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Product Description
Benedict Allen travelled through Papua New Guinea in search of a tribe that would let him participate in an initiation ceremony into manhood. He was finally admitted to the ceremonies of the Sepik tribe, whose totemic god is the crocodile. With fifteen other young males, Allen was secluded from the village in a large nest-like enclosure. Crocodile marks were carved onto their bodies with sharpened bamboo. Grey mud was applied to stop the blood-flow from their wounds, and they were beaten every day for six weeks. This book is the story of Allen's initiation experiences - a tale of love, community through shared pain and of sudden death.
About the Author
Benedict Allen is one of the UK's most prominent explorers. For the past twenty-five years he has conducted solo expeditions through the Amazon jungle, along Namibia's Skeleton Coast and across Mongolia's Gobi Desert without the use of GPS, satellite phone or other means of outside support, as we as having written ten books of his adventures and editing The Faber Book of Exploration. He was the first explorer to bring the full experience of remote travel to television - taking the genre to its limits by not using a camera crew and so bringing an immediacy to his experiences. Allen regularly gives lectures at the Royal Geographic Society.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful exploration.,
By a traveller (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea (Paperback)
Benedict Allen is one of the few people in travel circles who I feel can legitimately be called an explorer. Unconcerned with planting flags and the pith-helmet legacy he choses instead to immerse himself in a culture and learn about it as best as he can through their eyes -no camera crews no mobile phones. This journey in particular is possibly the deepest he has gone in such a respect; joining the Niaowra people in Papua New Guinea when he was then 24 to participate in the last initiation ceremony to become 'a man as strong as a crocodile'. This entailed 6 weeks of daily beatings and being cut with bamboo to create the crocodile skin like scarification marks that he still bears up and down his body to this day. But it's not merely a 'one man's journey' story it's also the last record of a culture experiencing extinction at that hands of the encroaching western religions. Sensitively written this is at all times an inspirational, absorbing and thought-provoking read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
his tv shows are better,
By
This review is from: Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea (Paperback)
I am a huge fan of Benedict Allens - seems to me he has a lot in common with Wilfred Thesinger without the misogynist bent. But this book disappointed me as I found it harder work than I expected and less insightful than the tv of his that I have seen -the skeleton coast and the trip around Mongolia. Nonetheless I found it an extraordinary tale and well told - just a bit short on how he was effected by the experience.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Short Trip to West Papua & Initiation Ceremony on the Sepik,
By Laszlo Wagner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea (Paperback)
With little preparation and information, the author flies into West Papua where he first treks from mission to mission in 10 days among the Yali and Kim Yal people of the eastern highlands.Then he makes a more adventurous trek in the southern foothils to visit the remote Obini people. However with lack of understanding of their culture and no means to communicate with them he gets chased away after 4 days. Disappointed, he gives up on West Papua and flies back to more civilized Papua New Guinea, where he manages to take part in a traditional initiation ceremony along the Sepik River. |
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