Social complexity in the making

About this book

"This text is an highly accessible ethnography which explains the history and evolution of Ilahita, an Arapesh-speaking village in New Guinea. This village, unlike others in the region, expanded at an uncharacteristically fast rate more than a century ago and has maintained its large size and importance until the present day. Donald Tuzin, drawing on more than two years of fieldwork in the village, studies the reasons behind this unusual population growth. He discovers the behaviour and policies of the Tambaran, the all-male society which was the back bone of Ilahitan society, and examines the effect of outside influences such as World War II on the village."--Jacket.