The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, With a new preface. [Paperback]

Michael J. Harner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (September 13, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520050657
• ISBN-13: 978-0520050655
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic ethnography, February 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, With a new preface. (Paperback)

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.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A "sexy" classic.., June 10, 2003

By 

J. Weaver "black_lodge_books" (FLA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, With a new preface. (Paperback)

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.

10 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars captures little of the sense of Shuar culture, May 28, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, With a new preface. (Hardcover)

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.