Upriver : the turbulent life and times of an Amazonian people /

In a well-written, detailed text, anthropologist Brown (emer., Williams College) presents an eloquent book full of reflections based on his 1976-2012 fieldwork with an Amazonian society, the Awajún, previously known as the Aguaruna or Jibaro. This indigenous society living in the Upper Amazon of Northern Peru has often been highly misunderstood and has erroneously been described as a vanishing society and portrayed in a very simplistic way as primarily a murdering culture. Brown presents a detailed story filled with many personal events combined with rich ethnographic and cultural information and a witty perspective that easily engages readers. In addition, he incorporates quotes from the works of many well-known anthropologists that open up an elaborate discussion of relevant issues dealing with anthropologists and indigenous peoples (e.g., the romantic construction of the other). This quite thoughtful work provides a deep understanding of who the Awajún really are, as well as their current situation in the modern world. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most academic levels/libraries. --Manuel Lizarralde, Connecticut College

An anthropologist returns to the indigenous Amazon community of Awajn to observe startling changes since the mid-1970s and examine his own scholarly methodology.In this personal, bifurcated narrative, Brown (Anthropology and Latin American Studies/Williams Coll.;Who Owns Native Culture?, 2003, etc.) portrays the proud, combative Awajn as deeply defined by their struggle to remain autonomous against the meddling forces of a larger, modern culture. According to the author, their streak of aggression is unusual among Amazonian peoples; in a then-and-now juxtaposition, he closely observes the effects of their bellicosity in meeting contemporary challenges such as land and water rights. In the first part, Brown presents his fieldwork among the Awajn in 1976 as a kind of novices ethnographic diary, full of his insecurities and false starts (a vortex of self-pity danced at the edge of my waking hours) before he embedded himself within the tribe at Huascayacu and was heartily accepted, joining drinking parties and breakfasts of armadillo. Over many months, he observed complicated family ties, wary visits from neighboring tribes, hunting with blow darts, ritual healing, craftsmanship, sorcery, weddings and tribal law. When he renewed his research and revisited the communities in 2012, the Awajn had gained a political presence and militantly demanded to share the fruits of a booming Peruvian economy. Coffee farming had helped enrich the community, an entrepreneurial class was emerging, and the population continued to grow, yet there were many signs of a still-beleaguered community fearful of land invasions and susceptible to a broad range of religious influences such as millenarian groups and evangelicals. Ultimately, Brown questions the efficacy of the ethnographers traditional method of immersion as incomplete, yet, as he did, he urges submission in another cultures ways to achieve a self-distancing and sense of humility.An unusual study, elucidating of a people and braced by both self-doubt and honesty. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.