The Living, Dead and Dying: Music of the New Guinea Wape

The Living, Dead and Dying: Music of the New Guinea Wape is an exploration of a highly ceremonial and musical culture. Recorded over an 18-month period spanning 1970 and 1971, anthropologist William E. Mitchell documents a people struggling with famine and disease. To combat their struggle, they hold curing festivals, sing demon chants, and conduct other musical remedies. This field recording consists of songs from these events, as well as a number of typical routines and rituals of the Wape people, such as the burning of bamboo trees to clear out unwanted fog that settles in villages. The liner notes include short descriptions of each track and photographs of Wape life.