Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a family of beautiful, accomplished women at a time when most women stayed home. But the spectacular women in my mother's family also suffered spectacularly, and I was determined to understand family life at its very roots. I studied anthropology and, over a 15-year period, lived in a remote part of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea among a group of Gimi women who spent most of their time apart from men. I shared women's difficult daily lives, participated in their separate rites, learned their myths, and, through my writing, have devoted myself to giving them voices of their own.


I wrote

Between Culture and Fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

By Gillian Gillison,

Book cover of Between Culture and Fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

What is my book about?

Myths of Gimi people of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea convey painful truths of human existence—disease, aging, mortality—as…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Magic, Science and Religion: and Other Essays

Gillian Gillison Why did I love this book?

Malinowski's pioneering work on people of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea still holds a thrill because, after a century, it remains unique in its depth and precision. 

Malinowski was an aristocrat and a snob who, like the armchair thinkers he admired, considered himself a scientist after Darwin. But when World War I broke out, as a Pole in London, he risked deportation to Austria-Hungary or internment as an 'enemy alien'.

Instead, Malinowski remained 'stuck' in the Trobriands for the duration of the War where, with the scrupulousness of one trained in math and physics and the intensity of an 'imprisoned' participant-observer, he produced the first firsthand accounts of indigenous life.  

By Bronislaw Malinowski,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Magic, Science and Religion as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been…


Book cover of The Rites of Passage

Gillian Gillison Why did I love this book?

The discovery that 'rituals of transition' in the lives of individuals—birth, puberty, marriage, childbirth, deathare structurally the same and analogous to a destabilizing "passage" through 'no man's land'is an insight of genius.

My enduring 'affection' for ivory tower thinkers comes from having actually applied their ideas among a people in the New Guinea Highlands over a period of 15 years. 

The methods of these early masters are sometimes faulty"shreds and patches" of exotic beliefs and practices are grouped together, torn from their contexts in time and geographybut by trying to extend Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution into the realm of culture, they came up with universals of human existence that should never be forgotten.  

By Arnold Van Gennep, Monika B Vizedom (translator), Gabrielle L Caffee (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Rites of Passage as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Folklorist Arnold van Gennep's masterwork, The Rites of Passage, has been a staple of anthropological education for more than a century. First published in French in 1909, and translated into English by the University of Chicago Press in 1960, this landmark book explores how the life of an individual in any society can be understood as a succession of stages: birth, puberty, marriage, parenthood, advancement to elderhood, and, finally, death. Van Gennep's command of the ethnographic record enabled him to discern crosscultural patterns in rituals of separation, transition, and incorporation. With compelling precision, he elaborated the terms that would both…


Book cover of Death & The Right Hand

Gillian Gillison Why did I love this book?

This book consists of two exquisite essays, "The Collective Representation of Death" and "The Pre-Eminence of the Right Hand: A Study in Religious Polarity," written by an "armchair" philosopher searching for the origins and essence of human existence in exotic places: he looked for the meaning of death in the mortuary rites of the Dyak in Borneo; and the source of dualistic thinking in human anatomy. 

The excitement of these works comes from recognizing ourselves in others, distant in time and space.  They serve as a corrective and departure from the current exaggeration of cultures' uniqueness and national identities that lead, ultimately, to indifference about the fates of other peoples.

By Robert Hertz, Claudia Needham (translator), Rodney Needham (translator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Death & The Right Hand as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in English 1960.
The historical value of Hertz's writings is that they are a representative example of the culmination of two centuries of development of sociological thought in France, from Montesquieu to Durkheim and his pupils. In the intervening years since publication, that development has grown into the systematic comparative study of primitive institutions, based on a great body of ethnographic facts from all over the world: in effect social anthropology.


Book cover of Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual

Gillian Gillison Why did I love this book?

A fascinating in-depth look at why ideas of Dead White Men of the late 19th and early 20th CenturyÉmile Durkheim, Arnold van Gennep, Robert Hertzstill matter and are, indeed, indispensable for understanding funerals and death rituals in places like Borneo, Bali, Thailand, early Egypt, Africa, and America. 

By examining mortuary rites cross-culturally, the authors expose elements of a 'deep structure' in ritual that may be universal, thus offering the 'thrill of recognition' of ourselves in others.

By Peter Metcalf, Richard Huntington,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Celebrations of Death as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology and religion. Part of its fascination is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. The authors refer to a wide variety of examples, from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo and the pyramids of Egypt, as well as the dramas of medieval French royal funerals and the burial alive of the Dinka 'masters of the spear' in the Sudan, and other rituals…


Book cover of The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual

Gillian Gillison Why did I love this book?

A classic of ethnographic description and symbolic analysis based upon fieldwork among the Ndembu of Zambia—a must read for anyone interested in sociological and psychological implications of ritual belief and practice in a small-scale, non-literate, kinship-based society. 

A stellar example of what is lost by cancelling "colonialist" literature and discarding the very concepts of "culture" and "religion" as relics of Western intellectual imperialism. 

In 10 essays on color symbolism, circumcision rites, rites of passage, social dynamics, and more, Turner lays the groundwork for his proposition that ritual is the key to religion and religion is the key to culture. 

By Victor Turner,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Forest of Symbols as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A pioneering work of high quality, this collection of anthropological studies provides one of the most detailed records available for an African society-or indeed for any group-of the semantics of ritual symbolism. It combines unusually detailed ethnographic description, based upon field work among the Ndembu of Zambia, with remarkable theoretical sophistication. Professor Turner describes the ritual phenomena in terms both of practice and of their sociological and psychological implications within a preliterate society.

Case histories illustrate the function of ritual in creating community harmony. Data on circumcision rites and medical practices and an essay on color classification have wide implications…


Explore my book 😀

Between Culture and Fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

By Gillian Gillison,

Book cover of Between Culture and Fantasy: A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

What is my book about?

Myths of Gimi people of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea convey painful truths of human existence—disease, aging, mortality—as if they were the fault of one sex or the other. The conflicting myths of women and men shape Gimi reality, translating fantasies about sex and reproduction into founding principles of kinship, marriage and exchange. 

In descriptions of cannibal ritual, sorcery, and rites of passage, the book explores how Gimi women and men play out their mythic debate, cooperating in shows of conflict and resolution that leave men undefeated and accord women the greater blame for misfortune. Based upon research of unusual depth, this book offers a portrait of Gimi people with implications for a general understanding of relations between the sexes. 

You might also like...

Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

Book cover of Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Elizabeth Randall Author Of Fire is the Test of Gold

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Baker Teacher Matriarch Adventurer

Elizabeth's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Tourists and local residents of St. Augustine will enjoy reading about the secret wonders of their ancient city that are right under their noses. Of course, that includes a few stray corpses and ghosts!

Secret St. Augustine: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

By Elizabeth Randall, William Randall,

What is this book about?

It is no wonder the ancient city of St. Augustine is steeped in secrets. St. Johns, the oldest continuously occupied county in America celebrated its 450th birthday on September 4, 2015. More like a European enclave than an urban landscape, it is a place of cannon fire, street parties, historical reenactments, concerts, and more. From admiring replicas of fine art at Ripley’s Believe or Not, to hunting haunts in restaurants and museums, to eating ice cream from a recipe originated by World War II bombardiers, St. Augustine has it all from beaches, gourmet dining, festivals, and attractions. A young and…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in anthropology, funerals, and Borneo?

Anthropology 104 books
Funerals 35 books
Borneo 20 books