Ceremony : an anthropologist's misadventures in the African bush /

This small book would rank well as humorous fiction. Although one suspects an embellishment for effect here and there it is not fiction, but rather an account of an anthropologist's return to visit ``his'' people in northern Cameroon. Barley's intent is to witness firsthand a circumcision ceremony that is held only at erratic intervals. The adventures and frustrations that result are testimony to the problems of surviving in the Third World. Barley provides entertaining insights into the always curious relationship between the anthropologist and the subjects of study. He illustrates what every anthropologist knows (or soon comes to realize); namely, that the outside observer is very much an object of humor to those intruded upon. This kind of two-way mirror reflecting the meeting of alien cultures makes Ceremony funny without resorting at any time to ridicule. The book will provide good reading for everyone, and readers with African experience will find many familiar themes. Most appropriate for general readers.-C. Gabel, Boston University

When the alien culture begins to feel normal, it is time for the field anthropologist to go home, says Barley of the British Museum. It appears that he departed just in time. For a year and a half Barley had studied a mountain tribe, the Dowayo, in northern Cameroon. Back in London, he had word that the tribe's circumcision ceremony was imminent (this elaborate ritual occurs only at six- or seven-year intervals), so he returned. As he waited in the village for confirmation, he heard of a tribe, the Ninga, whose men had no nipples. Expecting to find a people that practiced ritual removal of male breasts, he simply found a family with birth defects. He joined the Dowayo men on a remarkably inept hunt, visited the rain-chief, learned to flute-whistle. Barley saw other Westerners on occasiona black American anthropologist who wanted to be a ``real'' African, a missionary who had just discovered solar energy, a German U.N. employee showing health films. But Barley was thwarted in his efforts to observe the circumcision rites: great, hairy caterpillars destroyed the millet cropno millet, no beer, no ceremony. This is a vastly entertaining story that abounds with characters; it is also a serious perusal of the ethics of anthropology. Photos. (September 30) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Ceremony is not, strictly speaking, an ethnography, though it contains enough information to piece together the world-view and some of the customs of the Dowayos of Northern Cameroon. The work appears more as an edited journal, mixing observations, the trials and tribulations of fieldwork, and some astute remarks on the nature of anthropology. The book is entertaining and quite accessible to the general reader, though it will not satisfy professionals in the field. As for the ``ceremony'' alluded to in the title, it remained elusive, a plague of caterpillarsand perhaps also the inevitable changes happening in even remote African villageshaving seemingly postponed the circumcision rituals which would have transformed Dowayo boys into men. Winifred Lambrecht, Anthropology Dept., Brown Univ., Providence, R.I. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A hilarious account of a British anthropologist's visit to the Dowayo of Northern Cameroon. His humor of understatement and indirectness works perfectly, as he is at once realistically blunt about and innately sensitive to the villagers' ways of thinking. He manages to underscore the comedy of cross-cultural blunders with respect for their common humanity. A German U.N. official arrived to show Films, one on malaria that emphasized the danger of pestilent mosquitos with huge close-ups, and the other an old Tom and Jerry cartoon. Tom was generally identified as a leopard, and the cartoon reinterpreted by a local lad in the form of a folk tale. The moral of the malaria education film was lost on them, however, for the mosquitos of Dowayoland ""were quite different, tiny by comparison. ""He tells of his first taxi driver in Cameroon, who was apparently ""profiting from my hire to deliver newspapers to outlying districts."" The fine business sense of the locals is apparent throughout, whether in arranging a bribe or a loan. Barley tells another story: ""Dowayos were always incredulous when I told them that 'in my village' we gave our daughters away for nothing. One Dowayo of entrepeneurial flair but low ethnographic awareness asked if I could not have a consignment shipped over. We could marry them off and keep the bride-price for ourselves. It all seemed eminently sensible. ""Having previously spent 18 months studying and living with the Dowayo, the author made this return visit hoping to witness the tribe's circumcision ceremony, a brutal but culturally central event that is held only every six or seven years. He never does see it, as a series of bad omens postpone it indefinitely, but he keeps busy deciphering tribal gossip, treading the fine lines of local custom and researching some other scholarly loose ends. His serious notes on anthropology and thoughts on the ethics of research are interesting, and a perfect complement to his wealth of amusing anecdotes. A truly funny and intelligent chronicle of an anthropologist at work. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.