Living Magic

The Realities Underlying The Physical Practices and Beliefs of Australian Aborigines

by Ronald Rose

Rand McNally & Company, 1956, [First Edition – First Printing], black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, foxing to endpapers, discolouration to photographic plates at bottom, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, discolouration, chipping  and tears (see photographs)

“Magic, the living magic being practiced at this very moment by a “Stone Age” people, is the fascinating subject of this unusual book.  Written with telling simplicity, it is a revealing picture of the Australian aborigines and their truly primitive magic culture.  It is, also, the story of an extraordinary search for the realities behind their magic beliefs and physical practices.
persistent reports of living magic from the length and breadth of aboriginal Australia had been collected from countless full-blooded tribal natives who had only the barest contact with white culture, as well as from many detribalized Aboriginals.  So vivid and compelling were these accounts that the author and his wife Lyn set out to determine what scientific basis, if any, underlay these strange phenomena.”