Mentawai Shaman: Keeper of the Rain Forest

by Charles Lindsay, Reimar Schefold (Contributor)

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.

117 pages, Unknown Binding

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Charles Lindsay has made a career of photographing the intersection of nature and culture. Whether living with a rain-forest tribe, exploring the world of fly-fishing, or turning the game of golf on its head, Lindsay has focused on our complex relationship to the natural world. He is the author of Lost Balls: Great Holes, Tough Shots, and Bad Lies; Upstream: Fly-Fishing in the American West; Turtle Islands: Balinese Ritual and the Green Turtle; and Mentawai Shaman: Keeper of the Rain Forest. Between journeys he resides in New York City; Sun Valley, Idaho; and in the northern Catskills.