Download or read book Birds of My Kalam Country written by Ian Saem Majnep and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1977 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a bird book with a difference. A young New Ginuea Highlander, born before Europeans first entered his home area, describes the birds his people know and name. Ian Saem Mjnep is a Kalam, from the Kaironk Valley in the Schrader Range, on the northern fringes of the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea. In the twenty-five square miles of the mountain forest, garedn land, and grasslands of the Upper Kaironk 140 bird species are known to occur, including many of the birds of paradise for which New Guinea has for so long been famous. Saem describes 137 of these, as well as others from neighboring areas at lower altitudes, an impressive documentation of the extent and accuracy of neolithic natural history. He also describes six kinds of bats, for bats are classified as birds by Kalam. Saem not only describes the appearance and habits of the birds, but relates bird lore to many aspects of the life and thought of his people, to hunting, gardening, ceremonials, mythology, and magic. He reveals the Kalam knowledge of other animals and of plants. He also gives an insight into the momentous transition his people have undergone in the past twenty years, from stone-age isolation and autonomy to integration and participation in the newly independent nation of Papua New Guinea.