Anthropologist and painter Tobias Schneebaum left the comforts of New York City for the jungles of Peru and New Guinea. He hung out with headhunters, dined with cannibals, and even fell in love. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, how an uptown guy found a home in the rainforest. Also, up the Arctic for a visit with the Inuit.

Hugh Brody is an anthropologist, film-maker and author of "The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers, and the Shaping of the World." He tells Steve Paulson about his adventures with the Inuit people of the high Arctic and assesses the chances for the survival of their culture. Also, Michael Blake tells Anne Strainchamps that the issue of cultural survival is complicated, and that maybe not every way of life deserves to survive. Blake teaches philosophy at Harvard.

Canadian historian Kenn Harper is the author of "Give Me My Father's Body," which tells the tragic story of the Eskimos Robert Peary brought to New York in 1897. The subject of anthropological study, all but one sickened and died. Also, the inimitable Doug Gordon fills us in on the exploits of Rock Fossil, caveman-anthropologist.

Tobias Schneebaum was a gay Jewish painter from New York who walked into the jungles of Peru and New Guinea and found a home with the cannibal tribes there. Now 80, he's written a memoir "Secret Places: My Life in New York and New Guinea." Schneebaum talks with Steve Paulson about his exotic life. A documentary film about Schneebaum called "Keep the River on Your Right: My Life in New York and New Guinea" is in production.

Distribution dates:

• week of 03/04/2001 - hour 2