Journey to the Crocodile's Nest
Journey to the Crocodile's Nest

Author: Howard Morphy

Publisher:

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13:

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Interpretive account of childs funeral at Gurkawuy outstation, Trial Bay; Yolngu social organisation (particularly clan formation and marriage); contact history; outline of religious beliefs including relationship to ancestors, land, law role of songs, dances and painting; attitudes to death and mourning; concept of souls; mortuary practices (including change); names of participants; detailed account of the ceremony; meaning of ritual episodes; sociological analysis of relationships between participants; choice and decision in ceremony construction; Afterword by Ian Dunlop separately annotated.

Of Canoes and Crocodiles
Of Canoes and Crocodiles

Author: Tony Robinson-Smith

Publisher: University of Alberta

Published: 2024-08-22

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1772127515

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Of Canoes and Crocodiles is a story of adventure in the remote and threatened landscapes of Papua New Guinea. In 2018, Tony Robinson-Smith and his wife Nadya Ladouceur bought dugout canoes and paddled down the Sepik, the country’s longest river. Traveling with local guides and staying in their villages, Tony and Nadya ate smoked piranha and sago pancakes, heard tales of river gods and sorcerers, marvelled at rainbow bee-eaters and cat-size flying foxes, sank in a tropical storm, got lost in mosquito-infested swamplands, and hid from pirates in mangroves near the sea. As the narrative follows the bends of the river, Robinson-Smith incorporates into its flow descriptions of crocodile initiation rites, village “big men,” the barter system, raskolism, and sing-sings. He reflects on clan loyalty, colonization, Christian missionaries, bride price, the environmental impacts of foreign logging and mining, and the joys and fears of following the current down a long, snaky waterway in a volatile Australasian country.

The Ancestress Hypothesis
The Ancestress Hypothesis

Author: Kathryn Coe

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780813531328

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In our society it has long been believed that art serves very little social purpose. Evolutionary anthropologists, however, are examining a potential role for art in human evolution. Kathryn Coe looks to the visual arts of traditional societies for clues. Because they are passed down from previous generations, traditional art forms such as body decoration, funeral ornaments, and ancestral paintings offer ways to promote social relationships among kin and codescendants of a common ancestor. Mothers used art forms to anchor themselves and their kin to the father and his kin, and to promote the survival and reproductive success of kin and descendants. Individuals who abided by this strategy, accompanied by its strict codes of cooperation, left more distant descendants than did individuals who did not. Over time, given this reproductive success, large numbers of individuals would be identified as codescendants of a common ancestor and would cooperate as if they were close kin. These cooperative codescendants were more likely to survive and leave descendants. With each new generation these clans propagated not only their genes but also their behavioral strategy, the replication or presence of "art." The book concludes by examining the changing characteristics of visual art -- including a higher value on creativity, competition, and cost -- when traditional constraints on social behavior disappear. Book jacket.

Crocodile
Crocodile

Author: Dan Wylie

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2013-07-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1780231237

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“Tick, tock, tick, tock.” Thanks to Peter Pan, this sound, if heard near water, means run: a hungry crocodile is on its way. J. M. Barrie isn’t fully to blame for spreading the word that crocodiles are our enemies, or at least the enemies of one-handed pirates—innumerable songs, stories, and legends have characterized these reptiles as a symbol of pitiless predation and insatiable appetite. Tracking twenty-three crocodilian species from India and Egypt to Africa, Australia, and beyond, Crocodile advocates that we do a complete one-eighty in our views of these magnificent creatures. Dan Wylie traces the crocodile in myth, art, and literature, demonstrating that though we commonly associate the reptiles with ferocity and deceit, they have also often been respected and revered in human history. Discussing how crocodiles were all but wiped out in the middle of the twentieth century by hunters and skin traders and are now making a comeback, he reveals that, as apex predators, they are today an increasingly important indicator of the health of an ecosystem and may outlive humans like they did dinosaurs. Presenting a concise, cogent case for why we should respect these fearsome animals, this beautifully illustrated volume is a tribute to one of the world’s ultimate survivors.

Animals into Art
Animals into Art

Author: Howard Morphy

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 1317598083

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This book is one of a series of volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986 which addressed world archaeology in its widest sense, investigating how people lived in the past and how and why changes took place to result in the forms of society and culture which exist now. The series brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who could lend their own expertise to the discussions. This book is an exploration of the way in which the animal world features in the works of art of a variety of cultures of different times and places. Contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives for looking at the complex ways in which past and present humans have interrelated with beings they classify as animals. Some of the approaches are predominantly economic and ecological, some are symbolic and others philosophical or theological. All these different views are included in the interpretation of the artworks of the past, revealing some of the foci and inspirations of cultural attitudes to animals. Originally published 1989.

Guji Guji
Guji Guji

Author: Zhiyuan Chen

Publisher:

Published: 2007-03

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780958278706

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'An egg was rolling on the ground. It rolled through the trees. It rolled across the meadow. It rolled all the way down the hill. Finally it rolled right into a duck's nest. Mother Duck didn't notice. She was reading.' Raised from an egg by Mother Duck, Guji Guji is quite content with his life as a duckling, despite the fact that he doesn't look anything like his brothers. Then he meets three nasty crocodiles who not only convince him that he is one of them, but also try to persuade him to deliver his duck relatives for their dinner. Beautifully illustrated in watercolour and ink, this New York Times Bestseller is the story of a befuddled 'crocoduck' who comes to appreciate families and differences.