Take a photo of a barcode or cover
88 reviews for:
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art
Carl Hoffman
3.46 AVERAGE
88 reviews for:
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art
Carl Hoffman
3.46 AVERAGE
Kind of interesting---did Michael Rockefeller drown off the coast of Papua New Guinea, or was he killed and eaten by headhunters? Despite the fact that you could immediately tell what the author thought, there isn't a lot of real "proof" or anything new, really, but this was still pretty interesting. Skip it if you are too squeamish for descriptions of cannibalistic rituals.
There's the mystery of young Michael Roosevelt's disappearance, but it's the Asmat tribes from the jungles of New Guinea who take center stage. Hoffman does a fine job of describing the brutal culture untouched until recently by modern civilization without tones of condescension or sensationalism.
Tragic tale of a lesser-known member of one of America's most wealthy and well-known families. This book could have gripped the reader and held on from page one but instead goes off in a million different ways with several various side plots. As a result, I lost interest about 1/3 of the way through.
After a lifetime of reading and 20 years of librarianship spent researching myriad topics, I thought I at least knew of just about every subject under the sun. "Savage Harvest" opens up with a quick dip into the deep end of the unknown: a blow-by-blow, smear-by-smear account of a man being headhunted and cannibalized. I assure you, there is nothing to equate it with in any other culture. Rather, it is a phenomenon that is starkly in contrast to every social more I've ever encountered. It's disturbing, gross, and compels you to read further, to discover exactly who these Asmat people are, perpetrators of such crimes of gore against humanity.
To add even more flash to an already sensational story, what if the alleged victim was the scion of one of the richest families in the world? It's stories like this that make a good nonfiction book so delectable. No need to suspend your view of reality -this IS reality. Michael Rockefeller disappeared on an art gathering expedition to the southern shore of Dutch New Guinea in 1961. His boat overturned, and while his companion opted to stay with the boat, Michael bravely chose to swim the 9 or so miles to shore, aided by some empty gas cans for buoyancy. After that, the rest is unclear. The official story: Michael drowned or was eaten by sharks (completely and without a trace?), and his body was never recovered. Hoffman delves through thousands of documents and makes his own pilgrimage to the Asmat region to find what happened. Even in 2012, 50 years after the fact, he finds the village unwilling to share the details of the day Michael disappeared forever. Our own culture is so immersed in the cult of rich and powerful, it's hard to believe that someone out there can't be bought off, doesn't want the notoriety of being attached to a famous name. And yet....some secrets are meant to be kept.
Carl Hoffman is a fantastic writer (he's been published in National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Smithsonian, among others). He knows how to bring the armchair explorer along for a very realistic ride. Carl, thanks for the nightmares, I enjoyed them thoroughly! And thank you for bringing those of us who think we know a little taste of the unknown and unknowable. Superb!
To add even more flash to an already sensational story, what if the alleged victim was the scion of one of the richest families in the world? It's stories like this that make a good nonfiction book so delectable. No need to suspend your view of reality -this IS reality. Michael Rockefeller disappeared on an art gathering expedition to the southern shore of Dutch New Guinea in 1961. His boat overturned, and while his companion opted to stay with the boat, Michael bravely chose to swim the 9 or so miles to shore, aided by some empty gas cans for buoyancy. After that, the rest is unclear. The official story: Michael drowned or was eaten by sharks (completely and without a trace?), and his body was never recovered. Hoffman delves through thousands of documents and makes his own pilgrimage to the Asmat region to find what happened. Even in 2012, 50 years after the fact, he finds the village unwilling to share the details of the day Michael disappeared forever. Our own culture is so immersed in the cult of rich and powerful, it's hard to believe that someone out there can't be bought off, doesn't want the notoriety of being attached to a famous name. And yet....some secrets are meant to be kept.
Carl Hoffman is a fantastic writer (he's been published in National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Smithsonian, among others). He knows how to bring the armchair explorer along for a very realistic ride. Carl, thanks for the nightmares, I enjoyed them thoroughly! And thank you for bringing those of us who think we know a little taste of the unknown and unknowable. Superb!
Difficult to listen to at times (I had the audiobook) but the portrayal of the tribal culture 50 years ago and today is utterly fascinating and the detective story is compelling. It is just mind boggling to think of these peoples who are apart from the history and development that shape every moment of our lives. I have seen that canoe many times and knew nothing of its origin. I look forward to visiting it and the other pieces Michael collected, on my next trip to New York.
3.5
I wasn't far into the book when I realized this was going to more be about the author's journey compared to anything else. His journey discovering himself among these tribal people, all while looking for Michael Rockefeller.
I'm pretty sure I've heard of this case before. I want to say that there was some crazy show that Animal Planet did during their Monster Week that suggested that Rockefeller was killed by some mysterious beast, not cannibals. But, whatever. I heard the name, heard the story, and it was interesting to hear it. I side with Hoffman; it was probably cannibals that did it. He had more than enough flotation devices strapped to himself, and it's just weird that his body was never found with how many people searched for him in the beginning and through the years.
One thing I really didn't like about this book was the way it was structured. It bounced between modern day and Rockefeller's time and then to colonialism without rhyme or reason. Sometimes it was hard to track what was going on at all, and it would take me a moment to catch back up. I'm sure I missed key points because of that. Another thing I didn't like was the detail of cannibalism. I swore I was going to vomit at one point because of it, not a good thing to do at work. Cannibalism and myself go back a long way, but the detail was just too much for me.
Besides those complaints, it was a good book. I'd read it again since it was more interesting, for me, to read about a culture trying to adapt rapidly to major changes.
I wasn't far into the book when I realized this was going to more be about the author's journey compared to anything else. His journey discovering himself among these tribal people, all while looking for Michael Rockefeller.
I'm pretty sure I've heard of this case before. I want to say that there was some crazy show that Animal Planet did during their Monster Week that suggested that Rockefeller was killed by some mysterious beast, not cannibals. But, whatever. I heard the name, heard the story, and it was interesting to hear it. I side with Hoffman; it was probably cannibals that did it. He had more than enough flotation devices strapped to himself, and it's just weird that his body was never found with how many people searched for him in the beginning and through the years.
One thing I really didn't like about this book was the way it was structured. It bounced between modern day and Rockefeller's time and then to colonialism without rhyme or reason. Sometimes it was hard to track what was going on at all, and it would take me a moment to catch back up. I'm sure I missed key points because of that. Another thing I didn't like was the detail of cannibalism. I swore I was going to vomit at one point because of it, not a good thing to do at work. Cannibalism and myself go back a long way, but the detail was just too much for me.
Besides those complaints, it was a good book. I'd read it again since it was more interesting, for me, to read about a culture trying to adapt rapidly to major changes.
"Savage Harvest" starts out by answering the central question of the book--how the author believes Michael Rockefeller died. It then reverses itself to create two narrative tracts, 1.) the history of the Asmat leading up to the fateful Rockefeller episode, and 2.) the author's modern experiences in the area.
On the one hand, the author's argument is very credible. He explains a society in which head-hunting, like the art Rockefeller, had context; denying the headhunting and cannibalism, he suggests, did not address the context in which those practices formed. This context explains both what happened to Rockefeller and why the Asmat never came forward to talk about this afterwards. On these grounds, the author is very believable. He is also very persuasive when he discusses his sources.
On the other hand, the author comes off as simply too confident, to the point of being stagily so. He wants to find out where/how Rockefeller died in order to let his spirit move on, as if Rockeller's memory is the property of this author. He talks about the richness of his experience with the Asmat, and while it does seem tense, a total of four months spent there is not quite the impression he gives. (To be clear: He does state that length of time in the book.) He exclaims that he finds it unthinkable that the Rockefellers never bothered to go to Asmat (after an initial trip there). That issue of confidence is a problem for moments like this, because it leads the author to overlook or dismiss alternative scenarios. For example, perhaps the Rockefellers never went back to Asmat because they felt it would not be useful; they knew their family member was dead and pursuing a grim theory without any tangible evidence may have been seen as damaging to their need for closure.
Finally, I'm not convinced how much new evidence was found in this investigation, other than the Dutch archival paperwork cited by the author.
Overall: It was a good book, but I'm not convinced it was a great one.
On the one hand, the author's argument is very credible. He explains a society in which head-hunting, like the art Rockefeller, had context; denying the headhunting and cannibalism, he suggests, did not address the context in which those practices formed. This context explains both what happened to Rockefeller and why the Asmat never came forward to talk about this afterwards. On these grounds, the author is very believable. He is also very persuasive when he discusses his sources.
On the other hand, the author comes off as simply too confident, to the point of being stagily so. He wants to find out where/how Rockefeller died in order to let his spirit move on, as if Rockeller's memory is the property of this author. He talks about the richness of his experience with the Asmat, and while it does seem tense, a total of four months spent there is not quite the impression he gives. (To be clear: He does state that length of time in the book.) He exclaims that he finds it unthinkable that the Rockefellers never bothered to go to Asmat (after an initial trip there). That issue of confidence is a problem for moments like this, because it leads the author to overlook or dismiss alternative scenarios. For example, perhaps the Rockefellers never went back to Asmat because they felt it would not be useful; they knew their family member was dead and pursuing a grim theory without any tangible evidence may have been seen as damaging to their need for closure.
Finally, I'm not convinced how much new evidence was found in this investigation, other than the Dutch archival paperwork cited by the author.
Overall: It was a good book, but I'm not convinced it was a great one.
Honestly, I couldn't get through this for the life of me. More about anthropology than anything else.