Mentawai Shaman : Keeper of the Rain Forest

A colorful portfolio of 80 photographs, augmented with excerpts from ethnographic/naturalist photographer Lindsay's journals, tells of an archaic tribe the Mentawaians or original people who live in the rain forest of Siberut, an isolated, ecologically unique jungle island in Indonesia. - This beautiful book includes 80 color photographs and journal entries by Lindsay, an ethnographic photographer who has spent considerable time among the traditional people who inhabit the rain forest on the island of Siberut in Indonesia. Lindsay's friendship with a local shaman provided an opportunity for an intimate study of the customs and rituals of a people whose way of life is threatened by logging and modernization. Shamanic initiation and the duties and practices of traditional shamans on Siberut are carefully detailed. The photographs present a vivid, compelling ethnographic portrait. An essay by Reimar Schefold (cultural anthropology, Leiden Univ.) provides historical and cultural information about shamanism on Siberut. A fascinating look at an endangered culture. Highly recommended.-- Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, Ohio.