Adventures in the Stone Age

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When Leopold Pospíšil arrived in New Guinea in 1954 to study local tribal legal systems, he was warned about the Kapauku, who were said to have no laws. Skeptical that any society could function without laws, he immersed himself in their culture, learning the language and living as a participant-observer. Pospíšil soon discovered that this so-called primitive society had sophisticated laws, rules, and social structures. Having survived the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and fled communism, he rejected the idea that advanced civilizations were superior to the 'stone age' society he now inhabited. Over five visits between 1954 and 1979, Pospíšil's research among the Kapauku contributed significantly to legal anthropology. He held a professorship at Yale, served as the anthropology curator at the Peabody Museum, and published three scholarly works on Kapauku law. As noted in the afterword by Jaroslav Jiřík and Martin Soukup, while his earlier works focused on Kapauku law, this memoir centers on the anthropologist's experiences with them. It is rich with charming anecdotes and thrilling tales of trials, travels, and war, all conveyed with humor and humility, and accompanied by a collection of the author’s personal photographs from that era.