Changes in Latitude: An Uncommon Anthropology - Hardcover

Varawa, Joana McIntyre

2.81

31 ratings by Goodreads

9780871133199: Changes in Latitude: An Uncommon Anthropology

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871133199 ISBN 13: 9780871133199

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr, 1989

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A woman who moved to Fiji and became involved with and married a local fisherman, describes the struggles she and her husband have gone through in adjusting to and ultimately coming to appreciate their radically different cultures

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About the Author:

Joana McIntyre Varawa was the founding president of Project Jonah the international organization to save the whales, and is the author of two previous books, Mind in the Waters and The Delicate Art of Whale Watching. She has one grown son who lives in the United States. She and her husband Mal� live on the island of Vedrala, near Galoa, in Fiji.

Review:

Joana McIntyre has a strong sense of self-reliance and a deep sense of loneliness. She moved from California to Hawaii many years ago; her son is now grown, and she is searching for meaning beyond her secure but boring job. Looking for adventure, she flies to Fiji, and in a short time "had met a man who wanted to marry me. The reasons were all wrong in terms of my own culture, but the offer was real." A story of insight, warmth, and acceptance, Changes In Latitude tells in fascinating detail of Joana's marriage into a foreign culture and her greater understanding of her middle-class background. Though her sense of loneliness abates with her new extended family in Fiji, living in a foreign land raises new issues. The people in her village are proud Methodists, praying to the God above the earth and the God below the earth, with rituals and hierarchy well-established and unquestioned. But she does question - and she and her husband laugh and fight over - the "perfected complications of my own culture" verses the realities of her chosen one. She thinks the two of them watching a sunset is romantic; he finds it lonely without the people of the village. Yet as she immerses herself in her new life, she comes to appreciate that "Life in this village is a continuous ceremony. A soft spirituality pervades...It is a dance of manners, assured, customary; it grants order and peace to life." -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith

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