Habitat Economy and Society: A Geographical Introduction to Ethnology (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Habitat Economy and Society: A Geographical Introduction to Ethnology<br><br>Of Europeans could be induced to watch a cinema film of our everyday life they would doubtless regard it as an amazing incomprehensible and rather terrifying sight. We lived in a land very similar in its scenery and climate to their own island; but every morning so far as they might understand we left a cliff face by a small hole entered hard and shiny houses which moved over the ground went into another great cliff-house and climbed inside to a small chamber into which light came from another hole covered by a Slab Of rock through which you could be seen. All day and all the week it seemed we took no steps whatever to Obtain food except to ask for it in other large structures which were apparently full of nothing else. In the evenings if it were summer we played with other people hitting a ball into marked squares across a net or moved with peculiar gait round and round each male embracing a female in a crowd Of similarly embraced couples while noises emerged from a square drum-like Object which nobody mani pulated to make it play. Yet the magical purpose of this ritual remained quite Obscure. Our magical beliefs might be detected in visits to a man who tapped us all over and finally gave us a small white square which when taken to another magician was exchanged for a transparent box of magic fiuid. All this time we gathered no fruits had no personal stores of food hunted no animals. From similar views Of the countryside the Tasmanians would slowly understand that some of our fellows did produce food but that their efforts were SO amaz ingly prolific that the great mass Of the people could live packed together in large settlements occupying themselves all day long making all Sorts Of unnatural Objects move clang and clatter despite an Obvious freedom to sit about In some quiet spot to tell and hear stories sing songs or gamble. If the scenes were various enough the natives would discover story tellers gamblers and community singers but for a long time many of our activities would seem incredible and meaningless.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases an imperfection in the original such as a blemish or missing page may be replicated in our edition. We do however repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.