Rating: 
Summary: Africas close up
Review: Stephenson, a 27 year old landscaper from New York, spends 9 months with the Hadzabe tribe south of the Serengeti.. He describes this experience in a very honest way, and so we learn about these hunters in the bush: their dreams, their spirits, their hunting, their daily life and their families. It is a well rounded picture. He loves these gentle people and finds peace and quiet with them. But he admits that he never learned their language and, of course, he always has his return ticket to New York.To call this adventure a retrogression in time towards stone age people would be quite wrong. The Hadzabe are well connected to civilization. They drive by car to the local hospital. They steal radios. They sell their hunting trophies for money, go to the village bar and get stoned on pombe. They wear western clothes and hunt at night with a flashlight. But they prefer their life in the bush, and that is the difference. The book has many pictures and drawings. It is a nice adventure story.
Rating: 
Summary: delight for armchair travelers
Review: Surely one of the greatest pleasures of reading is that a book can take us to places where we will never go. James Stephenson has done that, bringing to life in these pages the feel, the taste even the emotions of the Hadzebe. This is not anthropology, it is life as he experienced it. We can be grateful that he has shared the experience.
Rating:
Summary: Read AND Listen
Review: What a wonderful book and to make it even better the CD of the music of the Hadzabe is now available. Produced in France, it can be found on Amazon.com. Titled "The Hadza Bushmen of Tanzania", the CD features recordings of the music as sung and played by the characters in James Stephenson's incredible book. You will recognize the photographs on the album cover as those from the book and recognize the musicians as the characters Stephenson introduces us to. There are songs and chants from around the camp fire, from rituals, hunting songs and the sounds of daily life. What a rare opportunity to glimpse an ancient way of life and experience its music before it is gone forever.
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