The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life

In this fascinating debut, journalist Clark offers an account of a small hunter-gatherer society, the Lamalerans, devoted to whaling on the remote Indonesian island of Lembata. On his first visit to the Lamalerans’ village in 2011, Clark realized the Ways of the Ancestors—“a set of whaling and religious practices handed down through the generations”—still defined indigenous life there. Wondering how much longer these ancient traditions could last, Clark returned to Lembata several times in subsequent years, aiming to “immerse myself as deeply as possible in the tribe.” To that end, he hunted, wove ropes, spearfished, attended ceremonies, and bartered at the village market alongside the Lamalerans. With accessible and empathetic prose, Clark profiles the people he met there, such as Yonanes “Jon” Demon Hariona, a young man who aspires to become a “lamafa,” or harpooner, his society’s highest honor, yet also toys with the idea of seeking “a richer and easier life elsewhere,” away from his community. By exploring personal conflicts like Jon’s, Clark creates a thoughtful look at the precariousness of cultural values and the lure of modernization in the developing world. [em]Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Jan.) [/em]