The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
TLDR: “I just didn’t get it”
I feel guilty saying that I “read” this book, because I abandoned it after about 100 pages. I just didn’t understand why the author was getting at.
The first chapter was a long discussion of his experience with the culture of New Guineans. They are suitably bizarre, and he goes deep into how the have distrust of people “on the other side of the mountain,” and how they randomly kill each other and bring gifts to each other.
What I was struggling with is how this relates to the subtitle: “What can we learn from traditional societies?” I just wasn’t making the connection.
Maybe I didn’t give it enough time? Maybe he brings it around in the end?
I’m not sure, but I feel like he should have made some earlier attempt to explain what we were doing, intellectually.
I feel like I failed on this one.
Book Info
- I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
- A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.