New Guinea Ceremonies

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
“Beginning in 1973, David Gillison began a long and close relationship with the Gimi people of Crater Mountain in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, a remote and beautiful rainforest area. He recorded with his camera and in notes what was probably the lastever Hau, a remarkable two-week fertility festival during which the young women were married and the teenage boys initiated into manhood. Most fascinating of the rites performed during the Hau was a series of ritual dramas enacted in the dark of night inside the men’s and women’s houses. Ranging in their subjects from the creation myths of the Gimi people to daily life dramas of extramarital affairs, male-female rivalries, clan jealousies, and family strife, these unique playlets, ultimately forbidden by Christian missionaries, no longer exist. But Gillison’s brilliant photographs and intimate text bring them to life and at the same time offer a close-up look at the lives of the people and the forests – teeming with birds of paradise – in which they live.”
168 p. : ill.(col.)., maps(col.) : 30 cm. #090423
Gimi (Papua New Guinean people) — Rites and ceremonies. | Gimi (Papua New Guinean people) — Social life and customs. | Rites and ceremonies — Papua New Guinea. | Papua New Guinea — Social life and customs.
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