Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381193 in Books
• Published on: 1984-09-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 239 pages

From the Inside Flap
"This ethnography is one of the classics in the field of South America. The Jívaro (Shuar) represent one of the most important and political well-organized groups of South American Indians, and Harner's work, reissued here, will become the major introduction in English to these people for future students."--Brent Berlin, UC Berkeley

Customer Reviews

classic ethnography
This is a classic ethnography of the Shuar, the one that established the standard for all subsequent descriptions of the Shuar. I have done extensive field work with a Shuar related group and was impressed on how accurate Harner's account was, even though the group I worked with was separate in both time and space from the untsuri shuar. This is a must read for anyone interested in the ethnography of lowland South America.

A "sexy" classic..
Harner's Jivaro is a very interesting book. I cannot attest to the ethnographic veracity of the text as some other reviewers, but I can speak to what I thought about the book. This book is one of the most fascinating ethnographies I have read. It is very "sexy": violence, drugs, death, decapitation, shrunken heads...edgy stuff. What utterly fascinated me was the description of how this state of affairs came about. Harner claims that head-hunting raids didn't take place, or at least not with the frequency as reported in this book until the introduction of firearms by the Spanish. At this point rival tibes were better able to kill each other, and violence increased. I found it all very interesting, and would recommend it.

captures little of the sense of Shuar culture
The title is good -- the Shuar (Jivaro) indeed have a special reverence for sacred waterfalls -- but the rest of the book captures little of the true flavor of Shuar culture and character. (I spent several months among the Shuar many years ago.) As an example, Nunkui is the spirit of Earth when referred to as a living being, but the author refers to Nunkui as "a female crop fairy." Even if one does not speak Shuar, the relationship of the word "Nunkui" to the word "Nunka" (land or territory) should be obvious. There is much superficial observation in this book but very little true insight.