Barbara Black BOOK REVIEW

Conversations with Cannibals, The End of the Old South Pacific, by Michael Krieger, Ecco Press, 291 pp., hardcover.

ROM HIS téte-d-téte

with reminiscing canni-

bals to a white-knuckle trek up vertical mountain- sides to visit a tribe whose name translates as “! Kill You,” Michael Krieger's book on disappearing South Pacific culture never fails to

captivate the reader. Krieger's goal — to describe the “extraordinary people who represent an epoch on the verge of extinction” — is noble. The result is sobering. The tew remaining “original” cultures he describes, unsullied by encroach- ing modernity or capitalism, struggle for their very survival or hobble onward as a patchwork culture of old and new ways. Krieger's journey begins on

the tiny island of Palmerston in the Cook Islands. Here, on this miniscule atoll, live 61 people, all descended from the island’s

founder, one William Marsters. They live in corat huts amid the palm trees and spend the day tending their pigs, fishing, and gathering coconuls. IEseems a happy sort of subsistence.

But Krieger senses discontent lurking in the litle paradise.

What his gentle probing reveals is an island dominated by a tyrannical ex-minister, Reverend Bill.

Although the man seems to swindle and manipulate all who block his path of unrighteous- ness, Krieger is puzzled by the islander’s lack of retributive action. The local school teacher predicts that if the family feud does not end, the cooperative way of life on Palmerston will soon crumble, and its new pener- ation wiil leave for bigger lands.

Naturally, Krieger’s quest to uncover the old way of life in the South Pacific leads to the topic of cannibalism. Unlike the skeptical anthropologists who “covered the western Pacific like flies on sugar,” Krieger is convinced that cannibalistic practices existed, and he sets out to Vanuatu to prove his theory. (This could prove difficult because native converts to Christianity are coached to deny such bar- barism.)

The adventure starts: “{ am sit- ting in a thatched-roof village on the island of Malekula listening to some old ex-cannibals as they have the time of their lives faugh- ing and reminiscing about some- one they once ate.” In this cock- tail party atmosphere, Krieger learns that during tribal warfare,

Exhibition shows kids’ work

“ARTWORKS REPRESENTING the theme “Cultural Transition” are on view in North Vancouver City Hail as part of the Art in Public Places exhibition series. The exhibition features work ‘by Bob Yoshisuke Araki, Karin Bubas, Ruth Grant, William Holmes, Yang Hong, Terry L’Hirondelle-Lofthouse, Jean Morrison and Angie Radwan- Pytlewski. It also includes works from children of Queen Mary commu-

“AIA ui ce

nity school, including Diana Trifonova, 10; Sarh Jamali-Rad, 10; Natalia Mikiciuk, 11; Danica Sherman, ‘11; Jackie Surmacz, 10; Deanna Mitchell, 10; Julia Griffiths, 10; Kelly Evans, 10; Neda Hadizadeh, 10; Sepidah Niki, 10; Eva Gazo, 10; Mandy Bradshaw, 10; Christian Marcu, 11; and Eidar Sehic, 10.

Today, Aug. 17, is the last clay to catch this exhibition,

For more injormation, phone 988-6844.

enemies of the Big Namba tribe were often captured (dead, alive or somewhere in between) and eaten, The body parts were wrapped in banana leaves and steamed overnight. Only warriors ate the delicacy.

He is convinced these accounts are authentic.

Krieger explains that, with the introduction of modern weapons, tribal warfare threatened to wipe out whole tribes. After the Second World War, tribal war- fare and its accompanying ritual cannibalism died out.

Krieger's adventure subse- quently leads him to a famous

native sorcerer, who, unfortu- nately, flatly denies dealing in

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magic because of his fear of arrest, Throughout this chapter the author explores the etfect of the sorcerer’s cnagic on the natives. Unable io helieve wholly ina man transforming himself into a woman or catching a fish on dry tan, Krieger nonetheless finds himself unable to discount entirely the mystery and power surrounding these native magi- cian-doctors.

Probably the strangest groups in the book is the Frum Society which lives on Tanna Island.

Krieger visits a village which is the cornerstone of the John Frum cargo cult, an eclectic reli- gion that mixes bits of Christianity with the belief that

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their American-style messiah, John Frum, will one day return with gifts of material wealth, Although Krieger has trouble pin- ning down the dogma, he acknowledges thal their “rmessi- ah’s" advice that both the Bible and their custom beliefs are true has helped preserve their culture.

With his healthy sense of humor, investigative instincts and sincere interest in peopie, Krieger creates a vivid picture of the South Pacific in the throes of change. He is well aware of the complexity and irony of a situa- tion in which people are saved from extinction by the efforts of missionaries, but doomed to cul- tural extinction.

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