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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book deserves an actual review...,
By Of Rules "Sam" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Land-without-Evil: Tupi-Guarani Prophetism (Paperback)
In this book, Clastres takes up the enigmatic origins of the large-scale Tupi-Guarani migrations in search for the Land-without-Evil during the early colonial period. Her central argument is that these migrations in search of a place of earthly immortality were not generated by contact with Europeans, as previous ethnologists had argued, but instead were the result of political and religious conflict within Guarani society. The key figure of these millenarian movements was the karai, an elite class of itinerate shamans whose power stood in opposition to the political authority of chiefs, elders, and warriors. Unlike the latter, whose power was based on warfare and the exchange of women within single chiefdoms, the powers of the karai arose from their command of ritual and chants, and from their movement between villages, they were able to draw support from multiple chiefdoms. Because the content of their chants protested the existing social order and the earthly authority of the chiefs, elders, and warriors, Clastres believes the widespread appeal to the karai's charisma was primarily political. It was the need of a society to prevent the emergence of any irreversible political division, to abandon the domination of society by a nascent caste of chiefs. Here, there is an obvious affinity to her late husband's work in the final essays of Society Against the State and Le Grand Parler.
One need not agree with Clastres' hypotheses to enjoy this book. It is essential for Americanists and would be of interest to anyone interested in the political of charismatic religious leadership.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
WWCC History 250 Book Review Price, Mallard, Keown, Bushey, Stilson, Teresa,
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This review is from: The Land-without-Evil: Tupi-Guarani Prophetism (Paperback)
Our group was assigned this book for an Intro to Latin American History class. We found that the book was a difficult read. Of 6 people in our group, each person was given the task of reading one chapter of the book. The book consists of 6 chapters in all. Each of us had a difficult time getting through one chapter, let alone if each person were to read the book in its entirety, it would have been quite a task. We found ourselves reading a page of the book, only to have to go back and read the page again to grasp its full meaning. Our history professor even said that he had to read the book three times to get the full grasp of everything in it. Helene Clastres is a French author and the original manuscript of the book was written in French, therefore the translation might not be exactly the wording or meaning that the author originated with. Also, there are several sources in the book that Clastres refers to that contradict her own theory of the Tupi-Guarani people. When citing another source besides herself, at times, she does not bother to let the reader know before hand. Thus, the book tends to be frequently confusing and leads the reader into some tangent which she gives a loose-ended explanation of. The topic of the book however was quite interesting. The theory of an indigenous people being atheistic, if you will, proven wrong by Helene Clastres. Indeed the Tupi-Guarani had a religious belief system far more complex than Jesuit Priests and colonial missionaries could decipher. However the Tupi-Guarani had no written belief system, or idols, rather relying on the word of a prophet, Karai, or shaman for their source of religious guidance. Perhaps an entirely faith based religious belief system, at times the book illustrating religious correlations similar to that of the Christian beliefs of the prophesies of Heaven, itself a Land-Without-Evil. Overall we would only recommend the book if one were to have lots of time to dedicate to in-depth reading in order to grasp a concept confusing to a dominant society then, and confusing to a dominant society now.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
As Good As Any Sedative,
This review is from: The Land-without-Evil: Tupi-Guarani Prophetism (Paperback)
I was assigned to read this book with a group of people for a Intro to Latin America course, and frankly, unless you find yourself in a similar unfortunate situation or you just have to know what the Tupi-Guarani people did for religious fun, leave this one on the bookshelf. This book is a classic example of people thinking that good research makes for good or even interesting writing and that simply isn't the case. The author makes no attempt whatsoever at getting, much less keeping, the reader's attention and thus I found myself struggling to get through this thing while maintaining any coherent notion of what the author was trying to say. Helene Clastres is obviously an expert and knows what she's talking about, but I thought the purpose of writing a book on a subject such as this was to try to convey these ideas and learning in such a way that the average reader could understand what the author is trying to say; the author doesn't do this or even illustrate much interest in trying. All in all, leave this thing be unless you're having trouble sleeping.
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