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

FormatBook

Language English

ISBN-13 / SKU 9780140252705

About this item

by Peter Matthiessen (Author)

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.

Author Biography

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.

Number of Pages: 320

Dimensions: 0.72 x 7.94 x 4.94 IN

Publication Date: January 06, 1987

$19.44

Temporarily out of stock.