‘Sociology of Tristan da Cunha’ from Results of the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha, 1937-1938. No. 13

1945

Expedition Reports Q115 N89765

Oslo: Jacob Dybwad

Tristan da Cunha is situated in the South Atlantic, halfway between South Africa and South America. It is the most remote but inhabited island in the world. Led by botanist Erling Christophersen, the 1937-1938 Norwegian Scientific Expedition to the island also had a zoologist, algologist, surveyor, dentist, doctor and sociologist, Peter Munch. Through a series of interviews and observations, Munch gathered information about the island’s human inhabitants. He found a hospitable population descended from only eight men and seven women of ‘widely different nationalities’. The islanders were farmers and all their land was held in common. Munch describes this socially and culturally isolated people as an ‘absolutely co-operative unit based on the principle of equality of individuals’.