Literature in our Collection
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Weyer, Edward Jr.: Primitive Peoples Today, Dolphin Books, New York 1961

Table of Contents        ¦         Cover Text        ¦         Book Review

Table of Contents

Introduction: the World of Primitive Man -11-

An Arctic Hunting People: The Eskimos -39-

Sea-Folk of the Subarctic: The Aleuts -55-

An American Indian Tribe: The Navahos -61-

A Central American Tribe: The Lacandones -77-

A Panama Tribe: The San Blas -87-

A Tribe of the Eastern Andes: The Head-shrinking Jivaros -101-

A Tribe of Central Brazil: The Camayurás -127-

A Tribe of Arctic Eurasia: The Reindeer-herding Lapps -143-

Slave Traders of Africa: The Ovimbundu -159-

A People of the South African Deserts: The Bushmen -173-

White Aborigines in Eastern Asia: The Hairy Ainus -189-

A People of the Eastern Himalayas: The Lolos -209-

A Wandering Tribe of the Australian Desert: The Arunta -221-

Stone-age Seamen of the South Seas: The Samoans -241-

Index -265-

Cover Text

It is startling to discover in this age of moon shots and intercontinental missiles that there are groups living today as they did in the Stone Age fifteen thousand years ago. In 'Primitive Peoples Today', Dr. Edward Weyer, Jr. describes fourteen archaic cultures which have in most cases completely escaped civilization. An anthropologist and for twenty-two years editor of 'Natural History Magazine', Dr. Weyer brings to this study his firsthand experience among preliterate groups from the arctic to the tropics. He relates the origins, socio-economic organization, initiation rituals, and mystical rites of such diverse societies as the Eskimos, ingeniously surviving in conditions paralleling the Ice Age; the American Navahos, formerly hunters of the far north; the Lacandones of Mexico who alone were able to resist subjugation by the Mayas; the head-shrinking Jivaros of the Andes; and the Australian Aruntas.