Like People You See in a Dream: First Contact in Six Papuan Societies

by Edward L. Schieffelin, Robert Crittenden

A Stanford University Press classic.

Genres: Anthropology

377 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Cameo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about "first contact" scenarios from an Australian government patrol into the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea. It was very academic and dry, which made it hard to want to pick it up, but it did have quite a few fascinating experiences that made it worth while. It was full of a lot of moral dilemmas, which provided good food for thought. It just fascinates me to think about the experience from the natives point of view. The only thing I can think of to compare to our experience would be if aliens came wandering through our city one day - aliens who were much more powerful and could easily kill us, aliens who demanded food and tried to compensate us with some of their technology, but technology that didn't make sense to us, aliens that killed some people, and then they just left. However, even this isn't a good comparison because we talk about aliens and aliens are integrated in our stories and folklore. These people had no idea that other people existed in this world. Their world was so tiny and limited. It would just be such a crazy, mind-blowing experience!