Call number
995.1 K
Collection
Publication
Grand Central Publishing (2007), 272 pages
Description
Sabine Kuegler's childhood was far from typical. The child of German linguists and missionaries, she spent her youth living among the Fayu tribe in the most remote jungles of West Papua, Indonesia. There, as her family struggled for acceptance among the tightly knit and fiercely loyal community, Sabine spent her time swimming with crocodiles, shooting poisonous spiders with arrows, and chewing on pieces of bat-wing in place of gum. And she was happy. It wasn't until her world was upended at the age of 17 that Sabine experienced true fear for the first time: she was sent off to a boarding school in Switzerland and forced to confront the culture clash of modern Western society--giving her plenty of reason to be afraid. This is her remarkable true story.… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member Ella_Jill
This is a memoir of a German woman who grew up in the jungle in Indonesia among a Stone Age people, the Fayu, with her linguist/missionary father and nurse mother. I’ve found this book interesting in a variety of ways.
First, there are descriptions of life in the jungle: playing Tarzan with local
The latter part of the book describes the author’s attempt to adapt to modern life, first in a boarding Swiss school (where she had to research things like sports and popular music) and then trying to build a life for herself in her native country. Not surprisingly, the latter proved considerably more difficult, for raised in a European family but among a Stone Age culture meant that she could not feel fully at home either in Europe or in the jungle.
Overall, I found it a very interesting and, in my experience, an original book.
First, there are descriptions of life in the jungle: playing Tarzan with local
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kids swinging from real vines in the real jungle, trying to persuade parents to take in exotic pets, eating exotic foods, etc. But there’s also a darker tone, for by the time the Krugers arrived there the Fayu population had been greatly decimated by the violence between the subclans. As the author explains: “Because they lacked any medical understanding of sickness or infection… the Fayu believed in only two causes of death. A person either died form a wound or as a result of a curse.” In either case, it was the family's duty to determine to which sub-clan the perpetrator belonged and then kill somebody from that sub-clan in revenge, which meant they would usually “kill the first available (i.e. most vulnerable).” The other side would then kill someone from their sub-clan in return, and “the result of this was that all Fayu – men, women and children – were vulnerable to being picked off as part of the blood feud. And grudges were kept for decades, so you never knew when that cycle of violence might find you.” Additionally, they experienced a shortage of marriageable women due to high death rate in childbirth and polygamy practiced by men of high status, and so the usual way to obtain a wife involved abducting one from another subclan, killing her father or husband in the process and thus creating new feuds. However, the book is not as depressing as it might appear, as the author describes how her parents managed to gradually introduce considerable changes in the Fayu society. What surprised me the most, was that her father, although a missionary, did not seem to try to convert anybody or generally talk to people about religion. He did live it, though, not holding grudges against people who stole his things or even attacked him, and in the end it ended up making a far greater impression. As crucially, by this time the Fayu themselves were tired of never ending hostilities and were ready to try a different lifestyle. The latter part of the book describes the author’s attempt to adapt to modern life, first in a boarding Swiss school (where she had to research things like sports and popular music) and then trying to build a life for herself in her native country. Not surprisingly, the latter proved considerably more difficult, for raised in a European family but among a Stone Age culture meant that she could not feel fully at home either in Europe or in the jungle.
Overall, I found it a very interesting and, in my experience, an original book.
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LibraryThing member vernefan
**A Woman You Will Never Forget**
Sabine Kuegler’s memoir is probably the best biography I have ever read. This is an outstanding book of a life most westerners would find unimaginable. After finishing this wonderful life story, I doubt that I will ever forget this incredible woman.
Sabine Kuegler
Learning about the marvels of the rainforest and the incredibly interesting culture of the Fayu tribe was insightful, enlightening and fascinating. They are a loving people now, but previous to the admittance of the Kuegler family, they were a tribe of vicious warring people on the brink of extinction due to constant inner tribal conflicts leading to extreme mortality rates. Sabine’s father became a brother to the Fayu, and while integrating himself into their lives he learned their complicated language, survival tactics, centuries of legends, and was taught to respect their jungle politics and ceremonies. This enabled them to trust him, which in turn allowed them to eventually learn ways of diplomacy and peace that would settle their differences with love and forgiveness.
The Kuegler family lived amongst the Fayu for many years. Sabine and her siblings stayed until they became college age where at that time, they were then shipped off to various European and American colleges. These teenagers needed to literally learn how to be civilized city folk in the western world. However, for Sabine, this was too much to bear. After tragedy had struck her life when a Fayu brother died of Tuberculosis, she felt she could no longer live the jungle life and accepted the offer to attend a boarding school in Switzerland. Sabine’s story from that point on was the most challenging part of her life. She painfully soon became confused, depressed, and traumatized. This innocent naïve nature child had never seen a telephone, a computer, a stereo, a television, automobiles, grocery stores, money, nor any of the everyday items we westerners in the modern world have taken for granted our entire lives. She became paralyzed, afraid to cross the street into traffic, shook in fear of her ignorance of the world and became haunted as to where she truly belonged.
Her writings of the college days are at times hilarious to the point where the reader is belly-laughing out loud, but at times you will also find yourself wiping the tears from your eyes as she becomes heartbreakingly suicidal as she struggles to belong. I have never been so entranced by a personal story as this, and felt deeply moved by reading about her amazing life filled with ups and downs. I promise you readers, that Child of the Jungle will be the most extraordinary book you will have come across in decades. This story is perfect for all readers in monthly book club discussion groups and a book you will be passing around to so many friends you might not get it back! This memoir deserves awards, international recognition, and more stars I’m allowed to give it. Standing ovation..clap clap clap!!!
Sabine Kuegler’s memoir is probably the best biography I have ever read. This is an outstanding book of a life most westerners would find unimaginable. After finishing this wonderful life story, I doubt that I will ever forget this incredible woman.
Sabine Kuegler
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was only five years old when her German parents moved her and her siblings to the wild jungle rainforest of West Papua, which is the other half of Papua New Guinea in Indonesia. Her parents were missionary/anthropologists who had a goal to live amongst the newly found lost tribe of the Fayu natives. To be a part of their daily lives and jungle community, to learn their language and culture, and to assist them in an eventual integration with the western world without losing their land, their heritage and people, was their new mission. As Sabine was just a toddler when she arrived there from Nepal where her parents had their last assignment, she was raised with the Fayu children and became a true child of the jungle. The family lived in a screen enclosed hut, ate insects, bats, crocodile, and wild boar along with the staples of rice and sago which is a floury paste substance derived from palm trees. She became a Fayu child, a hunter-gatherer, prowled the rainforest naked, learned to hunt with bow and arrow, climbed trees to escape dangerous animals, lived in total wonder of the natural world around her, and acquired an incredible knowledge of the flora and fauna beneath the treetop canopy. A lover of animals, she collected a menagerie of pets such as spiders the size of dinner plates, parrots, mini-kangaroos, cats, bats, birds, lizards and whatever else crawled into her path. A brave and vivacious young girl, she took the hardships of jungle survival in stride and turned her trials and tribulations into experiences of wonders to behold. Facing flash floods, intense tropical heat, bug infestations, malaria and other medical challenges, Sabine was the love of her family and became the chosen child of the Fayu who grew to love her as their own. Learning about the marvels of the rainforest and the incredibly interesting culture of the Fayu tribe was insightful, enlightening and fascinating. They are a loving people now, but previous to the admittance of the Kuegler family, they were a tribe of vicious warring people on the brink of extinction due to constant inner tribal conflicts leading to extreme mortality rates. Sabine’s father became a brother to the Fayu, and while integrating himself into their lives he learned their complicated language, survival tactics, centuries of legends, and was taught to respect their jungle politics and ceremonies. This enabled them to trust him, which in turn allowed them to eventually learn ways of diplomacy and peace that would settle their differences with love and forgiveness.
The Kuegler family lived amongst the Fayu for many years. Sabine and her siblings stayed until they became college age where at that time, they were then shipped off to various European and American colleges. These teenagers needed to literally learn how to be civilized city folk in the western world. However, for Sabine, this was too much to bear. After tragedy had struck her life when a Fayu brother died of Tuberculosis, she felt she could no longer live the jungle life and accepted the offer to attend a boarding school in Switzerland. Sabine’s story from that point on was the most challenging part of her life. She painfully soon became confused, depressed, and traumatized. This innocent naïve nature child had never seen a telephone, a computer, a stereo, a television, automobiles, grocery stores, money, nor any of the everyday items we westerners in the modern world have taken for granted our entire lives. She became paralyzed, afraid to cross the street into traffic, shook in fear of her ignorance of the world and became haunted as to where she truly belonged.
Her writings of the college days are at times hilarious to the point where the reader is belly-laughing out loud, but at times you will also find yourself wiping the tears from your eyes as she becomes heartbreakingly suicidal as she struggles to belong. I have never been so entranced by a personal story as this, and felt deeply moved by reading about her amazing life filled with ups and downs. I promise you readers, that Child of the Jungle will be the most extraordinary book you will have come across in decades. This story is perfect for all readers in monthly book club discussion groups and a book you will be passing around to so many friends you might not get it back! This memoir deserves awards, international recognition, and more stars I’m allowed to give it. Standing ovation..clap clap clap!!!
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LibraryThing member LarisaAWhite
'Child of the Jungle: the true story of a girl caught between two worlds,' by Sabine Kuegler, is a fascinating account of a German missionary kid's childhood experiences growing up among the Fayu -- a recently discovered, Stone-Age tribe indigenous to West Papua, Indonesia. Part family memoir, part
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ethnographic history, and in part a dramatic tale of cross-cultural reentry, the book bounces around quite a bit thematically. However, the factual tid-bits of information she presents about the Fayu culture, and about how that culture changed over the years, due to the influence of her missionary family, were simply riveting. In a sense, the title of the book is misleading, for the real story in the book is not that of the jungle-girl narrator, but the story of change within the Fayu culture, itself. And for that, I found the book well worth the read. Show Less
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
Fairly interesting account by a German girl who grew up living with a tribe in New Guinea her parents worked with. I would have liked more about the culture clash she experienced when she left.
LibraryThing member bookwoman247
This is the autobiography of a European woman who spent her childhood in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Her parents were linguist/missionaries and her playmates were the children of one of the most remote tribes in the world.
Her eventual re-adjustment to Western society proved quite difficult for
I found this book so readable and so incredibly fascinating that I finished it in less than 24 hours.
the author's childhood was both idyllic and full of painful lessons at the same time. One thing for sure; it was an endless adventure.
I know that I say I love a lot of books, and I do. Add one more to the list of books I love!
Her eventual re-adjustment to Western society proved quite difficult for
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her.I found this book so readable and so incredibly fascinating that I finished it in less than 24 hours.
the author's childhood was both idyllic and full of painful lessons at the same time. One thing for sure; it was an endless adventure.
I know that I say I love a lot of books, and I do. Add one more to the list of books I love!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Heduanna
This was a great, quick read, lots of fun. I've seen some people classifying it as children's literature; given the trouble she sometimes got into, I'm not sure a parent would want it recommended to a child . I appreciated her predicament at the end, feeling that she didn't really fit in anywhere.
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Looking forward to reading her sequel, though so far it's only available from library in German (a challenge?). Show Less
Pages
272
ISBN
0446579068 / 9780446579063