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Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
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Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea Paperback - 1987

by Peter Matthiessen


From the publisher

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.

First line

One morning in April, in the year when the old history of the Kurelu came to an end, a man named Weaklekek started down the mountain from the hill village of Lokoparek.

Details

  • Title Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
  • Author Peter Matthiessen
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 320
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group, E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.
  • Date January 6, 1987
  • Features Index
  • ISBN 9780140252705 / 0140252703
  • Weight 0.7 lbs (0.32 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.94 x 4.94 x 0.72 in (20.17 x 12.55 x 1.83 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Oceania
  • Library of Congress subjects Dani (New Guinean people) - Social life and, New Guinea - Social life and customs
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 96155866
  • Dewey Decimal Code 995

About the author

Peter Matthiessen was the cofounder of the Paris Review and is the author of numerous works of nonfiction, including In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Indian Country, and The Snow Leopard, winner of the National Book Award.
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Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
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Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea

by Matthiessen, Peter

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Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea
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Penguin Classics, 1987. Softcover. Very Good. 5x0x7. In Very Good+ condition. 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.
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by Peter Matthiessen

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