Word: spirits
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Finding an orchestra wasn't the only challenge she faced. For an art form devoted to exalting the human spirit, classical music is plagued by painfully unenlightened gender politics. Up until the middle of the 20th century, it was rare for orchestras to hire female instrumentalists, let alone female conductors. The Vienna Philharmonic was all male until 1997, when under the pressure of popular opinion it finally hired a female harpist. Among the top 75 symphony orchestras in the U.S., there are still only three female conductors. "The last domain of gender within the music business is the position...
...These unique, macabre artifacts were retained in villages for decades - the heads of enemies decorated and stored in the men's house or spirit house; those of ancestors often kept in special beds in their descendants' huts. But now many of the slit drums and skull cradles are empty, for new European head-hunters have been prowling the river regions, ethnic art dealers armed with dollars and euros more deadly to native culture than any dagger. "These items are going to private homes," says p.n.g. National Museum director Soroi Eoe, the man responsible for thwarting the theft of cultural artifacts...
...villagers see this large amount of money and let the object go for much less than it is worth." Among the most valuable are the intricately carved poles that support the roof of a village's haus tambaran. These poles, made from a special hardwood, represent the most powerful spirit in a village and can fetch as much as $100,000 at international auctions, says Eoe. Haraha says he is seeking to question Stuttgen about some spirit-house poles that were put up for sale recently in Wewak...
...from Nuku'alofa, the capital. The Burlings thought about opening a restaurant there, then became excited about the idea of a resort. Burling considered his choices: stay in Sydney, he recalls, and be another "brick in the wall," or take a risk in Tonga. For a free spirit like Burling, it was a no-brainer. "I figured that if we ended up back in Sydney with the arse out of our pants," he says, "we wouldn't be much different to a lot of other young couples." Like the missionary Vason, Burling's father, Alan, was a bricklayer...
...dialogue between the old and the imported can be found an hour's bumpy drive south of Lenakel, past beaches covered in glittering black sand, to Green Point. About 3,000 villagers here are ardent members of the John Frum Movement, which follows the teaching of a European-looking spirit-man who they say appeared to senior men in the area just before World War II, urging them to reject missionary rule and return to kastom living. Green Point men, sitting under the fern-clad branches of an enormous banyan tree, say Frum's original name was Brum, or broom...