The Bamboo Fire: Field Work With the New Guinea Wape

by William E. Mitchell

Not only is this work a vivid description of the Wape people living in the rain mountains of New Guinea, but also it is a personal and emotional account of how the author tried to understand them and the kinds of intercultural problems that were engendered in the process. Mitchell gives the reader a feeling of the reflexive nature of the fieldwork experience, demonstrating how the anthropologist proceeds in his or her work as well as describing the social and psychological context in which that work evolves.

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986