The Light Of Melanesia

Excerpt from The Light of Melanesia: A Record of Thirty-Five Years Mission Work in the South Seas; Written After a Personal Visitation Made by Request of the Right Rev. John Selwyn, D.D., Late Bishop of Melanesia The illustrations are from photographs taken chiefly by Dr. Welchman and the Rev. A. H. Brittain during my tour; a few are my own handi work. The apparatus belonged to Mr. Beattie, photographer, Hobart, by whose directions we were able to save some ten dozen views from injury until he could develop them. Mr. Beattie is ready to supply photographs and lantern slides at moderate cost. The photograph of Taki is given by the kind permission of Captain Davis, r.n. For the index and for supervision of proofs in England I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. A. V. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This Introduction to the Anthropology of Melanesia is intended for undergraduate anthropology students with some grounding in the issues and ideas that inform the discipline, and for courses in Pacific Studies. Each chapter focuses on a topic common to many cultures in the region, such as the role of so-called Big Men, ancestors, male initiation, and exchange, and these ideas are fleshed out with apt ethnographic examples. Melanesia is a fascinating culture area, and has always been a popular fieldwork site for anthropologists, including W. H. R. Rivers, Bronislaw Malinowski, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson. Some of the most important theoretical contributions to the subject were also first formulated with reference to Melanesian studies, and students today still learn much of their basic anthropology from Melanesian examples.