Amazonian Cosmos by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff

Description

Amazonian Cosmos by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
Pre-loved paperback in very good condition
University of Chicago Press, 1971, 290pp

This work is a study of the religious symbolism of a small group of tropical rain forest Indians known as the Desana (a subgroup of Tucano) living in the Vaupés region of Colombia’s northwest Amazon area. Much of the information is based on the author’s conversation with a single informant — a largely acculturated Desana Indian by the name of Antonio Guzman. The document is divided into three major parts. Part I presents an ethnographic sketch of the Desana people and their land; part II, the Creation Myth, contains a relatively concise statement of cosmology and forms the basis of the establishement of various cultural institutions and religious codes; and part III provides a detailed analysis of religious symbolism in various aspects of Desana life.