Customer Reviews

Rio Tigre and Beyond: The Amazon Jungle Medicine of Manual Cordova-Rios

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

 

 

Manuel Cordova-Rios apprenticed with shamans of the Huni Kui people of eastern Peru at the turn of the century. During his lifetime as a healer and physician he utilized this knowledge to its maximum, recording and proving the comprehensive health system of these indigenous people to be one of the most sophisticated in existence.

This book is the sequel to Wizard of the Upper Amazon, the story of a mestizo youth who is kidnapped by a nearly non-contact indigenous tribe and taught their ways in order to make him the next tribal chief and shaman. That story is summarized in the first chapter of Rio Tigre. The rest of this book is the story of how that man, Manuel Cordova-Rios, became one of the best-known and widely respected curanderos in the western Amazon. The book is written by F. Bruce Lamb, a westerner who met and became friends with Cordova-Rios through a business relationship in the Amazon. As Cordova related various stories during the course of their friendship, Lamb realized that he had met an extraordinary man and began to record these accounts for publication. Cordova spoke many indigenous languages plus Spanish, while Lamb spoke Spanish along with his native English, so he was able to converse directly with Cordova without an interpreter. I found the tale well-written and warmly conversational in tone; easy reading. The story is an incredible window into another way of being in the world, especially with respect to illness and healing, so it could be considered a narrative of medical anthropology - but it's really an engaging and entertaining read!

Too bad this book has gone out of print. It is truly one of the most fascinating of all time. Shows the incredible potential of the human mind. I cannot recommend it highly enough.