Item #64941 The Childhood of Man, a Popular Account of the Lives, Customs, and Thoughts of the Primitive Races; with four hundred and fifteen illustrations. Leo FROBENIUS, A H. Keane.
The Childhood of Man, a Popular Account of the Lives, Customs, and Thoughts of the Primitive Races; with four hundred and fifteen illustrations

The Childhood of Man, a Popular Account of the Lives, Customs, and Thoughts of the Primitive Races; with four hundred and fifteen illustrations

London: Seeley and Co. Ltd, 1909. First UK Edition. Hardcover. Large Octavo. i-xx, 21- 304pp, xviii adverts. Original navy cloth with gilt titling and device to upper board and spine, top edge gilt, frontispiece, b&w illustrations, index. Leo Viktor Frobenius (1873 – 1938) was a German ethnologist and archaeologist who wrote a number of books on subjects related to his work, this being the only one that appears to have been translated into English during Frobenius' lifetime. The translator says of this volume that the author examines various aspects of life and custom in "primitive" societies, and "endeavors to trace them, as well as the traditions, legends and general folk-lore ... to their origins in remote historic times." Chapters on Personal Adornment; Tattooing;Tests of Manhood; Origin of Labour; Dress-Language; Sign abd Gesture Language; The Drum-Language; Drums and Drum-Dances; Picture-Writing and Decoration; Animal Stories of the Bush-men; A Funeral in Inner Africa; The Ghost; Skull-Worship and Head-hunting; Ancestor-Worship and Fetishism; Secret Societies and Maskes; The Mide; Sacred Animals; etc. etc. Cloth rubbed, spine darkened and spine ends & edges are bumped and chafed, a few tiny tears at upper spine, lower corners bumped and a bit chafed, page edges a bit darkened and dusty, endpapers unevenly browned, pages toned but bright and unmarked. Overall a tight, bright and clean VG+ copy (no dust jacket - likely none issued). Item #64941

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