Dogomomo Xmas,Kwangwe's Races,and a Murder: W.E. Armstrong and the Rossel Island Money

W.E. Armstrong, British anthropologist, visited Rossel Island in 1921 and derived a theory regarding the islanders' monetary system, which attracted much debate at the time. However, his analysis was ultimately shown to be a misunderstanding of the situation. In this examination of Armstrong's field notes, I show how the linguistic difficulties he worked under, together with the complexity of the monetary exchange and the short term of his fieldwork, combined to lead him astray.