This compelling ethnography offers a nuanced case study of the ways in which the Maisin of Papua New Guinea navigate pressing economic and environmental issues. Beautifully written and accessible to most readers, Ancestral Lines is designed with introductory cultural anthropology courses in mind. Barker has organized the book into chapters that mirror many of the major topics covered in introductory cultural anthropology, such as kinship, economic pursuit, social arrangements, gender relations, religion, politics, and the environment. The second edition has been revised throughout, with a new timeline of events and a final chapter that brings readers up to date on important events since 2002, including a devastating cyclone and a major court victory against the forestry industry.

John Barker is a professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia. He has conducted anthropological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and amongst the Nuxalk and Nisga`a First Nations of Canada. He has published extensively on Christianity amongst the indigenous peoples of Oceania and British Columbia, the history of anthropology, and the impact of environmental activists in Papua New Guinea.

John Barker's profile page

"Ancestral Lines is a vivid portrait of how the Maisin draw upon their past to shape the modern present which,
like tapa designs, they continue to recreate anew. It is a rich, ambiguous depiction of rural PNG which should appeal
to multiple audiences. Because of the way it is written, theoretical simplicity, and first-person narratives of
fieldwork experience, the book is eminently suitable for entry-level undergraduates encountering cultural anthropology
for the first time. It would also be useful in courses on material culture in society and, of course, on sociocultural
change. In addition, Ancestral Lines is a welcome entry into the emerging literature on rural conservation in
the Pacific."

David Lipset, <em>Anthropos</em>

Barker's clear, engaging, and often self-reflexive writing style provides students with a readable and interesting ethnography.

Pacific Affairs