Notes on the Poro in Liberia and Masks as Agents of Social Control in Northeast Liberia

Amherst, MA: Ethnos Publications, 2001. Limited edition numbered Facsimile. New. These two seminal studies by Dr. George Way Harley are the basis of our present day knowledge of the Poro men's secret society of West Africa and of masks and masking traditions in Liberia. Harley, a physician, traveled to Liberia from Durham, N.C., in 1926, cutting his way through the bush when there were no roads. He established a clinic at Ganta in Mano country near the Guinea border, and ministered to the needs of the people in the region for over three decades. Because of the trust placed in him by Poro initiates, and through his anthropological training at Harvard, he slowly accumulated an immense knowledge and deep insight into the otherwise impenetrable secrets of the Poro. Nearly impossible to find in their original, these classic works are presented together in this facsimile reprint. The two papers have been bound together in a handsome cloth cover in an edition limited to 200 numbered copies. NOTES ON THE PORO IN LIBERIA: v, 40 pages of text containing 1 page of drawings of masks and dancers, 1 map and 1 chart; followed by 14 pages of photographs of masks and dancers. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. XIX, No. 2, 1941.MASKS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN NORTHEAST LIBERIA: xiv, 45 pages of text followed by 15 pages of photographs of 135 masks, dancers, and masking paraphernalia. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. XXXII, No. 2, 1950.Along with the contemporary works on the Poro by Dr. Neil Carey, this is an indispensable resource for any ethnographic library, anthropologist, art historian, Africanist, collector, or student of comparative religion. Deluxe edition limited to 200 numbered copies.