Customer Reviews

The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana (American Exploration and Travel Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Little needs to be said about Ralegh's text beyond the obvious--it is a fascinating example of Renaissance self-fashioning through travel writing. It is reproduced carefully and faithfully here, with a minimum of editorial intrusion, for which readers should be grateful.

Whitehead's long introduction poses more of a problem. It is shockingly badly written--one imagines that the editors threw up their hands in despair at the atrocious quality of the prose. Only professional anthropologists and historians are likely to struggle through it. This is a great shame, because Whitehead's argument is fascinating and important. In essence, he argues that many of the most seemingly fantastical aspects of Ralegh's account (tales of Indians with faces in their chests, etc.) weren't simply European projections, but products of an interaction between European assumptions and native myths.

I think that this book was excellent. The author was a very talented man. I recommend this book to any one who would like to learn more about the history of South America.

I think that this book was excellent. The author was a very talented man. I recommend this book to any one who would like to learn more about the history of South America.

I think that this book was excellent. The author was a very talented man. I recommend this book to any one who would like to learn more about the history of South America.

This book is basicaly a rehash of Walter Raleigh's work. Whitehead, never having done any long-term fieldwork in Amazonia, offers little new insight to his readers. He gets away with this by theorizing, as postmodernists often do, from a distance (and using the hard work of others). This book, as so much of his other work, is a sign of the decay of anthropology in USA.