Doug Bock Clark

The epic story of the world's last subsistence whalers and the threats posed to the way of life that has sustained them for five centuries The Lamalerans, a tribe of 1,800 people on the Indonesian island of Lembata, have subsisted on whaling for at least five hundred years. In The Last Whalers, after three years of living with this tribe, writer Doug Bock Clark takes readers into their way of life, one in which their yearly haul from the sea provides both their food and their currency. But this ancient way of life that has sustained and nourished a people unchanged for centuries is in danger of perishing from the earth forever when a port is planned next door to the village of Lamalera and encroaching technology causes divisiveness and splintering in the tribe. Clark documents it all-the Curse of the Black Goat, the Wulandoni War, the Road of Ghosts-as one form of being human, in contact with deeply elemental life rhythms, teeters on the verge of extinction. The Last Whalers tells the unlikely and important story of a resilient group of human beings unlike any other in the world. Extreme in nature, the act of whaling is a dangerous and uncommon feat, but for the Lamalerans it is also the only way of life they have ever known. From the inside, Clark has told a story for the ages about the bravery of a people whose very culture may not survive beyond these pages.

Three Years in the Far Pacific with an Ancient Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life

The Last Whalers

Miguel Antón

Tres años en el Pacífico junto a una tribu valiente y un modo de vida en extinción

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«Refleja de manera conmovedora la historia de toda la especie humana.» Yuval Noah Harari Entre 2014 y 2017, el periodista Doug Bock Clark convivió en la remota isla indonesia de Lembata, conocida como «La Tierra Olvidada», con la tribu de los lamaleranos, una de las sociedades más solidarias del mundo y la única que todavía depende para su sustento de la caza de cachalotes –el mamífero dentado más grande del mundo– y que solo emplea métodos tradicionales: arpones de bambú y barcas de remo. Una comunidad que aún vive en equilibrio con la naturaleza, perpetuando una práctica con un fuerte componente ritual y épico, y que asiste a la paulatina desaparición de sus costumbres bajo la presión de un mundo globalizado. Fruto de esa experiencia y de un meticuloso trabajo de documentación, Clark –uno de los poquísimos occidentales que domina la lengua lamalerana– ha escrito una obra fascinante y singular. Entre la crónica y la novela, el relato de aventuras y la divulgación antropológica, el autor construye un extraordinario y vivísimo retrato del coraje, las aspiraciones y las emotivas historias de algunos de los pobladores de Lamalera. Una impresionante hazaña literaria sobre un modo de vida en extinción y sobre el choque de la tradición con la modernidad. «Una extraordinaria proeza periodística. Nos presenta a una remota comunidad y un estilo de vida en peligro de extinción, pero se niega a complacer a los amigos de lo exótico (...) Su mirada es profundamente íntima y universal.» Leslie Jamison «Una cautivadora ópera prima, rigurosamente documentada. Su historia tiene los matices de una novela de primer nivel. (...) Una hazaña periodística.» Dwight Garner (The New York Times). «Estoy totalmente prendado de este magnífico libro. Un espectacular y empático intento de entender un mundo que está desapareciendo.» Sebastian Junger.

The epic story of the world's last subsistence whalers and the threats posed to a tribe on the brink, with extraordinary praise from a chorus of New York Times bestselling authors: "I absolutely loved this magnificent book." --Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm. "A monumental achievement." --Mitchell Zuckoff, 13 Hours. "An extraordinary feat of reportage and illumination." --Leslie Jamison, The Recovering. "From the very first lines, I was riveted." --Robert Moor, On Trails. "A true work of art . . . Lyrically written and richly observed." --Michael Finkel, The Stranger in the Woods. "Intimate and moving." --Francisco Cantú, The Line Becomes a River. "Remarkable, gorgeously written." --Bronwen Dickey, Pit Bull. On a volcanic island in the Savu Sea so remote that other Indonesians call it "The Land Left Behind" live the Lamalerans: a tribe of 1,500 hunter-gatherers who are the world's last subsistence whalers. They have survived for half a millennium by hunting whales with bamboo harpoons and handmade wooden boats powered by sails of woven palm fronds. But now, under assault from the rapacious fores of the modern era and a global economy, their way of life teeters on the brink of collapse. Award-winning journalist Doug Bock Clark, one of a handful of Westerners who speak the Lamaleran language, lived with the tribe across three years, and he brings their world and their people to vivid life in this gripping story of a vanishing culture. Jon, an orphaned apprentice whaler, toils to earn his harpoon and provide for his ailing grandparents, while Ika, his indomitable younger sister, is eager to forge a life unconstrained by tradition, and to realize a star-crossed love. Frans, an aging shaman, tries to unite the tribe in order to undo a deadly curse. And Ignatius, a legendary harpooner entering retirement, labors to hand down the Ways of the Ancestors to his son, Ben, who would secretly rather become a DJ in the distant tourist mecca of Bali. Deeply empathetic and richly reported, The Last Whalers is a riveting, powerful chronicle of the collision between one of the planet's dwindling indigenous peoples and the irresistible enticements and upheavals of a rapidly transforming world.

Doug Bock Clark

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