Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest

Thanks to the daily kindle specials I'm offered, I have read many books I wouldn't have searched for. Savage Harvest was a pleasant surprise. There are many good reviews so I won't be repetitive.There IS a map of the villages and I don't see how this book could be written without going back and forth in time. I certainly didn't find it tedious. Quite the contrary, I couldn't put it down. This kindle version doesn't have the option to find out what percentage of the book has been read/remains so I kept going as I thought I must be nearing the end...and it's now 11 am.I'll be in NYC in a couple of months and I'll have to visit the Museum of Primitive Art at MOMA. I read this on an iPad but will have it on my iPhone 6+ so will be able to refer to the book while there. This is an exciting prospect. To actually SEE the artifacts that Michael Rockefeller acquired and see his photographs will be a big thrill. I hope his journals will also be on display.The cover made me think I was getting a book written decades ago yet the book was published in 2014 and Hoffman's trips were in 2012. It was interesting to see that "ramen" is now a major part of their diet. And the references to John who lives between two villages and works elsewhere for money and has adopted a more modern lifestyle (including satellite TV and watches CNN and BBC) was fascinating.Quite poignant was the author's realization that despite the really primitive conditions he felt a sense of kinship and belonging to a community. He talks about how his father left behind his Orthodox Jewish upbringing and Carl and his sister grew up in a small insular household among families with numerous children.If you like non-fiction, travel narratives, and biographies/memoirs genres, then this has it all. Highly recommend.

Prior to reading this book, I had not heard of the story of Michael Rockefeller, and his tragic fate, so this story was totally new to me, and i was really excited to read it. The story is fascinating because of the mix of cultures involved, Dutch colonial ambitions, geopolitical historical aspects, as well as the nature of the wealthy, powerful Rockefeller family. The story presents prime fodder for great characters and a great mystery. It will not spoil the story to say that the fundamental question is "how did Michael Rockefeller die?". The book tells the story by jumping back and forth from more recent times during the author's research and back to the time of Michael's time on the island, up until he disappeared, and the ensuing large search effort. The jumping back and forth in time makes some parts of the book challenging. In addition, the book is made more challenging by the difficulty I had with place names and people names. There are numerous locations of importance referred to in the book, but there is not a single map - I wish there had been at least one map (several times I used Google maps on my smart phone). With regard to people's names, particularly the names of New Guinea tribe and family names, a family tree and/or timeline of relatives would have helped the understanding, and therefore the enjoyment of reading. Coupled with the disjointed time structure, the lack of maps and challenges with place/people names/relations, this book is not as good as it could have been. However, I still enjoyed it, and glad I read it, because the coincidence of peoples in New Guinea at this time in history is really interesting. Regarding the question of Michael's actual fate, I left the book no more convinced of any proposed way in which he could have died. I will not say more on this, so I don't spoil it for others - you'll have to make up your own mind.

Hoffman manages to come up with as close to a clear conclusion on the death of Rockefeller as can be made, half a century after others had failed to do so. His patient immersion in Asmat culture yields dividends when he gets the descendants of those who probably ritually killed Rockefeller to almost admit it.The book is particularly fascinating in the way it interweaves the history, politics, and culture of the time, to show how these all converge on an eager, bright, but unfortunate young man. For example, how the "domino theory" of Asian communism led President Kennedy to try to placate Sukarno and oppose the Dutch. How Dutch colonialists, trying to show that the Netherlands were in control of Papua, led them to murder Asmat, which in turn led the Asmat to take revenge on hapless Rockefeller.The book portrays the Asmat culture to us Westerners in a way that helps to understand their world view. I have visited other remote clans in Papua New Guinea and have some understanding of this. Hoffman gets you deep into these natives' culture.I fault Hoffman for his annoying jumping around in time, backwards and forwards over and over. Very frustrating.And the paperback deserves a more attractive cover!A brilliant study. A compelling read.

If you have a great interest in the disappearance and death of Michael Rockefeller or just want to learn about the culture and cannibalistic practices of 20th Century tribes in Papua New Guinea, this book is definitely for you. If not, you may want to pass on reading this well researched and informative book. The tale moves slowly at times and many of the village place names are not shown on the book's lone map. Also unusual is the telling of Michael's death in the opening chapter followed by the long and winding tale of whether the tribal members actually killed him or whether he drowned at sea (as the Rockefeller family chose to believe). Didn't we already learn who killed him in the opening passages of the book? Why all the suspense in the subsequent chapters when we learned in the opening chapter who killed him. The only thing new we learn in the end is why they killed him.

Great story well told. Why hasn’t any of the numb nuts in Hollywood made this into a movie instead of doing an endless series of remakes of stupid trash and cartoons.This was so good I was almost sad when it ended. Wished the narrative would have continued.Too bad it wasn’t fictional and could have had a different outcome.

I did not know much about Michael Rockefeller before reading the book. The story is really interesting: everything is triggered from Michael's passion for primitive art. But then expand the content towards the anthropology, the colonialism and the detective work to search for truth behind the death of Michael Rockefeller. Very well documented, it offers a great description of a world and a culture that seems far centuries ago. But everything happened in the sixties (though most of the research has been done in New Guinea by the author in 2012) Can't put it down until the end!

A great read and well researched

A very readable book, in spite of its tragic subject matter. The author shows great writing skill as well as research skill. He gives the reader a real insight into the world of the Asmat tribes .

It may seem like a spoiler to say from the start that Hoffman believes Michael Rockefeller, member of that grand family, was murdered and eaten. But that's really what is described in the first chapter, so it's not giving away the ending of the book. Instead, this book reads a lot like a Columbo episode. For those who don't know Columbo (consistently ranked as one of TVs greatest shows and detectives), those shows started off with the audience viewing the crime as it happened. Columbo shows up and has to piece together the evidence to solve the crime that we already know happened.This book starts off revealing the "crime" in the same way, and spends the rest of the book trying to piece together the evidence for it. Briefly, Michael Rockefeller was touring remote islands as a young man, looking for rare pieces of art for his family's new art museum. He and another young friend go out in heavy oceans and their boat capsizes. Their two young native guides swim for help right away while Michael and his companion drift for several hours. Eventually, Michael decides to swim for it. He's never seen again. The official cause of death is drowning (with an off chance of being eaten by sharks).Hoffman challenges the official version, and weaves three stories into one. The first is the history of the Asmat people before and after Michael's visit. The second is the story of Michael (and his family) around the time of his visit. The third are the author's visits to the modern Asmat (and related witnesses). All in all, it's a very well-written story that offers a very compelling, if circumstantial, explanation for what happened to Michael. Given that we know the crime, it would then be a spoiler for me to reveal how Hoffman has "Columbo'd" the evidence after the fact to outline his version of what happened. The book is well-researched, with a variety of different sources of evidence being brought to bear. There is also a rather satisfying discussion of the way of life of the Asmat people, making it of some interest to those with anthropological interests.All in all then, this is an easy book to recommend. The story is compelling. The research is thorough. And the writing is satisfying. This may not win book of the year, but it's a very safe book to recommend to a wide range of readers who enjoy true crime, history, travel and exploration, and/or anthropology.

As a child I remember the speculation surrounding the death of Michael Rockefeller and was both saddened and curious as to what most likely happened to this young man. This coupled with a trip to Papua New Guines a few years ago brought back memories of his short life. His journey following graduation to search for and collect primitive art is much more than bartering for carvings. He was naively venturing into a spiritual culture that on times engaged in cannalbalism. The book is very well written and explores the atmosphere of PNG at that time in history. What the book points out is that in Michael's quest to collect artifacts he failed in (despite having a translator) understanding the natives, was oblivious to the global politics that surrounded the country, and not heeding the missionaries who understood first hand that this culture was more than whittling wood and that the spiritual world was unlike anything he could have imagined nor care to understand. This book is a fascinating read. Since the recent discovery of gas and the building of major roads to export the gas, the landscape and way of life for the tribes have been changing. The authenticity of these indigenous people will in all likelihood not exist in ten years.