From Longhouse to Village: Samo Social Change

by R. Daniel Shaw

These case studies in cultural anthropology are designed for students in beginning and intermediate courses in the social sciences, to bring them insights into the richness and complexity of human life as it is lived in different ways, in different places. The authors are men and women who have lived in the societies they write about and who are professionally trained as observers and interpreters of human behavior. Also, the authors are teachers; in their writing, the needs of the student reader remain foremost. [From the Foreword]

Genres: Anthropology

148 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Graham Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first course I took in graduate school was Dr. Daniel Shaw's Thinking Anthropologically. In this course we learned about social structures and ways societies organized themselves. We used From Longhouse to Village as a case study. Twelve years later, I am again in awe at how well Dr. Shaw was able to see, understand, and eloquently write about the Samo people. (Okay, it's an ethnography, not a work of fiction, so it's rather dry; however, there are plenty of vignettes from his field notes/journal that puncture the monotony and serve as examples to the factual presentations.) Their lives were dramatically changed by one simple suggestion: congregate in villages instead of isolated (extended) family homes so the government could keep track of them better. Shaw does an excellent job describing how that suggestion, as well as others, affected the people in both positive and negative ways. His ability to write without judgement but also not hiding unsavory aspects is commendable. I can still see this tall, lanky professor excitingly helping 15 new graduate school students fall in love with his adopted people. This book is a treasure.