Les îles d’Anir, Esprits, masques et spectacles dans le Sud de la Nouvelle-Irlande

We all remember the ethnographic trips carried out by Malinowski, Margaret Mead, Jean Malaurie, or Lévi-Strauss, of which many gave were recorded and gave memorable works. Can this practice still survive today, at the time of internet and globalization? It seems to be ‘alive and well’ if we believe this book, the result of a study on the field, partly financed by Vacheron Constantin, and of which the title alone is an exotic trip on its own. Who can tell us today where New Ireland is located? Who knows its tradition of masks and ritual celebrations? Anthropologist Antje Denner explored this patrimony while spending two years in the Anir islands, looking into the world of spirits, the funerary rituals or a reality that is much more difficult to penetrate, that of their secret societies. The book contains a glossary of indigenous terms, a list of informers. All is in compliance with the best practices of the past but the result is much more accessible given the abundance of informative color photographs.

• Les îles d’Anir, Esprits, masques et spectacles dans le Sud de la Nouvelle-Irlande by Antje S. Denner, Fondation culturelle Musée Barbier-Mueller, Hazan, 2013, 176 p., €20.