Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/26

14 interred with the head above the ground seems to be a combination of interment with preservation of the skull, for this custom occurs in the island of Ysabel in the Solomons, lying between a region where interment is practised and one where the orthodox custom is to neglect the body and keep the skull in a shrine as a relic of the dead.

At the present time the anthropological world is divided in opinion concerning the reasons for this great diversity in funeral custom. According to some it is held to be the result of processes taking place in Melanesia independently of those which have produced the similar practices of other parts of the world. According to the opposed view, the diversity is due to the adoption at various times of modes of disposal of the dead which have come into being elsewhere and have then been brought to Melanesia by migrant or travelling peoples. If we take the former view we have to assume a very high degree of originality and power of invention of the Melanesian mind. If, on the other hand, we refer the variety to transmission, we have to acknowledge a receptiveness for new ideas and readiness to adopt new modes of behaviour in a department of social activity where we might expect conservatism and rigidity of custom. It is the purpose of this address to inquire whether modern psychology will help us in deciding between these two alternatives, and in either case to look for an explanation of the apparent contradiction furnished by this combination of conservatism and plasticity.

When in a difficulty of this kind we can look to the science of psychology with far brighter prospects of success than would have been the case a few years ago. The last twenty years have been a time of great progress in our knowledge of those affective aspects of mental process which take so prominent a place in determining social conduct. In dealing with the disposal of the dead we have a case of social behaviour in which no one can well dispute