This book is a major contribution to the ethnography of the Semai, an indigenous people of Peninsular Malaysia, and to the literature on non-violent and egalitarian societies. It is very unusual in its style of presentation. The author attempts - with considerable success - to get beyond the bland generalisations that anthropologists normally use to describe the 'culture' of a people. His goal is to convey how the Semai feel about the world and their lives and to show how their emotions affect their behaviour. The experimental style makes the book more vivid and engaging than most anthropological monographs, but it also makes it somewhat disjointed.
展开▼
