Books

Amelsvoort, van V. Culture, Stone Age, and Modern Medicine. Amsterdam: Van Corcum and Comp., N.V., 1964. Introduction to the ways of the Asmat by a doctor who served in Asmat under the Dutch in the late 1950s. Contains information not found elsewhere.

Asmat Images, from the collection of the Asmat Museum of Culture & Progress. New York: Pendragon Press, 1985. Contains over 175 drawings of carvings in the museum's collection, with 21 field photos and extensive information on the symbolism of the carvings in ritual life.

Embodied Spirits: Ritual Carvings of the Asmat. Salem, Mass.: Peabody Museum of Salem, 1990. Exhibition catalogue with introduction by Schneebaum and articles on the spirituality of the Asmat by Gerard Zegwaard, D. Carleton Gajdusek, and Bishop Alphonse Sowada. Field photos and photos of the objects in the exhibition.

Gerbrands, Andrian A. The Asmat of New Guinea: The Journal of Michael Clark Rockefeller. New York: The Museum of Primitive Art, 1967. Pictorial and documentary record of Michael Rockefeller's two journeys among the Asmat people. Includes extracts of his journal, an annotated catalogue of the objects he collected, and an introduction by the anthropologist Adrian A. Gerbrands.

Konrad, Gunter, Ursula Konrad, and Tobias Schneebaum. Asmat: Life with the Ancestors. Glashutten, West Germany: Freidhelm Bruckner Publisher, 1981. The catalogue of an exhibition of Asmat carvings from the collection of Gunter and Ursula Konrad. Extensive material on daily life and warfare.

Konrad, Gunter and Ursula, ed. ASMAT, Myth and Ritual, The Inspiration of Art. Venice, Italy: Errizo Editrice, 1966.

Kooijman, Simon. "Art from Southwest New Guinea," in Antiquity and Survival, no. 1 (1956): 342-72. A study of Asmat art in context.

Saulnier, Tony. Headhunters of Papua. New York: Crown Publishers, 1963. An autobiographical account of an attempt to cross the island of New Guinea from south to north, beginning in Asmat.

Schneebaum, Tobias. Where the Spirits Dwell.

Smidt. Dirk A.M., ed. Asmat Art: Woodcarvings of Southwest New Guinea. Leiden: Periplus Editions and Rijksmuseum voor Voldenkunde, 1993. Lavishly illustrated, this major book includes important information on the history of Asmat, with many field photos taken in the early part of this century. Contributions by several noted authors on various aspects of Asmat life and its carvings.

Trenkenschuh, Frank, osc, ed. Asmat Sketch Books Volumes 1 - 8, St. Paul, MN. Crosier Missions, New York: Grove Press, 1988. An account of an American who was assistant to the curator of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress and lived with the Asmat over a period of five years. Includes information on the daily life of the Asmat not found elsewhere.1970 - 1981. Seven separately bound soft cover books comprised of essays by Crosier missionaries describing Asmat life and culture.

Villeminot, Jacques and Betty-Paule Villeminot. Nouvelle-Guinee, les papous chasseurs de tetes. Paris: Presses de la Cite, 1978. Extensive material on daily life illustrated by good photos and recorded by two French travelers to Asmat.

Wow-Ipits. The Hague and Paris: Mouton and Company, 1957. An important study of eight carvers from the Asmat village of Amandamkai.

Zegwaard, Gerard. "Headhunting Practices of Netherlands New Guinea, "American Anthropologist, no. 61 (December 1959): 1020-41. The primary source on the subject of headhunting and cannibalism.