Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea |
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Benedict Allen
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Pages: 224 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0571206220
Pub: Faber and Faber
Pub date: 2002-02-04
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 123891
Reader Reviews:
his tv shows are better (0/0 people found this helpful)
I am a huge fan of Benedict Allens - seems to me he has a lot in common with Wilfred Thesinger without the misogynist bent. But this book disappointed me as I found it harder work than I expected and less insightful than the tv of his that I have seen -the skeleton coast and the trip around Mongolia. Nonetheless I found it an extraordinary tale and well told - just a bit short on how he was effected by the experience.
Thoughtful exploration. (4/5 people found this helpful)
Benedict Allen is one of the few people in travel circles who I feel can legitimately be called an explorer. Unconcerned with planting flags and the pith-helmet legacy he choses instead to immerse himself in a culture and learn about it as best as he can through their eyes -no camera crews no mobile phones.
This journey in particular is possibly the deepest he has gone in such a respect; joining the Niaowra people in Papua New Guinea when he was then 24 to participate in the last initiation ceremony to become 'a man as strong as a crocodile'. This entailed 6 weeks of daily beatings and being cut with bamboo to create the crocodile skin like scarification marks that he still bears up and down his body to this day.
But it's not merely a 'one man's journey' story it's also the last record of a culture experiencing extinction at that hands of the encroaching western religions.
Sensitively written this is at all times an inspirational, absorbing and thought-provoking read.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Travel & Holiday -> Travel Writing
Books -> Subjects -> Travel & Holiday -> General
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Paperback
uk-shops -> Travel -> Travel Guides & Books -> Travel Writing
uk-shops -> Travel -> Travel Guides & Books -> Countries & Regions -> Australia & New Zealand -> Papua New Guinea
uk-shops -> Travel -> Travel Guides & Books -> General