Invented Eden

The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday

By: Robin Hemley

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Paperback | 1 January 2007

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362 Pages

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22.23 x 14.61 x 1.91

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In 1971 Manual Elizalde, a Philippine government minister with a dubious background, discovered a band of twenty-six "Stone Age" rain-forest dwellers living in total isolation. The tribe was soon featured in American newscasts and graced the cover of National Geographic. But after a series of aborted anthropological ventures, the Tasaday Reserve established by Ferdinand Marcos was closed to visitors, and the tribe vanished from public view. Twelve years later, a Swiss reporter hiked into the area and discovered that the Tasaday were actually farmers whom Elizalde had coerced into dressing in leaves and posing with stone tools. The "anthropological find of the century" had become the "ethnographic hoax of the century." Or maybe not. Robin Hemley tells a story that is more complex than either the hoax proponents or the authenticity advocates might care to admit. It is a gripping and ultimately tragic tale of innocence found, lost, and found again. The author provides an afterword for this Bison Books edition.

Robin Hemley is the author of numerous books, including The Last Studebaker and Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Industry Reviews

"Hemley, a thoughtful novelist and memoirist, painstakingly unravels a dense snarl of romantic notions, political agendas, scientific rivalries, thorny personalities, and rampant misperceptions to disclose a far stranger tale."--Booklist "Hemley is the rare Westerner who leaves the Tasaday with their enigma--and dignity--intact."--Publishers Weekly "An enthralling, impressive work for general readers and specialists alike."--Library Journal "Besides a terrific story, Invented Eden is a savvy caution: In imagining where we came from, scientists have friends, enemies, agendas, careers, and ulterior motives. Even when the chirpy gauchos of the media pampas argue about such basic stuff as whether humankind began, on the African savanna, pure of heart, telling stories and singing songs (which is what Bruce Chatwin wanted to believe), or as killers of our own kind with a double-knuckled antelope humerus (which is what Robert Ardrey used to insist) they rely on the latest morbid scenario from a desert-crazed ant-eater who has dreamed up our distant past and his future glory on an Ice Age toenail or a tooth. Worry instead about where we're going."--Harper's Magazine

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Society & Culture Popular Beliefs & Controversial Knowledge Hoaxes & Deceptions Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Sociology & Customs & Traditions Anthropology Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography History Regional & National History Asian History

Reference, Information & Interdisciplinary Subjects Interdisciplinary Studies Communication Studies Media Studies

A Note on Spellings	p. ix
A Meeting Between Centuries	p. 3
Protector of the Primitive	p. 9
The Center for Short-Lived Phenomena	p. 23
Message from the Stone Age	p. 31
Tourists in Paradise	p. 55
A New Society	p. 73
Passion Play	p. 87
"Crimed Up Very Badly"	p. 99
A Smoking Gun	p. 107
Quiet Understandings	p. 117
Heart of Grayness	p. 121
Tribal Warfare	p. 147
Return of the Native	p. 159
Video Tribe	p. 167
Loaded Words	p. 179
Trial in the Jungle	p. 185
Your Own Private Tasaday	p. 199
Missing Links	p. 217
Good Men	p. 231
Postcard from the Stone Age	p. 239
Confirmation Bias	p. 281
Afterword	p. 311
Notes	p. 313
Selected Bibliography	p. 323
Acknowledgments	p. 331
Index	p. 333
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Invented Eden

The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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