The north-west Amazons

Notes of Some Months Spent Among Cannibal Tribes

Bibliographic Data

ID8094030
AuthorsThomas Whiffen (corresponding author)
Year2010
Publication date2010-09-09
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueNorth-West Amazons (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511706554
OpenAlexW2033924411
Open LibraryOL34461569M
ISBN9780511706554
LanguageEN
Citations received19

This 1915 volume recounts Captain Thomas Whiffen's travels in Brazil and Colombia in the region between the rivers Issa (or Içá) and Apaporis, and the Putumayo District. The study looks at the way in which the indigenous peoples, especially the Boro and Witoto, relate to their land. He describes their way of life, including their homes, agriculture, food, weaponry, warfare, clothing, health and medicine, songs and dances, magic and religion, tribal organisation, the social status of women, and their reaction to strangers. The practice of cannibalism is also addressed and Whiffen suggests some possible reasons for it, including vengeance and supreme insult to enemies, the need to consume all available meat, and the desire to adopt some characteristics of the dead. Appendices include detailed lists of the Native Americans' physical features, deities, vocabulary, and names, and an example of tribal poetry

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Cannibalism · Clothing · Economic shortage · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Indigenous · Literature · MAGIC (telescope · Poetry · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Indigenous Health and Education · Indigenous Studies in Latin America · Amazon River Valley · Boro Indians · Indians of South America · Putumayo River Valley · Witoto Indians · Yapura River Valley (Mexico) · Ecology · History

Tools

Open DOI