Throwim Way Leg: Adventures in the Jungles of New Guinea

by TimFlannery (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $4.10

  New Guinea - after Greenland, the world's largest island - is one of the last remaining frontiers. The topography is so rugged that until the arrival of aircraft tribes in adjacent valleys were often completely isolated. The wildlife is rich and often unique: giant rats, tree-kangaroos, singing dogs, echidnas, sweat bees and birds of paradise. Conditions for research are often appalling and Flannery's health and life are threatened. The mountain peoples of New Guinea, whom Flannery gets to know well, are no longer cannibals, but until a generation ago they would mount raids on other villages, kidnapping the children and eating the adults. Magic and sorcery still play a role in their lives and Flannery observes as Catholic missionaries seek to reform traditional beliefs, and mining companies exploit the huge gold and copper resources of the island.

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $4.78

  Throwim Way Leg is a book of wonder and excitement, struggle and sadness, a love letter to Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya. In New Guinea Pidgin, Tim Flannery explains, 'throwim way leg means to go on a journey. It describes the action of thrusting out your leg to take the first step of what can be a long march...' Here he invites us to share in his breathtaking adventures, as he meets skilled hunters and befriends a shaman, climbs mountains never before scaled by Europeans, discovers new species and, deep in the jungle, stumbles across the giant bones of extinct marsupials. He also writes movingly about the fate of indigenous people when their intricate cultures collide with mining companies and the high-tech modern world.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1998

  $3.19