Return To Laughter by Elenore Smith Bowen 1964 Paperback Anthropological Novel

Return to Laughter is a remarkable novel. A vivid and dramatic account of the profound change experienced by an American anthropologist in her first year as an intimate of a primitive bush tribe in Africa, it provides deep insights into the indigenous culture of West Africa, the subtle web of tribal life, the power of the institution of witchcraft.

Primarily, however, it is a classic story of the outsider caught up and deeply, personally involved in an alien culture- ''the first introspective account ever published of what it's like to be a field worker among a primitive people.'' -Margaret Mead

ELENORE SMITH BOWEN is the nom de plume of Laura Bohannan, an anthropologist trained at the University of Arizona and Oxford University. The author of several articles in anthropological journals, she has contributed to number of books on Africa, and has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of lllinois at Chicago Circle.

David Relsman, who wrote the Foreword for this edition, is Henry Ford Il Professor of Social Science at Harvard University and author of several well-known books including The Lonely Crowd and Individuallsm Reconsldered.

The Natural History Library makes available in paperback format books of enduring in- terest in the life and earth sciences. Published in co-op- eration with The American Mu- seum of Natural History by Doubleday Anchor Books, this series introduces the student and the general reader to the study of man-his origins, his nature, and his environment- and to the whole natural world. from sub-microscopic life to the universe at large.

Ownership inscription inside front cover. All pages unmarked. Cover shows minor wear to edges and corners. Light creasing and chipping at spine. Mild discoloration at bottom fore edge.