Author : W. H. R. Rivers
Release : 2015-06-02
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 072/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 by : W. H. R. Rivers

Download or read book The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 written by W. H. R. Rivers. This book was released on 2015-06-02. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 An earlier book of mine, The Todas, was intended to be a sample of scientific method as applied to the collection and recording of ethnographical facts. The present book is a demonstration of ethnological, rather than of ethnographical, method. When The Todas was written, I had fully realised the insufficiency of current methods of collecting the facts of ethnography, but I was then under the sway of the crude evolutionary doctrine of the time, and did not see that the need for sound method was equally great in the theoretical treatment of these facts. It was only in the act of writing this book that I came gradually to realise the unsatisfactory character of current ethnological methods. From that time, method again became my chief interest, and it is primarily as a study in method that this book is put forward. The methods I have used have led to the formulation of a scheme of Melanesian history so complicated that it may seem at first sight to go far beyond the conclusions warranted by the facts now at our disposal. I may say at once that I do not anticipate that this scheme will be fully confirmed by future research; it may even have to suffer radical change as new facts come to our knowledge, but it is my hope that such modification, or even destruction if it come, will be due, not to faults of method, but to the insufficiency of the facts to which these methods have been applied. 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.