Throwim Way Leg: Adventures in the Jungles of New Guinea - Softcover

Flannery, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753807416 ISBN 13: 9780753807415

Publisher: Phoenix, 1999

Synopsis

New Guinea - after Greenland, the world's largest island - is one of the last remaining frontiers. The topography is so rugged that until the arrival of aircraft tribes in adjacent valleys were often completely isolated. The wildlife is rich and often unique: giant rats, tree-kangaroos, singing dogs, echidnas, sweat bees and birds of paradise. Conditions for research are often appalling and Flannery's health and life are threatened. The mountain peoples of New Guinea, whom Flannery gets to know well, are no longer cannibals, but until a generation ago they would mount raids on other villages, kidnapping the children and eating the adults. Magic and sorcery still play a role in their lives and Flannery observes as Catholic missionaries seek to reform traditional beliefs, and mining companies exploit the huge gold and copper resources of the island.

About this title

Review:

Mammologist Tim Flannery assumed the age of exploration had died with Darwin. Upon arrival in New Guinea, though, he realises just how wrong he's been. Hilarious and riveting, Thowim Way Leg chronicles Flannery's adventures among the mountain people of New Guinea while in hot pursuit of giant rats, tree-kangaroos, bats, possums and bandicoots. In the local pidgin, "throwim way leg" describes the first decisive step in a journey. Flannery takes that step--and soon he's clambering up steep peaks; braving jungle critters like sweat bees, hairy spiders, pythons and the occasional crocodile; and perilously close to ending up in hot water more than once. Cannibalism, he assures us, is a thing of the past, but when he comes into contact with the Miyanmin--a people who refer to a neighbouring tribe as "bokis es bilong mipela" (literally, "our refrigerator")--we're left wondering how he got out alive.

Flannery's exuberance over the wildlife he encounters is interesting enough, but it's his ability to capture the indigenous perspective that makes this book worth reading. When his new-found friends learn, for instance, of the widespread custom of circumcision, they fall about in paroxysms of laughter. Equally perplexing (to an elderly gentlemen who has never seen rice) is how Flannery and his cronies could chance upon so many delectable ant-eggs. With 14 pages of colourful, enticing, "wish-I-could-go-there-right-now" photos. --Martha Silano

Review:

`An enthralling introduction to the mountain people of New Guinea-
unimaginably remote,. Charming, cunning, cruel - and to their magnificent
land' -- The New York Times

`This book combines an irresistible author with an irresistible subject...
it is so hard to put down' -- Jared Diamond

`Tim Flannery is in the league of the all-time great explorers
like Dr David Livingstone' -- Sir David Attenborough

`an extraordinary book... you can hear the thunderstorms, smell
the hunting dogs...a journey through and beyond fear'
-- Sunday Age

About this edition

• Publisher: Phoenix
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0753807416
• ISBN 13: 9780753807415
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336