Among the Head-Hunters of FormosaMcGovern, Janet B. Montgomery
History
Among the Head-Hunters of Formosa
McGovern, Janet B. Montgomery
Ethnology -- Taiwan; Headhunters
Yet lest one good method should corrupt the science, we should not
forget that there is another side to the study of culture; though from
this side likewise there is equal need to examine customs, not apart,
but in their organic connexion with each other. Whencesoever derived,
the customs of a people have an ascertainable worth here and now for
those who live by them. The first business, I should even venture to
say, of any anthropologist, be his sphere the study or the field, is
to seek to appreciate a given culture as the expression of a scheme
of values. Every culture represents a set of means whereby it is
sought to realize a mode of life. Unconsciously for the most part,
yet none the less actually, every human society pursues an ideal. To
grasp this ideal is to possess the clue to the whole cultural process
as a spiritual and vital movement. The social inheritance is subject
to a constant revaluation, bringing readaptation in its train. There
is a selective activity at work, and to apprehend its secret springs
one must keep asking all the time, what does this people want, and
want most? unconscious though it may largely be, the want is there.
Correspondingly, since it is a question of getting into touch with a
latent process, the anthropologist must employ a method which I can
only describe as one of divination. He must somehow enter into the
soul of a people. Introjection, or in plainer language sympathy, is
the master-key. Objective methods so-called are all very well; but
if, as sometimes happens, they lead one to forget that anthropology
is ultimately the science of the inner man, then they but batter at a
closed door.
A sure criterion, then, by which to appraise any account of a savage
people consists in the measure of the sympathy shown. A summary sketch
that has this saving quality will be found more illuminating than
many volumes of statistics. Literally or otherwise, the student of
wild-folk must have undergone initiation at their hands. Having become
as one of themselves, he is qualified to act as their spokesman,
putting into such words as we can understand the felt needs and
aspirations of a less self-conscious type of humanity. Here, for
instance, Mrs. McGovern, though writing for the general public, and
reserving a full digest of her material for another work, has sought
to present an insider’s version of the aboriginal life of Formosa. She
was willing to become an initiate, and did in fact become so, almost
overshooting the mark, as it were, through translation to a super-human
plane. So throughout she tries to do justice to the native point of
view. She says enough to make us feel that, despite certain notions
more or less offensive to our conscience, the ideal of the Formosan
tribesman is in important respects quite admirable. He is on the whole
a good man according to his lights. Allowance being made for his
handicap, he is playing the game of life as well as he can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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