EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE SOLOMONS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 15

EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE SOLOMONS

“Experiments in Civilization,” by 11. lan Hogbin (Loudon: Routledge). Dr. Hogbin, lecturer in anthropology at the University of Sydney, spent nearly three years in the Solomon Islands and in this book he outlines’the effects of European culture on the native community occupying the northern end of Malaita. He begins with a brief sketch of the old native culture, sufficient to make his account of pre-sent-day changes intelligible. He then makes a full examination of the results of European contact, which has/now been exercising its influence for a.considerable period. He discusses the problems of depopulation, administration and commerce, and studies’ the heathen elements surviving in the native form of Christianity, with an account of the missions ami native social life. He concludes with a chapter devoted to the future in which lie indicates possible lines of development. It is a work of the greatest value and it should lie of much practical assistance to the missionaries and administrators, upon whom responsibility for the future welfare of the natives almost entirely depends.