The Sorcerers of Dobu a Social Anthropology of The Dobu Islanders of The Western Pacific by R.F. Fortune with an introduction by B. Malinowski
Publication: 1932 Routledge & Sons; First U.K. Edition
The author presents a first-hand picture of the social dynamics of a Melanesian tribe. An important study of the effects of sorcery upon the private lives of a primative people. The book is both a record of their daily tribal life and an especially rich source of information on primitive psychology. According to the author, the Dobuans live in fear. The darkness, the possesion of property, food from another's hand- all are pregnant with danger. Dr. Fortune shows how this suspicion and fear between man and man influences the personlities of the Dobuans, produces false faces of friendliness, and handicaps relations amongs the tribes.
Subjects include: Custom and Magic, Sketch of the Concept of Ritual, The Ritual of the Garden, The Diviner at Work, The Sorcerers in Action, The Spirit of the Dead, Death and Mourning Exchanges, Administration and Sorcery, Heat and the Black Art, Futher Notes on the Black Art, and many other lines of content
Condition: publishers blue cloth boards, title to spine, some light foxing to the upper edge of textblock, lacking jacket but a bright clean copy in Near Fine condition