Description
Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9781780601434
Year: 2019
Publisher: Eland Books
Description:
Nigel
Barley travels to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia to live among the Torajan
people, known for their spectacular buildings and elaborate ancestor cults. At last
he is following his own advice to students, to do their anthropological fieldwork
'somewhere where the inhabitants are beautiful, friendly, where you would like the
food and there are nice flowers. With his customary wit and delight in the telling
detail, he takes the reader deep into this complex but adaptable society.
The
mutual warmth of his friendships allows Barley to reverse the habitual patterns
of anthropology. He becomes host to four Torajan carvers in London, invited to build
a traditional rice barn at the Museum of Mankind. The observer becomes the observed,
and it is Barley's turn to explain the absurd complexities of an English city to
his bemused but tolerant guests in a magnificent, self-critical
finale.
ISBN: 9781780601434
Year: 2019
Publisher: Eland Books
Description:
Nigel
Barley travels to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia to live among the Torajan
people, known for their spectacular buildings and elaborate ancestor cults. At last
he is following his own advice to students, to do their anthropological fieldwork
'somewhere where the inhabitants are beautiful, friendly, where you would like the
food and there are nice flowers. With his customary wit and delight in the telling
detail, he takes the reader deep into this complex but adaptable society.
The
mutual warmth of his friendships allows Barley to reverse the habitual patterns
of anthropology. He becomes host to four Torajan carvers in London, invited to build
a traditional rice barn at the Museum of Mankind. The observer becomes the observed,
and it is Barley's turn to explain the absurd complexities of an English city to
his bemused but tolerant guests in a magnificent, self-critical
finale.