Author: Madhusree Mukerjee
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 238
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143031015
Description
On a lush, remote island, modern civilization has recently made contact with what may be the last group of Stone Age people. The Sentinels wear no cloths, do not know how to start a fire, and have fervently rejected the intrusion of outsiders. But all that is changing, writes Madhusree Mukerjee, who has had exceptional access to that island and the others that make up the Andaman chain in the Bay of Bengal. Over seven years Mukerjee found that the aboriginals on the islands have abandoned their ancient ways for enticements such as motorcycles and plastic toys. The price: outsiders have taken critical land, introduced serious diseases and left the natives with a broken sense of self.
The Land of Naked People offers unprecedented insights into colonization and modernization, harmful myths about savages, and the perennially fraught relationship between light-and dark-skinned peoples. Combining anthropological findings with historical accounts and personal travel stories, Mukerjee lets us glimpse a primeval, disappearing humanity.
REVIEWS
If you find you've lost your faith in the mysteries of the world, The Land of Naked People is one anthropological thriller sure to rock you back into adequate stupefaction.
-The San Diego Union-Tribune
The Land of Naked People heralds the arrival of a major non-fiction talent. Madhusree Mukerjee…is an intrepid reporter whose prose is both poetic and precise…While showing great empathy for her subjects, Mukerjee never succumbs to sentimentality or sensationlism.
-John Horgan, author of Rational Mysticism and The End of Science
This is a book of engrossing images and ideas that resound long after the telling.
-The Seattle Times
Contents
PREFACE
FIRST BRUSH
GREAT ANDAMANESE
Savage
Uprooted
Pacification
Native Morals
Civilized Vices
Death
Life After Death
ONGE
A Fiery Arrival
Sugar and Starch
Gifts, Traps
Cultural Exchange
Outsiders and other Ghosts
Falling Apart