Return of the Tribal

by Rufus C. Camphausen

Book Overview

A photographic exploration of the modern revival of piercing, tattooing, scarification, and body painting that reveals its origins in tribal culture and practices. Since earliest times, tribal cultures around the world have used body marks and modifications to indicate membership and rank within the group, identify with spiritual totems, express sacrifice and loss, and enhance physical attraction and sexual enjoyment. Today we are witnessing a renaissance of interest in body adornment that many interpret as a return to our tribal beginnings--a way to identify who we are in an urban world that has lost its sense of community. Return of the Tribal takes a non-judgmental look at a great variety of practices of body adornment and modification--from prehistoric and aboriginal to those of modern urban tribals in cities such as London, New York, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. From the beautiful to the bizarre, the author shows the many beautiful and bizarre ways people choose to alter their appearance.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892816104
• ISBN13: 9780892816101
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Park Street Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.1" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Not the best, but definitely worth owning!

"Return Of The Tribal" is a book that delves into body adornment cross-culturally and throughout history. The book is relatively short, but is packed with great photos and content.If you don't already own Modern Primitives, you might want to start there first. This book doesn't have as good of written content, though I personally found it to have better and more varied photography.Overall, the book is a must-have for the library of anyone interested in body modification (either on a tribal level or in Western culture). "Return Of the Tribal" could work as a (small) coffee table book or a reference text. Short, but very sweet.

a wonderful book

if you want to research body modification I would suggest this and Modern Primitives. This book is rich with color photographs and indepth discriptions. A must buy for fans of the modification of flesh

Great photography and very informative

I've got many books on tattooing and body piercing and I consider this one of my favourite. It looks at the possible reasons why people in the west get body decorations and compares them to the ritualistic purposes there are in tribal cultures. I like it a lot because it focuses on the ancient and traditional aspect of body piercing, tattooing and scarification. It contains excepional photographs(all colour) and goes into great depth and detail. It doesn't talk about body art in a superficial stand point but considers it as an art with a very ancient history. I feels its a very worthwhile read which i constantly reread and refer to and it never is boring.

Interesting book

I agree with the previous review. This is informative and has some decent photos. If you liked this book, then you'll love Modern Primitives - very informative and some great background on the artists - but take a leather strip to bite on when you check out some of the body modifications!

Amazing

This is a one of a kind book cuntains photos(full color) like I've never seen before! If your interested in learning about body art from all over the world, this a very good place to start. Check out "Modern Primatives" by V. Vale another great book on body-art. -CADAVER