- Author
- Robert Moor
- Published
- 13 April 2026
- Kind
- Magazine essay adapted from a book, with first-person travel reporting
- Original
- www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/tree-house
- Subject
- Society and technology
What it is
Robert Moor is an author who has written for several magazines. This piece is adapted from the book In Trees and runs in Lapham's Quarterly. It uses one journey to reflect on freedom, fantasy and tourism.
What it says
- A National Geographic photo of a high tree house shaped Moor's picture of freedom.
- Moor describes the Korowai as having no rulers, police, prisons or bureaucracy.
- Moor found the village of Mabul in Western clothing, urged to settle by government money.
- Moor reports that very tall tree houses were rare and are now built for tourists.
- The essay says a BBC documentary used a tree house built to order. The BBC apologized.
- Moor says the American tree house seems to stem from an 1899 Beard article. Beard framed it as Indigenous.
- Moor concludes that tourists see their own dreams in a Korowai tree house.
What evidence it gives
The essay offers first-person reporting from the trip. It cites interviews with a guide, a missionary, a photographer and an anthropologist. It also leans on Rupert Stasch's book Society of Others and historical sources.
Interests and limits
The piece is a book excerpt, so it also promotes the book. It rests on one trip, and the author calls the interviews there not especially productive. Language barriers limited what villagers could say.