Wild People

Blurb

Once known to the world only through the reports of a few anthropologists and missionaries, the island of Borneo is getting a lot of press these days--especially now that its once-huge tracts of rainforest are falling ever faster for Tokyo paneling and Euromodern furniture. British journalist Andro Linklater set out to have a look at the headhunting Iban, whose formerly inaccessible homeland lies smack in the chainsaw's path. As a work of amateur anthropology, Wild People outdoes many professional efforts to explain ways of life in societies that are close to nature. The book is not for the squeamish, however. Linklater's excursus on the bloodsucking leeches of the island, alternately humorous and revolting, puts his book in the same universe as Redmond O'Hanlon's masterpiece Into the Heart of Borneo.