The hold of the past

摘要

Observed at a distance, traditional societies hold a great fascination for people who are raised in the secure world of middle-class modernity. There is a keen appetite for memoirs and works of popular anthropology that offer some sense of what it is like to grow up in a setting where loyalty to the extended family, the faith, the tribe is unquestioned; and where people's self-worth depends on acting out rituals and roles inherited from distant ancestors.