The Innocent Anthropologist: Notes from a Mud Hut

Stumbling upon this book was total luck! The only motive I had to get this book was a desire to learn more about Anthro as informal as possible- yet have it be completely nonfiction. I just want people to know that this is my first actual review. That being said, everyone who reads this review should understand that I liked this book SO much that I not only sent it from my house in Japan to a friend in the states, but I also came back here to write a short blurb on it. I promise any future reviews won't be such a waste of everyone's time! Take a chance and get this book!

This humorous and often hilarious account of Mr. Barley's time in Africa and the reality he experienced is very insightful. It dispelled the many inner inhibitions visitors often have about a new culture . True life in rural Africa can be boring, but there are many fascinating aspects about it if we have an open and curious mind. The works of Janvier Tisi and Chinua Achebe are other good books to read.

You've got to love this book. I'm an anthro type anyway, but if I wasn't this book would still be highly entertaining and a great experience.It's about a self-deprecating British anthropologist who goes to Cameroon to do fieldwork among a little-known tribe called the Dowayo. While he's there, he encounters strange foods, a crazy old missionary, an impossible French-speaking Dowayo assistant, illness, personal injury, beer parties in the fields, paranoid Dowayo men, and a host of other things that will alternately make you wince and laugh out loud. For anthropologists, this is an amusing look at what it's REALLY like in the field, with none of the "blood and guts" left out. For the lay reader, it's a look at what anthropologists actually do, and a highly educational one at that. If you think anthropology is all about dead white men condescending to attend a "native" ceremony now and then, this book's a kick in the head. I loved it.

Those who have experinced it first-hand know that life in rural Africa is at the same time seductively alluring and monumentally frustrating. Barley captures the essence of African village life with a delicate balance of acid wit and utter transparency. A must read for anyone headed for the bush!!

I had the good fortune to discover this book when it was first printed, and have since read it more than once. It is both informative and painfully hilarious. Mr. Barley's books are some of the few which I always retrieve, after loaning them away.