Pigmy-Folk of New Guinea

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 27, 23 April 1927, Page 17 (Supplement)

Pigmy-Folk of New Guinea

pROFESSOR Matthew W. Stirling, of Berkeley, assistant curator of the National* Institute, has ,*eturned from an expedition into the jungles of Dutch New Guinea, where he discovered five tribes of negro pigmies living in a primitive state. He found

trionc e3 £ reme ly friendly and indu3seen A j white man had ever before will *** ® olnaill of this race of 40-inch-fired There were several hunu the exDedition. and more than

7,000 specimens of clothes, tools and weapons were brought home. Members of the party narrowly escaped death many times when encountering unfriendly Papuans, the larger natives of the land.

When they first saw the white man, the pigmies fled in terror, but they were finally overcome by their curiosity and soon lost their fear. The little folk are described as having a high moral code. This is the newest pigmy race to have been discovered. The Asiatic negrito and African negrito races, with a stature of 4ft. llin. are usually called pigmies, but they are giants to the little New Guinea folk. There have been numerous examples of European dwarfs, but not as pigmy races. Notable Court dwarfs were Queen Mary’s John Jervice, whose height was 24in., and Queen Henrietta Marie’s Jeffrey Hudson, who was onlv ISin. high at the age of 30, but is said to have grown to 45in. thereafter. Examples exhibited in London during the 19th century included the Polish Count Borwilaski, who was 39in., “General Tom Thumb,” who was 30in., but grew to 40in.; Lavinia Warren, who was 32in. and who married “Tom Thumb”; “The Fairy Queen,” who was only ISin. high; and the French princess, Topaye, and the Mexican Midget, Lucia Larate, each of whom were 20in. in height.

In regard to the dwarf races, some writers hold that this stock, with dwarf stature as its normal characteristic in all ages, was the parent stock of all mankind. This view, however, is unsupported by the size of early skeleton remains, and other writers considered these people to have been dwarfed by adverse environment. 1 his, in its turn, fails to account for the consistency of the pigmy type, which has not varied since early dynastic Egypt. Even when settled husbandry introduces improved conditions, stature increases only after racial admixture. .. - The most satisfactory theory of pigmy origins regards these people as representing the early divergence from the main human stock of the

hunting type which has conserved its physical characters and primitive culture in racial isolation. This explains the absence of dwarf races from tropical America, as well as cold latitudes.

The Arctic Eskimo, the East Siberian, and the European Lapps, together with the Austral Yorgbans of Tierra del Fuego, the Cape Bushman

and the Veddas of Ceylon are short rather than dwarfish, being well above the pigmy stature, and alien to the pigmy culture. But the little people of New Guinea are true pigmies. The wonder is that they have not long since been exterminated by the fierce head-hunters of the many tribes of big men in their land, many of whom approach the gigantic in stature.