The Savage South Seas

By Ernest Way Elkington and Norman H Hardy

Book Overview

Across Oceania's remote island worlds, beauty and danger exist side by side. This travel account enters communities shaped by distinctive customs, tribal relations and demanding environments, observing how Indigenous life appeared to European outsiders during an era of exploration and colonial ambition. Its focus remains not on a single traveller's journey, but on the societies encountered and the tensions created when explorers, traders and other newcomers entered their territories. Divided into three parts, the narrative moves through British New Guinea and neighbouring island regions while combining geographical observation with historical and ethnographic description. Particular attention is given to native dwellings, architecture and social practices, allowing material life to emerge alongside broader questions of cultural difference. Intertribal conflict and the practical hazards of island existence complicate any simple vision of an untouched paradise, while the period contrast between European "civilisation" and Indigenous societies reveals the assumptions through which such encounters were recorded. Remote landscapes provide more than a backdrop: they shape travel, settlement, contact and survival. The account's sustained interest in island customs and communal life gives its exploration a human dimension, while its treatment of colonial encounters preserves the perspective and language of its historical moment. Both descriptive and documentary, it presents a world in which attraction, peril and competing social orders continually meet. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9378418694
• ISBN13: 9789378418693
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"