Summary

Chapter 4 (first person, past tense, Bankson narrating) – Bankson narrates his background, family history, and career path, detailing how he was raised by a demanding scientist father (who insisted that his children follow similar career paths to his own) and a soft-willed mother who later became tyrannical and selfish. He also describes his relationships with his two brothers: John, a talented amateur scientist killed during the First World War; and Martin, who became a writer (thereby earning the wrath of their father) and who killed himself in public. Bankson describes being drawn into the field of anthropology; how his first research expedition ended in failure; and how drawn he has been to the Kiona, partly because of the tribe’s openness to being studied and partly out of a desire to get away from his mother.

Chapter 5 (first person, past tense, Bankson narrating) – Back...