Why read The Ethnology of Vanuatu?

Book cover of The Ethnology of Vanuatu: An Early Twentieth Century Study

Book description

Originally published in German in 1923, this work records much of Vanuatu's early material culture. It was the result of two years of field work by Swiss anthropologist Felix Speiser between 1920 and 1912.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Ethnology of Vanuatu as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Brian D. Hayden

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This remarkable work was first printed in German in 1923 and was only translated and published in English in 1996. It is largely concerned with the secret societies in the New Hebrides Islands of Southeast Asia. Speiser documents the lavish initiation rituals, the megalithic constructions that were part of the secret society ritual locations, the power of the ritual organizations and their leaders, the special burials of secret society leaders, the plastering of their skulls, and many other fascinating aspects of these secret societies. It is just one outstanding example among other ethnographies that document the special nature of secret…

From Brian's list on The best books on secret societies in traditional cultures and how they changed the world.