The Place of Stunted Ironwood Trees: A Year in the Lives of the Cattle-Herding Himba of Namibia - Hardcover

Crandall, David P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 082641270X ISBN 13: 9780826412706

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2000

Synopsis

This is an intimate account of the lives of a small group of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in and around the settlement of Otutati in northwestern Namibia. The narrative chronicles the events of a single year, though within tat year are found the events of a lifetime: birth, maturation, aging, death, generosity, meanness, accomplishment and failure.Through subtle yet vivid description, the author draws the reader into a human world that appears so utterly different. However, as the leading characters' lives and perosnal qualities, their joys, hopes and anxieties unfold, the exoticism of their world fades and the experience of life rings strangely familiar. Indeed, the narrative's power lies in its finely woven depiction of the great commonality of human life and the human condition in the midst of a peculiar and foreign world. If this is an admission anthropologists are traditionally loathe to make, yet it is so; and the reader is left with a beautiful and compelling portrait of a world and a people in which the familiar and the strange freely mix and mingle.

About this title

About the Author:

David P. Crandall is an Oxford Univeristy trained anthropologist who has lived and worked extensively among the Himba and explored the varied cultural and natural landscapes of southwestern Africa. He teaches in the Department of Anthropology at Brigham Young Univeristy.

Review:

"...offers an intimate account of the lives of a small band of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in northwestern Namibia....draw[s] readers into a world utterly different from modern Western life, yet familiar in its everyday experiences..."
—Reference & Research Book News, February 2001
"Beautiful literary style." —Choice, September 2001

"A fascinating account of a little-known and rapidly disappearing group of African herdsmen, the Himba of Namibia." —Provo Daily Herald (Utah)

"A sympathetic chronicle.. This is a striking book in every respect." —Dallas Morning News, September 2, 2001

"...offers an intimate account of the lives of a small band of cattle herders, the Himba, who live in northwestern Namibia....draw[s] readers into a world utterly different from modern Western life, yet familiar in its everyday experiences..."
—Reference & Research Book News, February 2001

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 082641270X
• ISBN 13: 9780826412706
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 269