Coming Into Being Among the Australian Aborigines

A study of the proactive beliefs of the Native Tribes of Australia

by Ashley Montagu

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974, [Second, Revised Edition], ISBN 0710079338, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, watermark to very edge of front endpaper, fore-edges a little grubby, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping and chipping, small parts missing at back, sunned spine  (see photographs)

“The first edition of this classic work in anthropology was published in 1937.  It brought together all the evidence bearing upon the proactive beliefs of eh Australian Aborigines and subjected it to a scientific examination in the light of biological, social and psychological research.  In this fully corrected and updated second edition, Professor Ashley Montagu takes account of later fieldwork in Australia and new information which has become available on the subject.
the unique value of Professor Montagu’s work is summed up in the Foreword by Bronislaw Malinowski: ‘This admirable book is unconventional in that it does not fall readily into any of the current categories; it is neither a text book, nor an evolutionary study, nor yet a piece of plain description.  Yet I would recommend Dr Ashley Montagu’s book as the best introduction to anthropology, indeed, to the study of social science.  It deals with the question of primitive nescience of paternity – the most exciting and controversial issue in the comparative science of Man … It is a model of how ethnographical material should be surveyed, critically digested and reframed in clear, convincing conclusions.”