1923 The Morioris of Chatham Islands

Description

First Edition, Illustrated, Original Binding, Publishers' Original Binding, Scarce

The first edition of the work. Scarce.

Illustrated throughout with informative vignettes and thirty five plates. Collated complete.

Written by Harry Skinner, a notable museum curator and ethnologist.

A fascinating sociological work regarding the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, an archipelago off the east coast of New Zealand. The work covers a range of topics including religious rites, social organisation and weaponry, and is notable for challenging the traditional belief that Moriori people were descended from Melanesian people, and showed instead they were in fact Polynesian. 

A scarce first edition of this important ethnological work.