Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Lucas

To prove the interview-centered method when it is used to study island cultures, especially in child-rearing traditions, is more accurate than Dr. Field’s observation-centered method, Dr. Karp compared the result of studying the rearing situation of children living on the island of Tertia done by him recently with that done by Dr.Field twenty years ago. In Dr. Field’s study, he concluded that children in Tertia were mainly raised up by the whole members living in a village, while Dr. Karp argued that these children actually spent more time talking to their biological parents.

First of all, Dr. Darp unfairly claimed that his interview-centered method is not only suitable for Teria but also in other island cultures with the bumptious thinking that every island cultures has the same environment and similar culture style. Perhaps, in some island, the aborigines with an aggressive propensity that refuses to have a contact with foreigners. In this case, interview might be hard to operate but it is easier to observe the tribe from outside. Even if the aborigines embrace the scholars, the scholar will face another difficulty that they might be hard to understand what residents talk about due to cognitive difference caused by the gap between island culture and common culture.

Secondly, Dr. Field only visited the island of Teria, while Dr. Karp studied the group of islands including Tertia. Dr. Karp had not substantiated that all the islands in his study have the same child-rearing traditions. In other words, because of the different scale of islands where they chose to study, the value of their conclusion about Tertian village culture might be incommensurable.

Finally, Dr. Karp made his conclusion based on the interviews’ result that children spend more time talking about their biological parents. However, this fact could hardly symbolize that it is the biological parents chiefly take the responsibility to rear the children. Perhaps in the village the young adults should go out for hunting or farming to support the whole village and the children might be left in the village watched by the old and those adults who take a rest in the village, but children hardly have a talk with them, so when Dr. Karp made an interview with the children he would get the answer presented in the above article.

In sum, no matter what the study method is, the conclusion from single study most of time is unconvincing. To prove the conclusion is more accurate, Dr. Karp needs to give me the evidence that (1) the group of islands where he had studied have the same characteristics in their culture, (2) even after 20 years, people live in Tertian village still keep the same child-rearing traditions and (3) whether children speak to their biological parents means that their biological parents actually take the main responsibility to rear their offsprings.