Grass-clearing man
Subtitle: a factional ethnography of life in the New Guinea Highlands
By: Paul Sillitoe, Jackie Sillitoe.
Contributors: Sillitoe, Jackie.
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Long Grove, Ill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9781577666011
Subjects: Wola (Papua New Guinean people); Ethnology -- Papua New Guinea; Papua New Guinea -- Social life and customs; Papua New Guinea -- Civilization -- 20th century
Description: "This accessible ethnography is a factional account that depicts life in a stateless society of the New Guinea Highlands during the twentieth century. It explores a series of related events from the viewpoint of a fictional character, "Ongol," who lived his life in the Was valley. Although Ongol and the other characters whose lives enrich this narrative are fictional, the ethnography is factual; the exchange transactions and rituals did happen, the spells are genuine and recorded as recited, the customs surrounding marriage and kinship are practiced, and the subsistence regime exists. This creative yet factual ethnographic life history inspires students to grasp and retain core anthropological concepts associated with the people, practices, and events among the Wola living in the New Guinea Highlands."--ORIGINAL BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-200).