Valenge Women. A n Ethnographic Sludy. E. DORAE ARTHY(.2 51 pp., 23 plates, 1 map.

$9.00. London: Oxford University Press, 1933.)

This book is a report of the author’s personal research among the Valenge (southern Portugese
East Africa). The book is of great value, not only to students of African ethnology, but to all
anthropologists, no matter what their particular field may be. The originality of the research lies
in the method of approach through a sympathetic and intimate study of the social, religious, and
economic life of women, a subject for whose investigation male anthropologists are at an
obvious disadvantage. Chapters dealing with pregnancy, parturition, and the secret rites for
initiation of girls clearly demonstrate the advantages of research by a woman. The account of
initiation rites for girls is probably the most complete that has yet been published for any Bantu
Negro tribe.

The introduction states that this specialized aspect of research has a general background in H.
Junod’s “Life of a South African Tribe.” There is an advantage in having a general study,
geographical, historical, and ethnological, before approaching the investigation of a culture from
some particular aspect, such as sex, food, or magic. Without the general groundwork, specialized
approach may be misleading in its emphasis of one or more traits.

The introduction rightly emphasizes the need for making our studies dynamic and not too formal.
Sympathetic research is concerned with the working of a culture, and with adjustments to new
conditions arising from culture contacts. But to get to the soul of a people an approach through
study of material things, including collecting of objects, is sometimes the best method.

The book begins with an account of the origin and history of the Valenge by consideration of
their tribal traditions; while personal and clan names are also used as evidence. In addition to the
aspects of tribal life which only a woman can thoroughly investigate, other factors are well
described. A particularly valuable section on the ritual aspects of scarification should dispel
assumptions that body marking is primarily a matter of personal ornament. The study is well
balanced without undue emphasis being placed on any factor, and a reader is allowed to judge
for himself what is pivotal without having some particularly “functional” factor chosen for him.

A map of the sibs is valuable in showing their geographical distribution, and a brief index is
provided. A bibliography, especially one dealing with the South African Journal of Science,
Bantu Studies, and other periodicals relating to the ethnology of south Africa, would have been a
valuable addition. However complete a monograph may be, the author is mistaken in not
associating his research with that which has already been published. There exist, for example,
several articles relating to divination by bones, a subject which E. D. Earthy reports in detail.

The use of phonetic spelling throughout the text and on the map, wherever African words are
used, raises a question of cost in relation to academic advantages. It is true that there are twenty-
three photographic plates of excellent quality, but the book is of moderate size, and the high
price must in part be due to the general use of phonetic characters. Could academic requirements
be met by having a glossary of words, phonetically spelled, at the end of the book?

The book is an original and valuable example of ethnological research, and the general
production preserves the high standard set by previous volumes published under the auspices of
the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures.

WILFRID D. HAMBLY

Documents Nio-Calidoniens. MAURICEL EENHARDT(.T ravaux et Memoires de 1’Institut

d’Ethnologie IX. 514 pp. 125 francs. Paris, 1932.)

The Institute of Ethnology of the University of Paris has added a valuable collection of
documents from New Caledonia to its other publications on that island and we are indebted to M
Leenhardt for a carefully prepared set of documents which may be used in several ways. The
documents are of various types. The larger number are myths and folk tales, including the long
cycle of the lizard. Then there are a considerable number of chants or songs mostly built around
the themes of victory in war and a call to arms. For one of the chants the music is given in the
appendix. Interesting also are the speeches which are recorded. These deal with a variety of
subjects, among which are a speech against an enemy people, words of sympathy said at time of
death, greetings to a maternal uncle, speeches made at the time of birth and circumcision, and a
declaration of war. For most of these documents, the text is given with both an interlinear
translation and a smooth, free translation. There are also a large number of explanatory and
interesting footnotes. Because of the interlinear translations, the book is of decided value to the
linguist, and the anthropologist can never have too many accurately recorded texts such as these,
particularly about this relatively little known area.

HORTENSE POWDERMAKER

PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Functional A.finities of Man, Monkeys, and Apes. A study of the bearings of physiology and
behavior on the taxonomy and phylogeny of lemurs, monkeys, apes, and man. S .
ZUCKERMAN(x. viii, 203 pp., 24 plates, 11 tables. $3.00. New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1933.)

This book gives a taxonomic and phylogenetic survey of the findings of diverse experimental
investigations of lemurs, monkeys, and apes. So far as I know, this information has not been
considered collectively from this point of view before. Students of mammalian classification
seldom pay much attention to experimental biology, and experimental biologists as a rule have
little time for taxonomy and phylogeny. . . . The functional characters which merit most
consideration in the classification of the Primates are those which show some degree of
correlation not only amongst themselves, but also with characters [to be found] in other fields of
primate studies. I have freely used the term “functional character” to refer to any character that is
revealed by methods used in the investigation of the dynamic, rather than the static aspects of
organisms. In any case the distinction between function and structure in taxonomic discussion is
probably largely artificial, since all the processes of the body presumably have a