The Melanesian in town

Abstract

In the social sciences the search for universals has been long-standing. However often there is a tendency to build theoretical models lacking an empirical basis. As Nash stresses "we have much more to learn before we can lay down the range of alternatives open to a society in the process of technological and economic change." Nash (1958): 112. Similar comments have been made by Hunter (1962): 332; Polanyi; Arensburg et a1 (1957): 327; Hauser (1961 : 55. This applies, of course, to the field of urbanization Throughout "urbanization" has been used in the broad sense of "the movement of people to towns and cities and the concomitants of this". That is the adaption to "town life" (usually synonomous with "urbanism") is included in the definition studies. For long it was mistakenly assumed that Wirth's For his classic quotation see Wirth (1938): 1. The distinctive features of the urban mode of life according to Wirth were the substitution of secondary for primary contacts, the weakening of kinship bonds, the declining social significance of the family, the disappearance of the neighbourhood and the undermining of the traditional basis of social solidarity. Wirth (1938) 21. The Pecuniary nexus tends to displace personal relations and mobility, instability and insecurity are widespread. Finally Wirth considered that the city was the initiating and controlling centre of change. characteristics of the "urban way of life" were universal and that the urbanization process in newly emerging countries would follow that of the west (i.e. entail a largely permanent displacement of populations as a result of the economic pull of towns). In this chapter it is intended to examine our present knowledge of urbanization in newly emerging countries end then to formulate a hypothesis for this in Honiara, British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Lastly the methodology used in the study will be described assessed.