Douglas Hayward's book is an ethnography dealing with the religious change of an Irian Jaya Highlands people known as the Dani. The Dani people were unknown to the Western world until an exploration team made contact with them in 1909. The first sustained contact with the outside world, however, was when an American mission organization, known as the Unevangelized Fields Mission, advanced into the Dani-inhabited Mulia region on August 21, 1958. This book describes how the Dani quickly and almost immediately forsook their traditional ways of life and incorporated Christian beliefs into their worldview. The breathtaking religious change during the first half-decade after western missionary contact illustrates a classic Revitalization Movement, in Anthony Wallace's 1952 model.

Hayward uses the term vernacular Christianity to "show how the Dani have added to, adapted and sought to integrate missionary Christianity into their own particular form of Christianity" (p.5). The format of this book includes Hayward's description of the former, traditional beliefs of the Dani. Secondly, he describes the American missionaries' Christian beliefs. And finally he shows how the Dani have integrated those missionaries' beliefs into their own society and how they interpreted and used them to express their own form of indigenous - some might say syncretistic -- Christianity.

As Hayward describes it, the Dani people's integration of Christianity into their worldview and society has been a success. Although there remain many obstacles to overcome, the Dani are reported in this book to have high hopes for a better way of life which they believe can be appropriated "through ritual behavior and appropriate social alliances with affluent nations who already have an abundance of goods" (p.216). It will be interesting to see how this Dani Revitalization Movement evolves in the next century.

Reviewed by Jason D. Rothen (Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics)

A well written and concise diary of an Australian patrol officer, who spent most of the war years in and around the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea. Stanton documents well the events of the time, from his perspective (obviously, I don't think they were intended to be published). From the lonely malarial nights on tropical islands, with the sound of aircraft overhead on long and unknown bombing missions, to the arrival of Allied troops on the little islands and the relationships between them and the island natives, Stanton captures moments during the war from an honest and geographically remote perspective. A good read, one of few by Australian troops during the war.

Nathan Prefer's book on General Douglas MacArthur's "hopping" campaigns in Western New Guinea in 1944 is a well-crafted and detailed account of the twin difficulties encountered by U.S. Army combat units in carrying out MacArthur's strategic directives: The appalling New Guinea jungle terrain and the highly audacious tactics and tenacity of the Imperial Japanese Army. I found Prefer's portraits of MacArthur and one of his subordinates, Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger, very revealing. Prefer details MacArthur's penchant for regularly issuing communiques announcing the successful completion of battles while they were still being hotly contested. MacArthur is also portrayed as being largely indifferent to the physical hardships endured by U.S. Army infantrymen in New Guinea (MacArthur never visited the front lines in order to gain a feel for the combat conditions and only visited secured battlefields and islands once the fighting was "officially" over). MacArthur's subordinate, Eichelberger, is portrayed by Prefer as the consummate general - a tough, no-nonsense officer who regularly visited the front lines and also kept his soldiers' ("my lads," as Eichelberger called them) best interests at heart. Nathan Prefer also reveals that MacArthur's treatment of the Australian Army soldiers under his command was no better, despite the fact that at the outset of the New Guinea campaign in 1942 it was Australian Army militia and regular Australian Army soldiers who fought the Imperial Japanese Army on New Guinea's Kokoda Trail and eventually pushed them back over the Owen Stanley mountain range, thereby saving New Guinea and allowing MacArthur to begin his "hopping" campaigns in Western New Guinea. MacArthur's New Guinea campaign was as bloody as any campaign in the Pacific - despite MacArthur's claim that he was economical with his soldiers' lives. Prefer's excellent work pays a long-overdue tribute to the valor, courage and tenacity of the U.S. Army officers and men under MacArthur's command who fought in, and won, the New Guinea campaign.

This book isn't about MacArthur. It is about the men and the battles for dominance of the Papua New Guinean northern coastline. The author's anti-MacArthur's bias really shows through in this book and he takes pains to show that MacArthur did not contribute significantly to winning this campaign. The Marines did. The MacArthurian legend has been clearly dented here as well as in other books. I found such a stance unwarranted as clearly, another title for the book could have well been chosen.

This is a three star book if you are looking for exciting action in heraldic William Manchester prose; it is at the same time a five star military account of the New Guinea campaign as directed by General MacArthur from behind the scenes. - The author provides a good account of the military action that occured in New Guinea. He provides a division-by-division, batallion-by-batallion, company-by-company account of the American forces as well as the same sort of detailed account of the Japanese forces (the Japanese in italics, which is very helpful). This is a well written military account and sticks to the subject. The author tends to stay away from individual G.I. stories, and creates instead within the reader the feelings of the entire batallion, company, or other combat group, American or Japanese. When the author decides to stray from his account, he tends to put little "boxes" off to the side with such periferal information. Photos are good. Maps are adequate. As for being biased against MacArthur, the author criticizes MacArthur, but does not really criticize any more so than other contemporary military history authors. Prefer answers the questions you may have had of the New Guinea campaign. To be absolutely thorough, Prefer also provides an Orders of Battle section in great depth. A good readable book and good reference material.

I read this book because a good friend is going to Papua New Guinea and I wanted to learn more about the island. Wow! What a book. This story is set in the 1970s when the country was still under the colonial control of the Australian government. However, the novel is about an American couple and their child who go to the country to do medical research -- yet it's about so much more. It's about life and marriage and the disappointments one can find in one's mate and in oneself. There were points when I wanted to know more, especially about the culture of the aboriginal people in the village. But for me, what was really captivating about this upsetting book was the background. The rain forest in Papua New Guinea really came alive. The animals and birds and insects are all vividly described as is every aspect of the Campbells (the family in the book) relationship to each other and to the country. I wound up re-reading it. This is the kind of book you lend to a friend because you want to talk about it so much.

This isn't the type of book that I normally pick up, I'm not big on "literary fiction". It was given to me as a gift. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down, though. The story is extremely sad but told in this hypnotic, poetic way. I couldn't get enough of the place, Abini, in the book. Papua New Guinea, as rendered by the author, is an intense and strange place, overwhelmingly beautiful, frightening and inviting all at the same time. I do a lot of outdoor exploring, back packing and hiking etc and I found myself imagining a walk through the rainforest near Abini. Perhaps Gillison got some of the place names wrong or confused her directions but she clearly knows this place and makes you feel it too. Try this book, you'll like it. At the very least you'll be moved by it.

This extraordinary novel follows the Campbells, Peter, June and their young daughter Taylor, into the depths of Papua New Guinea. The story revolves around their experiences in the rainforest, the dissolution of a marriage and the integration of a young girl into the lives of the natives. An eerie, compelling book. Once inside the rainforest and the Campbell's story this novel is impossible to put down!

The Lost Tribe is an account of a journalists short (2 week) trip into one of Papua New Guinea's more remote areas. The book is descriptively well written, but is also full of inaccuracies caused by the authors lack of knowlege of local languages and of modern Papua New Guinea. The people he descibes may well be highly isolated but as with most of PNG, their names are included in the common role. Had he given imself more time he could have obatined proper maps which reveal the location of the village and the fictitious volcano he descibes. He could also have learnt Pidgin properly which would have been useful in getting himeself out of the situation that arose. What the author doesn't know is that after his departure from Wanakepa those villagers were forced to pay huge compensation for what happened. They would like the author to bare some of the cost. I'm sure this could be arranged through MAF whoom he can contact through the internet.

This was an author I had hoped would deliver something that many travel-writers don't - a sense of the freedom and anguish of the way we once lived, portrayed through the experiences of the living. In review, he largely managed this. But I still felt strangely unsatisfied when finishing the book. A feeling that emerges from the fact that you leave the story without actually knowing all that much about the tribe. You see, in truth this book is more about a series of events along a storyline than an expose of a 'lost' tribe. Of course this has much to do with his difficulties in communicating with the tribe, but nevertheless it is a shame.

I did though feel that this story highlights the gulf still existing in the world across the spectrum of human cultures. It is for the reader to decide (or not) the value in maintaining or trying to close such a gulf, and for whose benefit - ours or theirs. For example, the impact of western religion on such tribes is shown in the book to be thoughtless and combattant in the way it is taught. Perhaps to be expected in the 18th or 19th century, but quite disturbing when it is in the present day.

In conclusion, I think Marriot has done the Liawep justice with this story, but the damage he did during the course of his stay will probably haunt him and the Liawep for many years to come.

It is not often that one finds travel writing elevated to the level of adventure. What's more, Marriott's prose is clear and sincere. Overall, a great read. If you have not got your hand on a good travel book in a while, invest in this one. I'm going out to get the "Savage shore".

It had the things you know mixed in with the things you wouldn't think of. The answers are things you would never think of. You really have to rack your brain to think of the right answer which I promise you is not totally impossible.

Edward J. Harshman's "Clever Lateral Thinking Puzzles" is a rather serious disappointment. For the uninitiated, "lateral thinking puzzles" are mind exercises that discourage standard problem-solving methods and reward cleverness and innovation. One of the problems with Harshman's book is that it includes no instructions or introduction. Some sort of proem would have gone a long way to helping the uninitiated. While it would seem clear what the puzzles want (i.e., an explanation of apparently strange facts), there is indeed room to wonder.

Consider, for example, the puzzle in which a man locks his son out of the house, for which the son thanks his father. Harshman's solution is that the father's actions forced the pampered son to strike out on his own and make a living for himself. While there is nothing wrong with that solution as *an* (as opposed to *the*) answer, certainly other answers come to mind. The father could have bombed the house for fleas without the son being aware of that fact; the father then could have locked the door to prevent his son from inadvertently walking in and inhaling the noxious fumes. The point is that few of the solutions are unique, and there is really no clear way to arrive at Harshman's answer and not an alternate one that works.

In fairness, this problem is hardly unique to "Clever Lateral Thinking Puzzles." Games such as "MindTrap" and the Mensa quiz books contain similar problems, though not on the scale that "Clever Lateral Thinking Puzzles" does. And at least in the case of MindTrap, it is clearly intended to be interactive and therefore allows one person to answer questions and avoid the ambiguities.

This book was great. I loved it the puzzles streched my brain it made me a lot smarter. Hours of fun!

This book is one of the most widely cited and recommended among anthropologists. People in other disciplines may come away wondering why. The book emphasizes the importance of depth interviewing and Herdt gives much credit to Stoller (a psychiatrist) for his assistance. People trained in clinical interviewing or qualitative depth interviews will give much of the book a "so what's new" response, while those without these backgrounds may find it more illuminating. Regardless, the book is overlong and the esoteric sexual rituals of Herdt's study population become rather repetitious and boring, although the individuals he studied are themselves, vivid and interesting.

This is an ethnography of the Sabarl Islanders of New Guinea, and Battaglia creates the following categories to describe them: Part I is "The Person: Basic Distinctions," Part II is "Relational Personhood" and Part III is "The Person Performed." Battaglia writes using the assumptions of a "perspectivist" ["postmodern," deconstructive," "poststructural"] anthropology, and uses typical postmodern jargon that I personally find grating. I sometimes wondered if the Sabarl were as candid with her as she assumed, as she was 26 when she first arrived at the island, and she seemed a bit naive throughout her book. This book, like most ethnographies, is fascinating to read with regard to opening one's mind to other ways of viewing the world. However, I think Battaglia's observations should be taken with more than a few grains of salt. (But mine probably should be, too.)

The book is allright for a novice. If you already know a bit about PNG, it is not worth the money. There is however a shortage of such books. I read it before I was sent there on a business trip and it helped a little

Herdt has spilled millions of word about pederastic initiation among the people he has called the Sambia. Anyone but a hardcore, masochistic anthropologist would do better to read his Holt book _The Sambia_ than this minimally edited, highly repetitious recycling of some of his journal articles. The introduction is particularly opaque and unhelpful. Herdt is a recovering Freudian who takes a thousand words to say what could be said clearly in a sentence.