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Trees, Knots and Outriggers (Kaynen Muyuw) is the culmination of twenty-five years of work by Frederick H. Damon and his attention to cultural adaptations to the environment in Melanesia. Damon details the intricacies of indigenous knowledge and practice in his sweeping synthesis of symbolic and structuralist anthropology with recent developments in historical ecology. This book is a long conversation between the author's many Papua New Guinea informants, teachers and friends, and scientists in Australia, Europe and the United States, in which a spirit of adventure and discovery is palpable.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction PART I: AMONG THE SCIENTISTS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE MASSIM Chapter 1. Return to the Garden: Gwed, locating intentions and interpretive puzzles
PART II: TOWARDS AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF TREES Chapter 2. The Trees: Classificatory forms, landscape beacons and basic categories
Chapter 3. The Forests and the Fire: Tasim, Inverted Landscapes, and Tree Meanings
Chapter 4. A Story of Calophyllum. From Ecological to Social Facts
PART III: SYNTHESIZING MODELS Chapter 5. Vatul: A Life Form and a Form for Life
Chapter 6. Geometries of Motion: Trees and the Boats of the Eastern Kula Ring
References
About the author
Frederick H. Damon is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia.
Summary
Trees, Knots and Outriggers (Kaynen Muyuw) is the culmination of twenty-five years of work by Frederick H. Damon and his attention to cultural adaptations to the environment in Melanesia. Damon details the intricacies of indigenous knowledge and practice in his sweeping synthesis of symbolic and structuralist anthropology with recent developments in historical ecology. This book is a long conversation between the author’s many Papua New Guinea informants, teachers and friends, and scientists in Australia, Europe and the United States, in which a spirit of adventure and discovery is palpable.
Additional text
“The painstaking detail of the ethnography – here evident in minute accounts of trees and their uses – has long been a hallmark of Damon’s work… All this makes the book less than an easy read… although its detail and rigour will make it a treasure trove for ecological anthropologists, regional specialists, and students of Indo-Pacific sailing technology.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)
“…a totally original, fascinating, and valuable book.” • Human Ecology
“A masterpiece of engineering is notoriously difficult to write about, even more so when conceived and built by ‘visual and tactile people’. The author has succeeded well in giving the reader insight into the emic perspective of Muyuw canoes in all their social and ecological complexity. Herein lies the originality of this innovative and important work.” • Anthropos
“This book is a major contribution to the regional, ecological, and material culture literature.” • Pacific Affairs
“A rare and formidable work. This is a wholly distinctive contribution to multi-species ethnography, of environments made as people tie living materials to one another. It is also a wholly original account of the research process: had Damon not recorded the patchiness of knowledge – locally, regionally -- he would not have understood how people draw things together and keep them moving at the same time. String figures, he was told, untie the mind and keep it supple -- so does this energizing book.” • Marilyn Strathern, University of Cambridge
“This is a hugely important book. It’s publication marks a milestone in anthropological theory – a must read in any course concerned with material culture, science and technology, and human ecology, and a treasure for those interested in maritime cultures.” • Susanne Kuechler, University College London
“This research is a bold undertaking in its intention and in its attention to detail… this book leaves no stone unturned, no leaf unexamined, no canoe fixture unquestioned.” • Shirley Campbell, Australian National University
