Ethnos Publications

NOTES ON THE PORO IN LIBERIA and MASKS AS AGENTS OF SOCIAL CONTROL IN NORTHEAST LIBERIA.
by George W. Harley
(Hardcover)
Ethnos Publications, 2001

These two seminal studies by Dr. George Way Harley are the basis of our present day knowledge of the Poro men's secret society of West Africa and of masks and masking traditions in Liberia. Harley, a physician, traveled to Liberia from Durham, N.C., in 1926, cutting his way through the bush when there were no roads. He established a clinic at Ganta in Mano country near the Guinea border, and ministered to the needs of the people in the region for over three decades. Because of the trust placed in him by Poro secret society initiates, and through his anthropological training at Harvard, he slowly accumulated an immense knowledge and deep insight into the otherwise impenetrable secrets of the Poro.

Nearly impossible to find in their original, these classic works are presented together in this facsimile reprint. The two papers have been bound together in a hand…Read more