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Scientist and Wife Go to Dutch Guiana

June 24, 1934
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An American Jewish anthropologist and his wife travelled up the Suriname River in Dutch Guiana in 1929. They have brought back with them an absorbing story of their experiences there. They had gone to get data on Negro tribes which, imported from Africa for the slave trade in the New World, had managed to free themselves and return to their traditional manner of life.

Dr. and Mrs. Herskovits’ book tells the story of their trip, dramatizing the facts about the simple, superstition-ridden tribesmen. Many of the passages, revealing in narrative form the mentality and point of view of the Bush Negroes, are extremely interesting. A clear picture of the life these transplanted Africans lead is presented, but one misses the background that would have been supplied by a full description of the country they live in.

Dr. Herskovits is associate professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University, and has written several very scholarly books on the America Negro. Although Mrs. Herskovits accompanied him on his excursions to Africa and South America, this is the first time they have collaborated in the writing of a travel book. On the whole, the combination seems to be a happy one.

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