Notebooks from New Guinea: Field Notes of a Tropical Biologist PDF
Preview Notebooks from New Guinea: Field Notes of a Tropical Biologist
NOTEBOOKS FROM NEW GUINEA NOTEBOOKS FROM NEW GUINEA Field notes of a tropical biologist VOJTECH NOVOTNY Translated from the Czech by DAVID SHORT Illustrated by BENSON AVEA BEGO 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork qVojtechNovotny2009 Translationq2005DavidShort Illustrationsq2008BensonAveaBego Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2009 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroupintheUK ISBN978–0–19–956165–0 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 ...IwastobegintheeightyearsofwanderingthroughtouttheMalay Archipelago, which constituted the central and controlling incident of my life. AlfredR.Wallace MyLife:ARecordofEventsandOpinions 1905 This page intentionally left blank Contents = ANoteonthe EnglishTranslation xi By Way of Introduction 3 HowI got toPapua New Guinea 5 ...andwhatcamenext 7 8 MALARIA INTERMEZZO Island of a Thousand Tongues and a Wild, Wild Landscape 11 Don’tgo talking tothe neighbours! 13 The riseoffolklore 22 Buy theBookof Books, we have noother 25 Luckyseventeen 28 The ageofdarkness 30 The character ofaNewGuineatown 32 Inthe Adventist aviatorswe trust! 34 37 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: MaburaHill,1997 The sightof aXeetinglandscape 38 The dwarf andthewhale 40 Bloodmaybe thicker,but... 42 Givingandgetting betweenenemies 43 Viewsonwomen 45 Wouldyoucare for anextrawife? 48 Our houseis ourcastle 50 viii Contents 52 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Honolulu,1998 Onthe origins ofdisease 54 Piga` la papuenne 57 New Year’sEve amongthe natives 59 The sad Wnaleof afuneral feast 62 Thou shaltnoteatthyneighbour 64 Livingwithanepidemic 68 The spiritsofKarkarIsland 70 Old and New Customs of a Tribal Society 73 What the forestpeoplethink 75 The lossofthe Titanic 83 The artofchronometry 85 Yeshallnot succour your neighbour 87 89 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: NewBritain,1999 Null modosine ulla 89 Theychewed andwereof goodcheer together... 91 Grasstherapy 92 Fly-drive? 95 The dearest beerinthe land 97 Dying inpairs 98 Moneytoburn 100 102 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Madang,2000 Onwardsand upwards,ye menofgreed! 104 Malariamedicine 106 If there’s nomagiciantohand, youcan always trythe doctor 109 Wherethereis no doctor 112 Shipsthatdo notcomea-sailingby 114 The Antichristofthe endof themillennium 116 We’vegot ameme,aren’twe the luckyones! 121 Contents ix MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Cˇeske´ Budeˇjovice,2001 123 The ComingofBlackJesus 125 The planetest 127 The daya helicopterXiesin 130 Forest games 132 Where monkeysdefecateon people’sheads 134 The problemsof arich nature conservationist 136 Well begun... 138 142 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Madang2001 The arrow phenomenon 143 Frontieror frontier 145 Onthefringe 147 Thosepasturesgreen beyondthe oceanwave andothers yet withinthe deepestgrave 148 Amatteroflifeanddeath 150 Thatsenseoffear 152 AMelanesianLittle Otik andother Wlmreviews 155 The hippoandthe cathedral 158 How to Do Science in Papua New Guinea 161 The historyofoneresearchpublication 163 Scientists,missionaries,gold-diggers 174 Andit wassucha beautifulhypothesis 177 179 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Wanang,2002 Howwedidn’tsay thankyouto thespirits ofthe forest 180 Analysisof aluckycharm 183 TheweevilsofBaiteta 184 Boredom inthe jungle 187 Twokinds ofscience 189 Footballin ajungle clearing 192 196 MALARIAINTERMEZZO: Galisagan,2006 Great secretsofscientiWc research 198
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