Headhunting in the Solomon Islands Around the Coral Sea (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

This book tells the story of two young American women who set off on a four-year expedition to the South Seas in the 1920s. They had the lofty goal of painting "the portrait of a race of primitive negroids living in the Southwest Pacific." Of the two young women, Mytinger was the painter, and her friend Margaret Warner was her faithful companion and assistant.

Mytinger writes from a time before the word "politically correct" was invented, and much of the terminology that she uses to describe the local people that she meets would not be considered acceptable today. However, the manner of her descriptions are not at all out of line with the standards of her time. Modern readers interested in living conditions in the South Seas, especially in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea during the time just before the Second World War will find this a treasure trove of information. Mytinger tells us about life on the plantations, and life in native villages. She tells us who was getting along with whom, the Americans, the British, the Germans, Japanese, and of course, members of all the various local tribes.

Paintings shown in book are very intense. Endpapers are black and white map of the Solomon Islands and the Coral sea.