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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I just finished "Cannibals are Human: A District Officer's Wife in New Guinea" by Helen McLeod.

It's a very interesting book about the wife of an Australian district officer who was trying to curtail inter-tribal warfare between PNG highland tribes during the decades when PNG was an Australian mandate.

The woman herself is quite admirable hiking 100kms in the highlands mostly barefoot and covered in leeches. It also describes the state of tribal warfare as it stood, in objective terms, without being too derogatory or dismissive. It emphasizes the truly vast differences between regional tribes, their farming prowess, and the existential threat that looms over all of them from centuries of war. It also doesn't wrap everything up in a neat bow at the end. The Australian governance wasn't perfect, the influence of western technology and medicine was paradigm-shifting and both good and bad, independence was a shitshow, but the author considered it a painful necessity.

[–] dresden@discuss.online 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Is it a good book for someone who has no idea about any of the things you have mentioned?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

It would be helpful to learn about the pre-war colonial divisions of the island of New Guinea (it was divided into 3 sections, Dutch, German, and British), the wartime significance of New Guinea (Japanese foothold and March to Port Moresby, US airbases in Hollandia) the handover of West and the postwar UN decision that PNG should be an Australian mandate (many underdeveloped but war-impacted areas were made 'mandates' of colonial, great, and middle-powers. In the context of the time, Australia was considered a 'middle power') until independence was viable.

That gives you some context as to why Australians, Germans, British, and Dutch are romping all over the island.

But otherwise, it is a pretty encapsulated story of a handful of individuals that's easy to follow