“The Baule people of the Ivory Coast believe that each person has a mate of the opposite sex in the blolo, or otherworld, an ideal place from which newborns arrive and to which the dead return. Ravenhill examines the fascinating figurative art created by the Baule to represent their otherworld mates, discussing as well the psychological and existential meanings behind the images… Ravenhill analyzes Baule figurative art within the context of three culturally defined processes: the creation and consecration of the figures; the interaction between the owner, the figure and the spirit represented; and the ongoing male-female dialogue in which the art finds a place. He argues that the art is best appreciated not at a cultural level but through the specificity and power of individual objects within their original context. Dreams and Reverie not only offers a new look at a remarkable African art form but also invites the reader to reflect on the otherworlds that are created by art.”

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Hardback: 102 pages
Illustrated

“Explores the massive and sudden contact between powerful military forces and Pacific Islanders, blending oral histories recorded in the islands after WWII with some 175 photograph gleaned from Japanese newspaper morgues, the private albums of U.S. veterans, and Allied military archives.”

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Hardback: 208 pages
Illustrated

A lively, eloquent guide, as entertaining today as when it was first published in 1843, Incidents of Travel in Yucatan recounts the explorations and discoveries of best-selling travel writer John Lloyd Stephens. This beautiful new edition includes a choice selection of Frederick Catherwood’s evocative drawings from the original edition as well as 85 photographs from the 1860s to the present. Dover Books publishes a two-volume reprint of the original edition which contains all of the Catherwood drawings. Still, this richly visual edition serves as an effective time-machine, taking you back to the pioneer days of archaeology, and to the lost world of the ancient Maya.

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Paperback: 286 pages
Illustrated

A collection of 126 haunting, large-format photos taken over a 15-year period which bring out the intrinsically surreal aspects of life in current-day rural Spain. Children impaled on crosses, ominous masked penitents, phallic street processions, rampaging bulls, fierce drag queens, midget toreadors, cheerful and seemingly inbred revelers, the mysterious march of the “wax-heads”—the semi-pagan, semi-medieval public festivals which inspired Luis Buñuel from his childhood onward are depicted in all their brooding glory. SS

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Paperback: 135 pages
Illustrated

More than 2,000 years before the Egyptians perfected their methods for mummifying their departed royalty, the Chinchorro, prehistoric fishing-peoples living in villages on the Peruvian coast, were mummifying their own dead. In contrast to the Egyptians, every member and class of Chinchorro society received complex mummification rites. This unprecedented hoard of almost 200 bodies was discovered in 1917 but is still pretty much unknown. Since no written record of the Chinchorros exists, all we can surmise about them must come from the mummies themselves. That’s what makes this book fascinating. The author proceeds to tell us an astonishing amount about both the social and physical qualities of life among these shadowy people. This straightforward anthropological study reads like a pre-Columbian episode of Quincy. Only here we learn about the corpse’s life—and problems. By dissecting an 800-year-old corpse one can learn many things. These folks suffered from intestinal parasites, arthritis, frequent ear problems, etc., their ocean diet produced notable rises in their fertility rate. Serious students of ancient South America as well as hard-core mummy fans should be delighted—all others should rent the series of Karloff films. CS

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Hardback: 176 pages
Illustrated