DR. HOGBIN’S study of social regulation in Polynesia adds another to the series of monographs on the ethnography of ‘primitive’ peoples, which has been inspired by the methods and theories of Prof. B. Malinowski as the founder of the school of ‘functional anthropology’. The investigations in Ontong Java, perhaps better known as Lord Howe’s Island, in the western Pacific, which are the major source of his book, were carried out by Dr. Hogbin under the auspices of the Australian National Research Council and the University of Sydney; but the book itself was written in London as a thesis for the Ph.D. These details are by no means unimportant. They point to the formative influences which have determined the character of Dr. Hogbin’s work; he has been a pupil of Prof. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Prof. Malinowski; and his approach to his problem, therefore, has been entirely that of the ‘functional’ school. Given this point of view, his work is of a high standard in its careful observation, valid argument and lucid exposition.

First Edition.

• lxxii, 296 p., [8] leaves of plates : ill., maps ; 22 cm.
• Maps on lining papers.
• Bibliography: p. 291-293.
• Primitive societies
• Law, Primitive
• Polynesia — Ethnology
• #270724 (Bookplate on fep, no dustjacket)