Analysis Of William E. Wormsley's New Guinea

The history wars of Australia is an area of great controversial debate. Throughout the course of Australian history, the public has been mainly subjected to one perspective that focused on the glorifying moments of European settlement and its progress such as its involvement in world wars and the transition of the nation into a globalised continent. As a result, there is a rigid dichotomy between the perceptions of white Australians and the indigenous population on subjects such as the colonisation or invasion of Australia. History told from the perspective of Aboriginal people greatly contrasts what is written in the history books and also what is exposed or encouraged towards the public. It focuses on the dispossession of indigenous people, the massacres and the attempted eradication of culture. This view of Australian history has been labeled as 'black armband history', which was first used during an interview by a historian, Geoffrey Blainey.

"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.

Even though the Ibo are described as ‘primitive and savage’ by Mr. Smith, one of the missionary church leaders, the tribesmen evidently show their etiquette through their mannerisms. Proverbs, a form of Ibo mannerisms, are used quite frequently throughout this novel as ‘the art of conversation is regarded very highly [by the Ibo], and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.’ (Achebe. P.5:1986) The Ibo people are also not as violent and savage as many of the missionaries believed. This is shown when a villager from the Mbaino village kills a woman from the Ibo village, the Ibo village elders and those with titles, instead of initiating war against the neighbouring Mbaino, reach a peaceful agreement on the reparations from the Mbaino tribe.‘… [A]t the end it was decided to follow the normal course of action. An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between wars on the one hand, and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation.” (P.8)

2. The Ibo people are in no way savages because they have an organized structure to their society with rules and laws. A society that employs morals, ethics, and accountability for peoples’ actions cannot be considered savage. The Ibo are highly religious; the base of most of their daily life revolves around religion, whether it is how they raise their families or how they grow their crops. “The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess” (36). Yams control the Ibo economy, and if a person farmed well, success tended to follow. The Ibo village created a very stable economy due to this. The society itself is organized mostly by a person’s title, which states their place in a sort of government. The Egwugwu act much like “judges” and the people themselves try to settle things peacefully between each other.

On a “Trip to Congo” Sir Richard F. Burton writes a story during his exploration to the Yellalla or Cataracts of the Congo leaving some detail insights of the customs and behavior of the African communities. He only gives his point of view from an imperialist position and sometimes denigrates and diminishes the people and their culture. Even though Burton had a translator throughout his trip the language barrier prohibits interaction with the communities and the ability to empathize with the natives. Interaction and understanding is the key to appreciate their behaviors, instead Burton

The, “Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers”, is a ethnography written by anthropologist Edward Schieffelin, derived from his fieldwork with the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea. The main focus of the book of the book is how many of the fundamental notions that are implicit in Kaluli culture are found in the Gisaro ceremony, which Schieffelin uses as, “a lens through which to view some of the fundamental issues of Kaluli life and society” (p1).

Chapter one, “Fieldwork among the Maisin”, describes how anthropologist John Barker, author of Ancestral Lines, goes to Uiaku New Guinea to study the Maisin people. His specific goals were to study how a people can maintain a cultural identify in a modernizing world and how they can live without destroying their environment. Barker first arrived in New Guinea in 1982 where he examined “how the Maisin make a living, organize social interactions, conceptualize the spiritual world, and meet the opportunities and tragedies of life” (Barker 2016:2). He studied the tapa cloth, a fabric made from bark, that the Maisin use as a connection to their ancestral past and to help define their culture. Barker discovered that the Maisin have faith in traditional methods and do what they can to preserve that lifestyle. Barker‘s work went

When you surf the internet to look for the new about Central African Republic you hear stories about terror, civil war, rebels, murder, bloodshed etc. But what are the other aspects of life in the region that no news reporter wants to cover? A trip to the Center of the African rain forests reveals what happens and has been happening for very many years to the region’s residents. In Listen Here is a Story, Bonnie L Hewlett deals with different aspects of women’s lives of the Aka (Foragers) and Ngandu (Farmers) in this part of Central African Republic mainly, and reveals the political, social, cultural, Ideology in life of these people. There are some studies where people are travelling to explore the subjective experience of women’s in small societies, and this book is one of them.

The Dobe Ju/’hoansi is an ethnography written by Richard B. Lee. In this ethnography, Richard B. Lee reports on a group of peoples living in South Africa. The ethnography covers everything from their foraging plans, how and what they hunt, how the animals they hunted are divided among the people, kinship and organization in the group, marriage and sexuality, conflict and politics, the exchange of goods, and religion. This paper is just going to touch on a few of these different topics.

“Ancestral lines” by John Barker is a book about the anthropologist’s experience in the Uiaku village located in Papua New Guinea. In the first chapter, Barker tells his readers briefly about him and his education, his and his wife’s experience with the Maisin community, and talks in great detail about the Maisin and their culture in the Uiaku village.

“The Ones That Are Wanted”, comes from an expression used by an Okiek elder examining Corinne Kratz’s photographs, to describe his people living in Kenya’s western highlands. This book follows Kratz’s travelling exhibition of anthropological photographs produced with the purpose to dissect the complexities that surround cultural representation. She does so by telling a vivid story, which is emphasised through her use of photographs, description the Okiek life history, the reasons for her photographic exhibition from its start in the 1980’s, to its public release in 1989 at Nairobi’s National Museum in Kenya, which went on to be displayed in seven venues across the United States. The book is divided into two main sections, the first which examines the replication of her photographic exhibitions and the second which examines the museum exhibitions as “events, objects, and interactive processes” (Kratz, C. 2002: pg. 91), with the penultimate aim to challenge stereotypes which had developed in postcolonial societies of the Okiek people being “primitive”. To do this she uses a variety of interesting methods, which include interviews with visitors, the Okiek’s personal perspectives on her photographs, and numerous articles, papers and books which explore the scope of her exhibitions at each venue to help achieve her aim.

Bronislaw Malinowski is arguably the most influential anthropologist of the 20th century, certainly for British social anthropology. Malinowski saw himself as effecting a revolution in anthropology by rejecting the evolutionary paradigm of his predecessors and introducing functionalism, whereby institutions satisfied human biological need, as the way to understand other cultures. I argue that his lasting legacy, however, is methodological rather than theoretical. Although not the first to conduct fieldwork, his lengthy stay among the Trobriand islanders during World War 1 enabled him to study their culture and cover a wide range of topics, from economics to sexuality. He contributed to ethnography and fieldwork by living with the people he studied, getting to know them personally, participating in their activities, and conducting his research in the field has since become known as ‘participant observation’.

It was merely nothing but the tradition that they were cleaning the land polluted with the blood of clansman. The most impressive achievement of Things Fall Apart, writes, David Carroll, 'is the vivid picture it provides of Igbo culture and society at the end of the nineteenth century.' (Carroll 30). The characters of Things Fall Apart illustrate the conduct of war, religion, the social roles of men and women in a relatively fixed and secure system.

Chinua Achebe’s negative depiction of British colonial domination is supported by his choice of setting. In order to fully highlight the negative impacts of colonial rule, Things Fall Apart divides into three parts, with each part corresponding to a certain period of pre, mid, and post-colonialism. In Part I of the novel, Achebe provides insight to traditional tribal life in the Nigerian village of Umuofia before colonialism, through the inclusion and focus on the specific traditions, superstitions, and religious

Chinua Achebe’s novel, “Things Fall Apart,” highlights certain aspects of the Igbo’s culture and society in order to give recognition to the native culture that existed in Africa prior to colonization. The novel focuses on a specific village, in present day Nigeria, named Umuofia where the Igbo people reside. The intricate descriptions of the celebrations, rituals, and festivals of the Igbo people help the world gain a deeper understanding of the native cultures found in Africa. These aspects of African society touch on cultural normalities for the native people that the European colonizers and missionaries ignored.