In the South Seas

Description: This film is the record of an Australian scientific expedition to five remote villages in Papua, New Guinea and the Trobriand Islands, 150 miles off the East Coast of New Guinea. The expedition consisted of an agriculturalist, two nutritionists, a bio-chemist, a bacteriologist, an anthropologist, a dentist, a cinematographer, and a doctor. The aim of the expedition was to study the diet of the local people, how their food-stuffs are grown, what nutritional deficiencies they suffer from, what diseases - attributable to their diet or otherwise - they suffer from, and how their customs arising from the social structure of the tribe or village, controls or affects agriculture and hunting, and thus their diet and their health. Commentary by Wilfred Thomas.