Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the Jungle of New Guinea

by Tobias Schneebaum

Overview

Tobias Schneebaum here tells the remarkable story of his four years among the Asmat of New Guinea, a jungle-dwelling people rumored to have killed Michael Rockefeller. Instead of ferocious cannibals, Schneebaum found a regal, gentle people who freely accepted him and initiated him into a way of life no outsider had ever seen before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802131669
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/08/1994
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	670,663
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

In 1973 artist-adventurer Schneebaum (Keep the River on Your Right) went to Indonesian New Guinea (Iriah Jaya) to collect artifacts for a museum. There he met the Asmat, a people barely two generations removed from headhunting, whose culture, he writes, gave insight and equanimity to his own sexual preferences. There, each man had a male ``exchange friend'' (lover) in addition to his wife. Schneebaum was adopted into an Asmat family and became part of a culture hardly touched by civilization. Home base for his travels was a Roman Catholic mission; the priests were a relaxed, easygoing community, dedicated to the welfare of their charges. In addition to artifacts, Schneebaum collected tribal lore. He gives a vivid picture of Aswat men and their activities, but makes no mention of the women. For him, this journey was a milestone, a confrontation with himself. It is an exotic odyssey. Photos. (January 22)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly