Ostrovy krásy, lásky a lidojedů - Díl první – Stingl Miloslav (2011)

The legendary islands of the South Pacific have long stirred Europeans’ imaginations. Few actually reached them to admire the beauty of their half-naked women, sunsets over whispering beaches, and the Polynesians’ woodcarving and tattooing traditions. One of those who fulfilled this dream, before the rise of globalisation, is the ethnologist Miloslav Stingl, a living legend of travel writing. This updated and annotated account of the beauty and mysteries of Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand, the Marquesas and Easter Island presents Stingl’s brilliant observations, supported by his scholarly expertise, alongside entirely new passages on another Polynesian phenomenon: cannibalism. The book recounts how Māori once made clothespins and flutes from human bones, how the tattooed Marquesans developed a taste for human flesh, and how Rapa Nui, the island of the mythical moai statues, is home to Ana Kai Tangata, or the Cave of the Cannibals. Stingl’s account of the Islands of Beauty, Love and Cannibals is followed by a second volume about his journeys through Melanesia and Micronesia.