BOOK REVIEWS 109

has enabled the Purum to meet some of these needs, but in the price of the purchased cloth and utensils must be reckoned a growing dependence on the vagaries of an econ- omy and society far larger than that of the old tribe.

Taking to the plow has meant, among other changes, the abandonment of ultimo- geniture. Under the circumstances of shifting cultivation there was very little real property to inherit. As sons grew up they struck out to clear jungle fields for themselves. I t was usually the youngest son to whom fell the duty of caring for the old father and who took over the father’s few possessions after his death. But fields under the plow in the valley have permanent value, convertible into cash. Hence sons no longer strike out for themselves, but tend to stay close to the valuable and fruitful paternal land. With this more closely knit family unit, all the sons may be present a t the father’s death, each demanding and getting a share in the inheritance of land and movable property.

The data for the study were collected in the course of four field trips between 1931 and 1936, and include anthropometric statistics as well as the usual roster of ethno- graphic items. The events of the war not only delayed publication but may have had a profound effect on the life of the people described. The Purum villages lie very close to the town of Pale1 on the Tamu-Impahl route. This was one of the main trails of exit used by refugees fleeing before the Japanese invasion of Burma; it was one of the avenues for the Japanese thrust into India in 1944, and was a main line of communication for the British Fourteenth Army in its march to Rangoon. The author would do well to revisit the Purum and to chart the cultural effects of these great movements on the tribe.

The cultural position of the Purum among their neighbors is frequently indicated in footnotes. The author is to be commended for noting the absence of traits; some of these notes are eloquent of more than mere absence, as in the observation (p. 238) that “pre-marital menstruation does not entail any disgrace to the individual or to her fam- ily.” This monograph is a worthy additicn to the fine series of studies of the peoples of Northeastern India and is one of the very first of this series to be done by an Indian anthropologist .

DAVID G. MANDELBAUM UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Citizelzship for the Aborigines; A National Aboriginal Policy. A. P. ELKIN. (109 pp. Australasian Publishing Co., Sydney, New South Wales, 1944.)

This volume, as its title indicates, presents a discussion of the legal problems which underlie the assimilation of the aborigines of Australia into citizenship. The constitu- tion of the Commonwealth Government does not give it national jurisdiction in this matter, and hence, except in federal territories, control rests with the States. This has resulted in considerable divergence in legislation on such fundamental definitions as “Who is an aborigine?” and “Who is a half-caste?” on the basis of which varying re- strictions are imposed generally and certain privileges granted individually. The dif- ficulties in developing any program to unify the policies of the several governments, or to grant full control to the Federal Government, stem not only from such direct factors in each State as the differences in historical background, legislative achievement, vary- ing economic and social conditions of the aborigines from time to time and, a t the pres- cnt time, public opinion and the influences of such pressure groups as missionaries and

110 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 49, 1947

pastoralists, but also from factors which inherently are not related to the aboriginal problem, the conflicting political theories of State versus Federal rights.

Dr. Elkin has summarized the history of the policies and legislative enactments of the several States and, on the assumption that a unified program is desirable, presents various legislative methods by which this end can be attained.

Readers who are interested either in current legislative programs for, or the history of policies toward, native peoples in various parts of the world, will find this book of major comparative value.

D. S. DAVIDSON SARASOTA

FLORIDA

Craniometry of Ambrym IsZand. W. D. HAMBLY. (Fieldiana: Anthropology, 37 [l]. 150 pp., 30 pl., 7 figs., 2 maps, 9 contour drawings. Chicago Natural History Museum, 1946.) This is one cf the statistical studies that Hambly does thoroughly and well. I t is based

on a small sample: 2 0 3 and 11 9 skulls from Ambrym Island in the New Hebrides group. As the criterion of statistical significance Hambly employs A/Pd[M1 -Mz > 3d((PE1)F+(FE2);. The CRL is not used.

Hambly offers, in addition to craniometric data, a discussion of the age-distribution in Melanesian skulls, based on endocranial suture closure. He uses his own pooled scries of 212 3 and 102 0 skulls, and Krause’s series of 150 3 and 58 9 . For the com- bined series the average ages are as follows: 36.7% of 3 and 66.2% of 9 are aged 20-30 yrs.; 30.5% of 3 and 21.9% of 9 are aged 30-40 yrs.; 32.7% of 3 and 11.9% of 9 are aged 40-50 (+) yrs.

The Ambrym skulls were compared to series from New Britain and New Guinea and it was found that 38 of 45 traits were almost identical between Ambrym and New Britain, and 22 of 45 between Ambrym and New Guinea. Of this degree of relationship Hambly observes that “the New Guinea series bears a close resemblance to both Negroid and Australoid series, but more particularly to the former,” while “the skulls of Ambrym apd New Britain are predominantly Australoid.”

The Melanesian skulls are compared to a pooled Polynesian series (172d), an African series (55 3 Wa Teita of E. Africa), and an Australian series (103 3) . The Am- brym skulls are adjudged close to the Negroids (31 traits) and to the Australoids (26 traits). There are, however, seven “marked differences” from the Negroids and only three from the Australoids.

Hambly offers as his craniometric conclusion that “the marked differences between Negroes, Australians, and Melanesians are few. . . . Furthermore, the sirnilarites in Negro and Polynesian (cranial) traits are by no means negligible. . . . It is by no means improbable that the explanation of all these cranial likenesses is to be found in the pre- historically remote contribution of Negro traits from a region that Sir Arthur Keith has referred to as the ‘Black Belt’ of southern Asia.”

In two Appendices Hambly gives pertinent data on Ambrym mandibulae and teeth, together with a useful statistical tabulation of the S.D. in 48 3 and 15 0 cranial series.

There is a very comprehensive Bibliography. W. M. KROGMAN

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO