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92 reviews for:
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art
Carl Hoffman
3.46 AVERAGE
92 reviews for:
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art
Carl Hoffman
3.46 AVERAGE
This was a very intriguing book about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller while collecting art in primitive Asmat. Shrouded in mystery and secrets, cultural barriers, and taboo, Hoffman explores the circumstances surrounding Rockefeller's disappearance. Hoffman takes a look at historical events leading up to Rockefeller's arrival in Asmat, as well as the culture of the Asmat people to show that while official reports suggest Rockefeller drowned, he was most likely cannibalized.
Two things stuck out to me as I read this book, and that I think Hoffman pointed out very well. First, Michael Rockefeller's arrival in Asmat left the region and the people forever changed. His arrival and subsequent disappearance had a lasting impact on the people and the culture. The search and the helicopters and in influx of white men to the region coupled with their superstitious nature, left the people guarded and fearful. As whites imposed their values and culture on the people, the Asmat people's fear was also coupled with shame and a sense of a loss of history and culture. Things would never be the same after Michael Rockefeller's quest for primitive art.
Second, that the Rockefeller family, despite their wealth and resources, searched so little for Michael. They readily accepted the drowning cause and hurried back to America despite the evidence to the contrary. Even if they questioned the cannibalism theories, they only remained in Asmat for less than 2 weeks and never returned again to question or search. As Hoffman points out, they had the power and resources to conduct a more thorough and intensive investigation. Most people would agree, that if this was our son or brother, we'd exhaust all leads until we had concrete answers or until we'd exhausted all resources.
A compelling and great read.
Two things stuck out to me as I read this book, and that I think Hoffman pointed out very well. First, Michael Rockefeller's arrival in Asmat left the region and the people forever changed. His arrival and subsequent disappearance had a lasting impact on the people and the culture. The search and the helicopters and in influx of white men to the region coupled with their superstitious nature, left the people guarded and fearful. As whites imposed their values and culture on the people, the Asmat people's fear was also coupled with shame and a sense of a loss of history and culture. Things would never be the same after Michael Rockefeller's quest for primitive art.
Second, that the Rockefeller family, despite their wealth and resources, searched so little for Michael. They readily accepted the drowning cause and hurried back to America despite the evidence to the contrary. Even if they questioned the cannibalism theories, they only remained in Asmat for less than 2 weeks and never returned again to question or search. As Hoffman points out, they had the power and resources to conduct a more thorough and intensive investigation. Most people would agree, that if this was our son or brother, we'd exhaust all leads until we had concrete answers or until we'd exhausted all resources.
A compelling and great read.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
A savage tale of the fate of Michael Rockefeller. Very, very detailed.
Repetitive; annoying; cloying.
When the author starts questioning if Nelson Rockefeller mourned his son enough i was done.
When the author starts questioning if Nelson Rockefeller mourned his son enough i was done.
My book club recently read The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost and we were all really disappointed how misleading the title was and how there wasn’t a single cannibal in sight throughout the whole thing. Fast forward a few months and we decide to pick up The Savage Harvest. The book centers on the disappearance and presumed death of Michael Rockefeller, an heir to one of the largest fortunes in U.S. history, while he was on an expedition to collect primitive art in the 1960s. No one knows for sure what happened after his boat capsized and he disappeared, but theories range from him drowning to him going AWOL and living with the natives to the most interesting theory that he was ceremoniously killed and eaten by cannibals once he swam to shore. That theory ends up being pretty much confirmed by the end of the book. The opening chapter is a fictionalized account of what would have happened to Michael during the cannibalization and it was horrifying and detailed and I had trouble falling asleep the night I read it. The rest of the book jumps back and forth between modern day and the time around Michael disappeared. His own journal entries are sprinkled throughout the story and really helped get an idea for his mindset and what he was trying to accomplish on his travels. I thought it was great that the author actually attempted the same journey that Michael Rockefeller did and ended up getting more information than had been gathered in 50 years since Michael disappeared. I didn’t rank this book higher because I felt it got a little dull and drawn out in places. I felt like the author didn’t have quite enough material for the book, so he had to stretch it a little bit, but other than that, this was a really good piece of non-fiction. I ended up learned a lot about this area of the world and the culture there. I would love to go visit the Met and see the artwork on display that Michael died for.
Do you remember how, in early seasons of Survivor, the finale would show Jeff Probst traveling breathlessly to the jungle to deliver the final votes to the CBS studio? This book is the narrative equivalent of that sequence, except with cannibals.
The author is clearly very proud of his research and spends long paragraphs telling of his travels and his meetings with Asmat tribe members. I would have preferred to know more about Michael Rockefeller and his interest in Native art. But the author is not interested in Rockefeller's life, only his death, and his death is only a puzzle to be solved in (the author hopes) the creepiest way possible. (It's hard not to picture the author reciting the essentials of his theory around a campfire, with a flashlight illuminating his face.)
Of course, the author reaches the conclusion that cannibals ate Rockefeller. That is the conclusion he wanted to reach all along. There doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence for this conclusion, but the author has fallen in love with his theory and he is determined to hold onto it. I don't believe a word of it -- Occam's Razor suggests that Rockefeller drowned -- and when reading this book, I often wondered whether some of the Asmats with whom the author spoke were pranking him.
In short, Michael Rockefeller deserved much better than this. Savage Harvest is not a good book, and I cannot recommend it to anyone who is not Jeff Probst. I suspect that Jeff Probst, however, would thoroughly enjoy it.
The author is clearly very proud of his research and spends long paragraphs telling of his travels and his meetings with Asmat tribe members. I would have preferred to know more about Michael Rockefeller and his interest in Native art. But the author is not interested in Rockefeller's life, only his death, and his death is only a puzzle to be solved in (the author hopes) the creepiest way possible. (It's hard not to picture the author reciting the essentials of his theory around a campfire, with a flashlight illuminating his face.)
Of course, the author reaches the conclusion that cannibals ate Rockefeller. That is the conclusion he wanted to reach all along. There doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence for this conclusion, but the author has fallen in love with his theory and he is determined to hold onto it. I don't believe a word of it -- Occam's Razor suggests that Rockefeller drowned -- and when reading this book, I often wondered whether some of the Asmats with whom the author spoke were pranking him.
In short, Michael Rockefeller deserved much better than this. Savage Harvest is not a good book, and I cannot recommend it to anyone who is not Jeff Probst. I suspect that Jeff Probst, however, would thoroughly enjoy it.
Initially this book started off interesting less because of the Rockefeller mystery and more from the descriptions of the Asmat and Papua New Guinea. But even early on (and throughout the book), I didn't love the tone that Hoffman took when describing the Asmat. It came across to me as condescending and entitled, and I think it got worse the further I got into the book (or maybe I my annoyance just built more). Lots of descriptions of how the Asmat are so weird and how their beliefs and culture are inconceivable to someone who from a culture that is not "primitive." Throughout the book Hoffman wrote with a sense that he deserved to know the story of Rockefeller's death, even though the Asmat had no interest in telling him anything and the Rockefeller family wanted the case left alone. Overall, the tone felt like a combination of old-school anthropologist and busybody.
This book was interesting. It was fascinating to learn about a culture and time period I don't know a lot about. I felt like towards the end the author had some great points about culture. At the same time, he also brought in too many of his personal opinions at that point. And I didn't care for how he just decided he knew what happened.
I first heard about this story in an article somewhere - Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker, or something along those lines - and, mentioning it offhand to my father as an interesting bit of history, ended up getting this for Christmas.
I want to like this book more, because there's something interesting to the idea of trying to uncover what happened to Rockefeller - the question of how much you can really know about an event that took place in a time and place with no cameras, no DNA, no fingerprints, etc. - and Hoffman's travels among the people of the region are interesting and seem to go beyond your standard travelogue. However, Hoffman blows what little trust he has from the jump with a lurid theory about Rockefeller's fate initially presented as fact, which set my teeth on edge for the entire rest of the book. It sometimes feels like the bare minimum is being done to not make this a sensationalistic account, and while I want to think Hoffman had good intentions in writing all of this, in the end it all comes out in the wash and just rated as a standard travel/history book for me.
I want to like this book more, because there's something interesting to the idea of trying to uncover what happened to Rockefeller - the question of how much you can really know about an event that took place in a time and place with no cameras, no DNA, no fingerprints, etc. - and Hoffman's travels among the people of the region are interesting and seem to go beyond your standard travelogue. However, Hoffman blows what little trust he has from the jump with a lurid theory about Rockefeller's fate initially presented as fact, which set my teeth on edge for the entire rest of the book. It sometimes feels like the bare minimum is being done to not make this a sensationalistic account, and while I want to think Hoffman had good intentions in writing all of this, in the end it all comes out in the wash and just rated as a standard travel/history book for me.