain in its present state of mystery and oblivion."

"Another peculiar feature of the islands is found in the attitude of the Dutch toward the halfbreed," said Putnam. "Contrary to the English practice the Dutch maintain that the slightest drop of white blood makes a white man at least, before the law. As a result the Dutch are confronted with less racial friction than the British colonies."