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. |
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accounts Amazon River Amazonian Indians American Angela Maria appears Bates Benedita Brazil Brazilian Brazilian Amazon Brazilian Wilderness caboclo cacao Candace Slater Carvajal Carvajal's century Claude Lévi-Strauss communities cultures described Discoverie Dolphin Dorado El Dorado Encantado Encantado stories Encante environmental essays Euclides da Cunha European expedition fish garimpeiros garimpo giant gold camps gold miners Gold's golden city golden king Green Hell Henry Walter Bates Higino human images IMAX José jungle lake land later Lévi-Strauss lives Lucky River Manaus Maranhăo mining Mother Waterfall myths narratives native Naturalist nature Nonetheless Óbidos Pará paraíso perdido Parintins Pedro Photo by Candace portrayals Portuguese present-day quilombos Rain Forest Ralegh region remanescentes rich Roosevelt rubber tappers Santarém says Serra Pelada shape-shifter slave descendants snake storytellers Suriname Tapajós term tion Tô Pereira transformation trees Tristes tropiques Trombetas Trombetas River tropical turtles underscores vision warrior women woman Yanomami