Village on the Edge: Changing Times in Papua New Guinea
by Michael French Smith

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Book Reviews of Village on the Edge: Changing Times in Papua New Guinea

Book Review: Dispela buk em i tok tru
Summary: 5 Stars

Melanesian societies often believed that knowledge?-of magic or ritual?-held the key to success in any endeavor, would be the best guarantee of prosperity. Those who had the best knowledge grew the best crops, caught the most fish, or had the most successful trading relationships. But, if many people in the village had that knowledge, then the whole village would be prosperous and successful. Thus, Kragur villagers, like most Melanesians, saw Western education as the way to go if they wanted to raise their standard of living, to obtain money and an easier life. Get Western education, prosper like the Westerners. In a way, Smith points out in the heart of the book, they have been proven right, but the results challenge the whole belief system that underlay their society. For them, if individuals prosper, but the village does not, the new knowledge has failed to produce the desired result. But as time goes by, as more individuals prosper, will not the old ideals completely fade, will not the old cooperative society vanish ? The village is on the edge.

I urge everyone interested in knowing what Papua New Guinea is like today to read this book. It should be on every reading list dealing with the modern Pacific, modern Melanesia, or ?dilemmas of development?. If you are trying to attract students to the field of anthropology or to draw their attention to the process of writing ethnographies, you can hardly go wrong with VILLAGE ON THE EDGE.

Summary of Village on the Edge: Changing Times in Papua New Guinea

"In Village on the Edge, Michael French Smith provides the reader with something rare and precious--a humane and sharply insightful view into the rich local world of a village in transition in Papua New Guinea." --- Bruce Beehler, Conservation International

"Michael French Smith spins a great yarn. He has an admirable ability to translate personal experiences into a meaningful message and can describe complex social phenomena in ways that the anthropologically uninitiated can understand and appreciate. I finished this book in just a few sittings and thoroughly enjoyed it." --- Richard Scaglion, University of Pittsburgh

"Michael French Smith's Village on the Edge is a heartfelt and perceptive account of a people facing enormous change. In essence, although this book concerns the people of Kragur Village, it tells the story of all of contemporary Melanesia. It is a unique work, elucidating a unique period of change among an extraordinary people." --- Tim Flannery, author of Throwim Way Leg: Tree Kangaroos, Possums and Penis Gourds

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• Business & Investing > Economics
• History > Asia > General
• Australia & Oceania > Papua New Guinea
• World > General
• Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Anthropology > General
• General