title: First Contact
authors: Bob Connolly + Robin Anderson
publisher: Viking Penguin 1987
subjects: anthropology, Papua New Guinea
other: 317 pages, bibliography
summary: culture clash in the New Guinea highlands
In the early thirties the last remaining large populations in the world
came into contact with Western civilization. _First Contact_ tells the
story of the "discovery" of the New Guinea highlands by Australian gold
prospectors; in particular it follows the careers of Michael Leahy and
his brothers.
The early chapters of _First Contact_ provide the background to the
story. They include a brief description of the highlands and the
highlanders and a very brief history of the European presence in Papua
and New Guinea along with an account of Leahy's early life. The bulk of
the book is about the events of 1933, when Leahy led a series of
prospecting expeditions into the highlands and initiated the first
contacts between highlanders and Europeans. This is based on his diaries
and later writings and on interviews with people still alive who
witnessed the events: highlanders, white Australians, and their carriers
from coastal groups. This is supplemented with numerous black and white
photos taken at the time. (There is a film based on Leahy's video
footage, also called _First Contact_, which is apparently an
ethnographic classic.) The thing that is brought out most starkly is the
sheer gulf between the two cultures and the massive failures of
understanding on both sides.
The later chapters move away from narrative and give a broad overview of
the processes of change unleashed by the contact. In particular they
describe the forces that would irrevocably alter highland culture: the
missionaries attacking their spiritual beliefs; the district officers
enforcing their own conception of law and order and in the process
destroying the existing system (which they largely failed to understand
at all); and the gold prospectors destroying the economy with plane
loads of kina shells and the concept of a cash economy where one
accumulates wealth in order to accumulate more rather than in order to
give it away. _First Contact_ concludes with a brief history of the
highlands (and the Leahys) down to independence in 1975.
While _First Contact_ does contain a lot of ethnographic information, it
is not primarily an ethnographic study; anthropologists will want more
scholarly sources. However for the layman it is an easy approach to a
very different culture. The authors, though presumably white westerners
themselves, do a good job of getting the reader to see things from the
point of view of the highlanders (although they are understanding of the
racism of the Australians and their consequent abuses of power).
Apparently the puritan Lutheran missionaries tried to stop the
highlanders spending so much time singing and dancing while the Seventh
Day Adventists wanted them to eat goat instead of pig...
_First Contact_ is an enthralling account of the collision of two very
different cultures. It is easy reading and almost as gripping as a novel
(perhaps the almost biographical focus on Michael Leahy helps here); and
as one of the best popular works of anthropology I have read I feel that
it deserves a wide audience. It will be particularly interesting
Australians who aren't aware that Australia had its own share in the
worldwide colonial enterprise externally as well as internally (and the
parallels with our treatment of the Australian Aborigines are themselves
extremely interesting).
--%T First Contact %A Bob Connolly %A Robin Anderson %I Viking Penguin %C New York City %D 1987 %O hardcover, 317 pages, bibliography %G ISBN 0-670-80167-4 %K anthropology, Papua New Guinea
Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
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