5 comments about The Lost Tribe: A Harrowing Passage into New Guinea's Heart of Darkness.

1. This was an author I had hoped would deliver something that many travel-writers don't - a sense of the freedom and anguish of the way we once lived, portrayed through the experiences of the living. In review, he largely managed this. But I still felt strangely unsatisfied when finishing the book. A feeling that emerges from the fact that you leave the story without actually knowing all that much about the tribe. You see, in truth this book is more about a series of events along a storyline than an expose of a 'lost' tribe. Of course this has much to do with his difficulties in communicating with the tribe, but nevertheless it is a shame.

   I did though feel that this story highlights the gulf still existing in the world across the spectrum of human cultures. It is for the reader to decide (or not) the value in maintaining or trying to close such a gulf, and for whose benefit - ours or theirs. For example, the impact of western religion on such tribes is shown in the book to be thoughtless and combattant in the way it is taught. Perhaps to be expected in the 18th or 19th century, but quite disturbing when it is in the present day.

   In conclusion, I think Marriot has done the Liawep justice with this story, but the damage he did during the course of his stay will probably haunt him and the Liawep for many years to come.




2. This was a great book, it read like a novel. It was fascinating and honest, Edward Marriott weaves a mystical story of the indigenous tribespeople of New Guinea, the Liawep. It at times seems too fantastic to be true, but the amazing thing about it is, that it is true. I hope he will write a follow up if he ever goes back! He's a great writer, never lingering too long on any episode, just enough to keep the reader interested. I read a lot of non-fiction and I must say that I recommend this one highly! An amazing book!



3. From the very start of the book, this author has gone out of his way to slam the missionaries working in Papua New Guinea. In doing so, he has thrown out some "facts", startling mostly in their complete inaccuracy. For the record, the Summer Institute of Linguistics does NOT forbid all books but the Bible; there are no books. The whole point is that they are working to create a written language where one did not previously exist. There ARE no written texts in the languages with which SIL work.
   
   Given that I spent 8 years in Papua New Guinea growing up, reading this book is painful. The author's interpretations of cultural mores are naive at best, intolerably patronising at worst. When one of his contacts balks at the prospect of getting into a PMV (not a "minivan", Mr Marriott) on payday Friday, the tone of the narrative is ever-so-slightly scathing, as if he can't believe this person is afraid of a few noble savages. As a former resident, I can assure you that payday Friday was the day each fortnight when violence and drunkenness were endemic, and no Westerner or female of any persuasion would voluntarily put themselves in any sort of vulnerable position on that night.
   
   There is a clear overtone of life being viewed and interpreted through a certain ?cultural? ?moral? ?anti-religious? filter; while the events the author describes may well have actually happened, his interpretation of their meaning leaves much to be desired.
   
   I am slightly horrified to see that the author has written several other "my true tales of adventure" type of books set in Nicaragua and other places, and I can only imagine what sorts of nonsense those contain.



4. I am no native English speaker, but I spent some time in New Guinea. And I know that there are no emus in New Guinea, but cassowaries. Apart from that, a rather good account of contemporary New Guinea, although too superficial for my taste.



5. As travel adventure this is a walk in the park. Really light stuff. So, why the four stars? What the reader runs in to, is the plight of the indigenous people, caught up in a free market of evangelicals and their "products." There must be some law against committing cultural genocide. The native people appear to be lost in their own land, drowning in an alien culture.

No comments about Alexander Skutch: An Appreciation.

No comments about White cayuca;: The log of an adventurous voyage to Devil's island, the valley of creeping death, the isle of buried treasure, the Bedbug islands, and the land of savage majesty,.

1 comments about Saudades Do Brasil: A Photographic Memoir.

1. Clause-Levi-Strauss is a reference for generations since the publication of his studies about kinship, in which he developed his theories about structure and after that, some of our intellectual fields have never been the same again. An intellectual like him can be very important for a science in a country, and he has influenced most of Brazilian anthropologists since then. But this marvellous photographic and literary essay reaveals that a country can also be very important for a young sociologist that would became one of the guidelines of the contemporary thpught. The young intellectual born in Belgium arrived in Sao Paulo about 1935 with his young wife, Dina. The Universty of Sao Paulo was in process of creation and he came here to teach antropology. Here, in contact with his students that were French speakers, with Mario de Andrade - the author of Macunaima - and going through the fields of a changing city like Sao Paulo and the forests of Brazil, he became an Antropologist. Now, he feels "saudade", this word that only exists in Portuguese. To fell saudades is to miss something or somebody, to be homesick, to feel nostalgic, but is a feeling beyond description. Reading this book, as Brazilian and Anthopologist, and looking at the photos LeviStrauss took here, I felt saudades as well. I could not write of saudades of a time when I was not even born. But of a lost city, the Indians we lost, the antrhopological hope of an understanding between men. During the thirties, Brazil and France were geographically far, but could dialogue in equal terms. Now all frontiers are fading and we can feel saudades of the promises that the modern thought has left without answer

No comments about St Kitts: Cradle of the Caribbean (Macmillan Caribbean Guides).

No comments about Saints And Their Cults in the Atlantic World (Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World).

4 comments about The Pilgrimage to Santiago (Lost and Found Series).

1. Mullins was a BBC Broadcaster and he did a superb job on the writing about the pilgrimage. Unfortunately the book itself is out of print. The publishers might bring out a reprint and then I will order two copies from Amazon. Extracts from the book can be found under the travel section of the Telegraph Online Newspaper look under Yahoo for this newspaper. There is also quite a bit of useful information on the pilgrimage to santiago under the Travel section of the Telegraph Online.



2. I enjoyed this book very much. The author has a wonderful eye for detail and communicates a deep appreciation of architectural detail of the numerous churches that played such an important part in the experience of the pilgrimage. I did have initial reservations about the role of the car in his journey, but his descriptions of the road won me all the same. I particularly liked his quotes from and responses to earlier writers. He has a keen sense of the historical setting and impact of the polgrimage, which I found fascinating.



3. Even though it was written over 20 years ago, this is probably the best book on the pilgrimage to Santiago. Mullins is an architect with words. He turns 12c history into a series of vivid and interesting vignettes and tales, provides a wealth of fascinating detail --such as the digression about the origins of the word Compostella (Campo Stella)-- about churches (trends in Romanesque architectire), places and people. etc. etc. Better than anyone else, Mullins thoroughly covers the principal sights and stops along all four pilgrimage routes dissecting France -- right up to Puente la Reina southwest of Pamplona where they meet; he then leads you on the concluding stage of the journey to Burgos, Leon and finally Galicia.

   In the late 80s I covered some of the routes between Paris and Santiago de Compostella. Only after reading his book had I realized how much I had missed. Even though Mullins does not paint himself as a believer, he conveys a certain spirituality with which a believer can relate. One of the best aspects of his book is that quite often he actually gets out of his car and walks through some places along the pigrimage route. I am reminded of a discussion I once had in Paris with a Serb friend on the relative merits of touring holy places, say on a donkey . . . vesus the now ubiqitous automobile. Even though I argued for the efficiency, flexibility and speed of the auto, today I have to admit he was right: covering the same sights on a donkey is by far a much richer experience than rushing through a country in the most comfortable of cars -- a point that Mullins unintentionally brings in his book. A ride on a donkey, or just walking, is more uplisting because it allows you to experience feelings and see details you can never hope to appreciate from a speeding car. So much for progress, fast tranposration and modern technology . . .




4. Sometimes by car, sometimes on foot, Mullins makes his way from Paris to Santiago de Compostella in the early 1970s. From church to church, carving to carving, he traces Christian architecture as it flows south, during the time of the early pilgrimages. In the course of this, he imparts a fair amount of European history.
   
   This is not a quick and easy read, but I found myself compelled to read each night, till I reached the end. Then, in later weeks as it sat by my chair, again I found myself picking it up and randomly reading passages. I expect that pattern to continue for months to come. As I read it, images from our walk are refreshed. I realize that those monsters eating people carved on the cathedral at León are not just one designer's diabolical vision of evil, but a continuation of a theme starting in France - the depiction of heaven on one side, and the tortures of the dammed on the other side.
   
   Mullins has managed to put enough of his travels into this book so that this is not just a dry rendition of facts - more like a journey of discovery. If you are contemplating walking the Camino de Santiago, particularly if you are thinking of walking some of the routes in France, don't neglect reading this book.

No comments about Jaguars and Electric Eels (Penguin Great Journeys).

No comments about Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests (CryptoQuest Reprint Series).

No comments about From Alaska to Tierra del Fuego: Across the Americas in Two Years.