Entangled Edens: Visions of the AmazonCandace Slater takes us on a journey into the Amazon that will forever change our ideas about one of the most written-about, filmed, and fought-over areas in the world. In this book she deftly traces a rich and marvelous legacy of stories and images of the Amazon that reflects the influence of widely different groups of people--conquistadors, corporate executives, subsistence farmers --over the centuries. A careful, passionate consideration of one of the most powerful environmental icons of our time, Entangled Edens makes clear that we cannot defend the Amazon's dazzling array of plants and animals without comprehending its equally astonishing human and cultural diversity. Early explorers describe encounters with fearsome warrior women and tell of golden cities complete with twenty-four-carat kings. Contemporary miners talk about a living, breathing gold. TV documentaries decry deforestation and mercury poisoning. How do these disparate visions of the Amazon relate to one another? As she fits the pieces of the puzzle together, Slater shows how today's widespread portrayal of the region as a fragile rain forest on the brink of annihilation is every bit as likely as earlier depictions to obscure important aspects of this immense and complicated region. In this book, Slater draws on her fifteen years of experience collecting stories and oral histories among many different groups of people in the Amazon. Throughout Entangled Edens, the voices of contemporary Amazonians mingle with the analyses of such writers as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Theodore Roosevelt, and nineteenth-century naturalist Henry Walter Bates. Slater convinces us that these stories and ideas, together with an understanding of their origins and ongoing impact, are as critical as scientific analyses in the fight to preserve the rain forest. |
Contents
The Meeting of the Waters | 1 |
A Tale of Two Cities | 23 |
El Dorado and the Golden Legacy | 29 |
The Encante as a World in Motion | 54 |
Amazon Women | 77 |
Gold as a Woman | 102 |
The Amazon as Water | 129 |
Roots of the Rain Forest | 133 |
Lakes within Lakes | 158 |
Beyond Eden | 183 |
Chronology of Key Dates | 205 |
Glossary of Selected Terms | 218 |
References | 281 |
Acknowledgments | 313 |
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accounts Amazon River Amazonian Indians American Angela Maria appears Bates Belém Benedita Brazil Brazilian Amazon Brazilian Wilderness caboclo cacao Candace Slater Carvajal century Claude Lévi-Strauss communities cultures described Discoverie Dolphin Dorado El Dorado Encantado stories Encantados Encante environmental essays Euclides da Cunha European expedition fish garimpeiros garimpo giant gold camps gold miners golden king Green Hell Henry Walter Bates história History human images indigenous José jungle lake land later Lévi-Strauss lives Lucky River Manaus Maranhão mining Mother Waterfall Myth narratives native Naturalist nature nature’s Nonetheless ouro Pará paraíso perdido Parintins Paulo Pedro Photo by Candace portrayals Portuguese quilombos Rain Forest Ralegh region remanescentes rich Roosevelt rubber tappers Santarém São Paulo says Serra Pelada shape-shifter slave descendants snake social storytellers Tapajós term tion Tô Pereira transformation trees Tristes tropiques Trombetas Trombetas River tropical turtles vision warrior women woman Yanomami York