The Great Village

Book excerpt: This book is the first systematic study of the urban Papuan and analyses, among other things, the family, household budgets, the proliferation of ceremonial and the re-birth of sorcery. The study can be compared, from the point of view of methods and research problems, with the increasing number of accounts of the urbanization of traditional societies, particularly in Africa. Hanuabada is not, however, 'de-tribalized' and it has maintained its boundaries intact against overwhelming immigration. First published in 1957.