The Islands

     As a boy I read a lot of anthropology. Later I served as a reader to the famous James George Fraser, author of The Golden Bough. He was a great classical scholar, much better read than modern anthropologists. At the same time, he was a nasty man (a quality he shared with his French wife), and he carried on the cult of primitive life because he so resented the world he lived in.
     My distrust of anthropologists increased when at Stanford the anthropology department boycotted a lecture by the famous anthropologist Earnest Hooton, accusing him of racism. Shortly afterward, Margaret Mead visited Stanford. Her Coming of Age in Samoa, which idealized life there, had made her famous, and these same anthropologists treated her like a divinity. Then her book was debunked by a colleague not blinded by such fantasy.
     Now the fall issue of The Intercollegiate Review devotes its lead article to the "Fifty Worse Books of the Century," followed by "The Fifty Best Books of the Century." The first list is headed by Coming of Age in Samoa! This is a rare distinction! Seldom has an academic reputation risen so high and fallen so low.
     The article on Tonga pleased our Tonga couple, touched by its praise of the Tonga way of life. When I asked them about the Samoan way of life, they agreed with the critics of Margaret Mead. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that life is so much more noble in Tonga than Samoa. Perhaps it is.
     In any case, the moral of this is that the images people have of their own country and of others is a complex matter. While the Samoa-Tonga problem is literally Micronesian, the similar problem between major or even medium powers can decide war or peace.

Ronald Hilton - 11/25/99