The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West: Amazon.ca: J. P. Mallory, Victor H. Mair: Books

Product Description

Brian Fagan

A major contribution to the history and archaeology of a remote and little known part of the world.

Colin Renfrew

Facinating and well-researched...certain to prove controversal.

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9 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars If you found this book too dull, Nov 4 2002

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rkb "rkb@hvc.rr.com" (Wallkill, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

read Elizabeth Wayland Barber's "Mummies of Urumchi" instead. It's a great read. She foucses on what we can learn about these people based on (starting from) the textiles the mummies were wrapped in. The result is a fascinating look at a surprising culture. And if you enjoy that, try her earlier book "Women's Work: the First 20,000 Years" too.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at one of our modern mysteries., Jun 12 2002

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Cas (the Idaho mountains) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

This thick volume attempts to answer the question of how a bunch of Caucasian mummies ended up in central China. Scholarly and far-reaching, it delves into linguistics, archaeology, religion, and other disciplines.

It didn't actually dwell on the mummies of Tarim much. Most of it's book scholarship, not field investigation. It tries to show how various populations in China got where they did, using whatever means it can. In this regard, it succeeds. But I wish it'd talked about the actual mummies more than it did. I got occasional glimpses, but nothing more.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of academic theorizing to reade, sometimes engaging., Mar 18 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (Hardcover)

...what it is, mainly, is a discussion about the cultural name and the language of the mummies might be. This is fine, and should occupy a chapter, but half the book is specifically related to trying to pin down a name out of Chinese and European sources and where they came from from archaeological and linguistic knowledge.

It seemed to me that the book might better have concentrated on what could be learned of their culture from what we DO know from their burials and with comparisons to how people live in those regions today. There is no in-depth analysis of the items (beyond what you can see for yourself in the photographs) nor comparison of cultural details or even explaining what a nomadic lifestyle would be like, nor discussion of specific practices that might suggest their beliefs. And when mention is made it is done briefly so they can get on with their analysis of the historical basis of Central Asia. Clearly they chose their emphasis simply because they have such limited access to the mummies themselves.

There are several chapters at the end that spell out all the competing ideas of how the Tarim basin may have been populated, which probably belonged in a anthropological journal. But I cannot say the book is not interesting to reade, its just that I kept waiting for a close study of cultural comparisons right until the book ended. For this reason I liked Barber's book better, for her close appraisal of Tarim fabrics and then to speak of how they might have been made. One feature of the mummies was the women with "witch" hats. The authors simply say the real witch's hat was Puritan dress from the 17th century and then blithely go on. Now somehow I believed the Puritans were Christians not pagans, but maybe I'm wrong.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Dull treatment of a fascinating topic.
I don't consider myself a fan of "popular" treatments of specialized subject matter, but I couldn't help wishing the authors had even just a hint of a flair for... Read more

Published on Feb 15 2002 by Jacques Talbot

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book on an intriguing archaeological mystery
"The Tarim Mummies" weaves field data, historical background, scholarship, and informed speculation into probably the best account of this subject yet published. Read more

Published on Sep 19 2000 by JLP