By Arnold Perey, Anthropologist, Aesthetic Realism Consultant
“In this book you will take a trip to the heart of Papua New Guinea, to the mountains, peaceful and turbulent, where Gwe lives. We invite you to a new understanding of the human self, as you meet Gwe, his relations, his enemies, and Alan, the anthropologist who lived with them. Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy founded by the great poet and educator Eli Siegel, is that understanding. It explains: There is a fight in every person between respect for the world and contempt for it.”
Book 1. The Meeting; Chapter 1. Gwe Is Born
Eli Siegel What is the biggest question about birth?
Arnold Perey I don’t know.
Eli Siegel To whom does the child belong?
— From an Aesthetic Realism Class
“Her second was born an hour before dawn, when it was cold, in the Rainy Season. According to custom, the child was nameless for 27 days and was secluded with her in a birth house built in a quiet tree-covered place by her brother and herself….When the day of presentation arrived, the 28th day, she brought the baby out into the world—into daylight for the first time….”