Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea

Author: Matthiessen, Peter

Brand: Penguin Group

Color: Black

Edition: Reprint

Binding: paperback

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 320

Release Date: 06-01-1987

Part Number: RKC2003991866

Details: A remarkable firsthand view of a lost culture in all its simplicity and violence by renowned writer Peter Matthiessen (1927 to 2014), author of the National Book Award–winning The Snow Leopard and the novel In Paradise.

In the Baliem Valley in central New Guinea live the Kurelu, a Stone Age tribe that survived into the twentieth century. Peter Matthiessen visited the Kurelu with the Harvard-Peabody Expedition in 1961 and wrote Under the Mountain Wall as an account not of the expedition, but of the great warrior Weaklekek, the swineherd Tukum, U-mue and his family, and the boy Weake, killed in a surprise raid. Matthiessen observes these people in their timeless rhythm of work and play and war, of gardening and wood gathering, feasts and funerals, pig stealing and ambushes. Drawing on his great skills as a naturalist and novelist, Matthiessen offers an exceptional account of an ancient culture on the brink of incalculable change.

EAN: 0051488019008

Package Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.0 inches

Languages: English