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PAPUA NEW GUINEA
More Books
Argonauts of the Western Pacific
• Bronislaw Malinowski
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
1984 •
PAPER
• 527 PAGES
A landmark work in the field of economic anthropology, this book focuses on the exchange system of the Trobriand Islands. It also includes well considered ruminations on social organization, folklore, magic and ways of life.
(PNG07, $21.95) |
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The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer, Close Encounters with Strangers
• Eric Hansen
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •
2005 •
PAPER
• 228 PAGES
A hilarious account of Hansen's offbeat experiences and encounters around the world over the past 25 years. Hansen (Motoring with Mohammed, Stranger in the Forest) is a favorite travel writer with a welcome interest in natural history, oddball characters and tales.
(TVL38, $15.95) |
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Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
• Jared Diamond
HISTORY •
2011 •
PAPER
• 575 PAGES
Big, wildly ambitious, provocative, this is Jared Diamond at his best. He tackles nothing less than the history and fate of civilization in this compelling book in which he offers case studies, present and past, of societies that work and societies that do not. He devotes 100 carefully reasoned pages, for example, to the fate of the Norse settlements in Greenland (climatic change, Inuit) and another big section on Easter Island (deforestation, hubris). It's a fitting follow-up to his Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel.
(GEN324, $18.00) |
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Ethnographic Presents, Pioneering Anthropologists in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
• Terence Hays
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
1992 •
HARD COVER
In this richly detailed book, seven pioneering anthropologists tell of their field work in the highlands region of Papua New Guinea, a world largely unseen by westerners as late as 1950. Their adventures are put into anthropological and historical context in an introductory chapter by editor Terence Hays.
(NGA15, $60.00) |
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The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead, A Historical Analysis of Her Samoan Research
• Derek Freeman
NATURAL HISTORY •
1999 •
PAPER
• 279 PAGES
Freeman continues the de-construction of Margaret Mead in this painstaking follow-up to his controversial biography of the anthropological icon. Apart from the fun of shaking up long held myths and views, Freeman exposes in detail the flaws, misconceptions and tall tales in Mead's 1925-1926 fieldwork supervised by Franz Boas. Freeman, who met Mead in 1964, has worked in Samoa for decades. He thinks she was taken in by tricksters -- and that he training by Boas set up to be fooled by mischievous informants. Read it alongside Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa.
(PAC103, $17.00) |
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A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific
• H. Douglas Pratt
FIELD GUIDE •
1987 •
PAPER
• 409 PAGES
An outstanding field guide to the region with long introductory chapters on the islands and habitats, superb color plates and a checklist of birds by island group.
(HWI32, $45.00) |
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Footprint Diving the World
• Beth Tierney
• Shaun Tierney
GUIDEBOOK •
2010 •
PAPER
• 352 PAGES
This beautifully illustrated guide covers 220 dive sites in 19 countries with chapters on Australia and the Pacific, Mexico and Honduras, Egypt, East Africa and the Maldives, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Micronesia. Featuring the diving couple's favorite destinations, the book includes a planning guide, practical tips and listing of dive centers, hotels, restaurants and live-aboards.
(OCE102, $29.95) |
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The Future Eaters, An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People
• Tim F. Flannery
NATURAL HISTORY •
2002 •
PAPER
• 432 PAGES
An ecological history of the region, focusing on human impact on local environments and animal populations in the recent geologic past. Flannery, the prolific author of "Throwim' Way Leg," as well as many more books (often about nature and/or Australia), sets out a powerful tale, none too flattering about the intelligence or foresight of our own species.
(AUS48, $16.00) |
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The Happy Isles of Oceania
• Paul Theroux
EXPLORATION •
2006 •
PAPER
• 480 PAGES
• FAVORITE
Here's Theroux at his wickedly funny and open-minded best. The peripatetic author flies off to Australia and New Zealand with a kayak and ends up exploring much of Melanesia and Polynesia, including Tonga, Fiji and the Marquesas.
(PAC03, $15.95) |
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In the Ring of Fire, A Pacific Basin Journey
• James Houston
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
1997 •
PAPER
• 224 PAGES
A lyrical narrative of the author's journeys through Japan, Indonesia, Micronesia, Hawaii and California. From contemplating the Kilauea crater to watching a Ryukyuan dance at an Okinawa community center, Houston reveals the pan-Pacific identity that has emerged from the mixing of Eastern and Western cultures. From the author of "Farewell to Manzanar."
(PAC45, $14.95) |
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Like People You See in A Dream, First Contact in Six Papuan Societies
• Edward Schieffelin
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
1991 •
PAPER
• 325 PAGES
This book collects stories told by the people of the highlands of New Guinea about early European visitors, and especially the Strickland-Purari patrol of 1935 which encountered six "undiscovered" tribes. It captures the excitement, romance -- and dread of the ill-fated patrol, which left 50 Papuans dead. WIth contributions by pionering ethnographers and anthropologists, including Edward Schiefelin and Robert Critenden (co-editors of the book), Bryant Allan, Stephen Frankel, Lisette Josephides, Marc Schiltz and Paul Sillitoe. Most have carried out fieldwork in Papua New Guinea since the 1970s.
(PNG09, $27.95) |
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Michael Rockefeller: New Guinea Photographs, 1961
• Kevin Bubriski
ART & ARCHITECTURE •
2007 •
PAPER
• 96 PAGES
This striking volume, the companion to an exhibition at the Peabody, features 75 striking duotone images of the culture and community of the highland Dani by the young Michael Rockefeller. With commentary on Rockefeller's remarkable five months in the Highlands of New Guinea. The young ethnographer disappeared in the Asmat in 1961.
(PNG23, $29.95) |
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Modern Papua New Guinea
• Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
1998 •
PAPER
• 424 PAGES
Aimed at upper level students, this reader brings together long review articles on the state and national identity, economic development, society and welfare. With 20 contributors.
(PNG19, $25.00) |
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On the Road of the Winds
• Patrick Vinton Kirch
ARCHAEOLOGY •
2001 •
PAPER
• 424 PAGES
An excellent scholarly review of the prehistory of Oceania with much to offer interested travelers. A professor of anthropology at the University of California, Kirch draws on his own research in the region to document the development of human society in the Pacific. With a good selection of maps, halftones and figures.
(PAC101, $39.95) |
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Pass the Butterworms, Remote Journeys Oddly Rendered
• Tim Cahill
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •
1998 •
PAPER
A collection of entertaining travel essays, many originally appearing in Outside Magazine. It includes Cahill's acerbic commentary on his adventures from the North Pole to Irian Jaya, Mongolia and Peru.
(WLD01, $16.00) |
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Patterns of Culture
• Ruth Benedict
• Margaret Mead
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2006 •
PAPER
• 290 PAGES
Essential reading for any anthropologist, this pioneering book compares and contrasts three cultures: the Kwakiutl (Pacific Northwest), Zuni (American Southwest) and the Dobu Island culture (Papua New Guinea). With a preface by Margaret Mead.
(PNG10, $15.00) |
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PNG, A Fact Book on Modern Papua New Guinea
• Jackson Rannells
REFERENCE •
1995 •
PAPER
• 212 PAGES
A brief (and pricey!) source book on the history, geography, people, economy and government of Papua New Guinea, organized from A to Z, and aimed at high school students.
(NGA08, $65.00) |
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Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies
• Margaret Mead
CULTURAL PORTRAIT •
2001 •
PAPER
• 335 PAGES
A classic, still controversial book originally published in 1935. Mead looks at development -- and especially the roles of men and women -- in three societies in New Guinea. She conducted field work along the Sepik River from 1931-1933 among people who she describes as the "gentle mountain-dwelling Arapesh, the fierce cannibalistic Mungumor, and the graceful head-hunters of Tchambuli." Whatever you think of her conclusions and fieldwork, the book is a classic.
(NGA12, $15.99) |
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Stinging Trees and Wait-A-Whiles: Confessions of a Rainforest Biologist
• William Laurance
TRAVEL NARRATIVE •
2000 •
HARD COVER
• 184 PAGES
A scientist's memoir from the 1980s at Millaa Millaa in the tropics of Queensland, detailing the rigors of field research and the joys of discovery. But this is more than a discussion of scientific procedure and natural history, it is also a portrait of his colleagues, the story of conflicts with locals over conservation efforts, and most of all, an outsider's account of life in northeastern Australia, in the small towns and forests just outside of Cairns. The end of the book contains chapters on his travels in Papua New Guinea. With black-and-white photos and series of color plates.
(AUS90, $25.00) |
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