Book Description

Excerpt from The Sea Gypsies of Malaya: An Account of the Nomadic Mawken People of the Mergui Archipelago With a Description of Their Ways of Living, Customs, Habits, Boats, Occupations Etc;, Etc;, Etc When Mr White came to Oxford to read a paper on the Mawken before our Anthropological Society, most of us had hitherto never heard of those people, at any rate under that name. Thereupon, having gauged his attitude towards wild folk in general, I gladly promised to furnish any book that Mr White should write about them with an introductory note, not because I was in any way competent to supplement the information collected by him, but simply in order to associate myself with an enterprise that I felt to be useful. For surely it is useful in the highest degree to everyone who takes an interest in his fellow-men that he should be taught to respect them even when their circumstances are lowly. These Mawken are, to judge by externals, scarcely better off than the mud-fish on which they live. To accompany our author on a trip in one of their reeking dug-outs is a trying experience, even when but imagined from the depth of an arm-chair. Nevertheless, as we follow Mr White in his efforts to make friends with the Mawken, we find ourselves becoming friendly towards them too. This book, then, in my view at least, is thoroughly anthropological in spirit, because all anthropology, whether pure or applied, has its root in human sympathy. Hoc fundamentum rei est. Human nature is only to be understood from within. The supreme object of the study of our fellow-man is to join souls with him. Nor is such contact so difficult to achieve as it might at a first glance seem. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.