Savages [Hardcover]

Joe Kane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 1995

Savages is a firsthand account, by turn hilarious, heartbreaking, and thrilling, of a small band of Amazonian warriors and their battle to preserve their way of life. Includes eight pages of photos.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this impressive, funny and moving work, Joe Kane tells the story of the Huaorani, a tribe living in the deepest part of the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador. The Huaorani have only in the last generation been exposed to such items as the wristwatch. But the modern world is reaching them quickly; for better or worse--usually worse--they live astride some of Ecuador's richest oilfields. Oil production in the Amazon has opened the forest to colonization and industrialization, often with alarming results: about 17 million gallons, of raw crude, more than in the Valdez spill in Alaska, were spilled from a Amazon pipeline between 1972 and 1989. Kane, who lived with the Huaorani for months, immaculately reports on the tribes' connections with the old world and its battles with the new one.

From Publishers Weekly

Savages is a hilarious and deeply moving account of what happens when two disparate civilizations clash. The Huaorani, a small nation of nomadic Amazonian warriors, reside amid some of Ecuador's richest oil fields. The Ecuadorian government and the world's multinational oil companies want to extract that oil and, apparently, don't care what becomes of either the Huaorani people or the land on which they live. Kane (Running the Amazon) befriends many of the Huaorani leaders and spends a good deal of time with them, living and traveling deep within the jungle. His is a firsthand account of cultural destruction and rampant environmental devastation with a great many villains. The oil companies act disgracefully; the government abandons its citizens; the Christian missionaries work to undermine the indigenous culture; environmental groups use the Huaorani as pawns in a global battle; and many of the Huaorani themselves are unable to resist the bribes set before them. Savages is every bit as lively and enjoyable as a good picaresque novel, with Kane wonderfully mixing the serious and the absurd. Photos not seen by PW. 40,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (September 19, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679411917
• ISBN-13: 978-0679411918
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A reaction from an anthropologist, November 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Savages (Paperback)

Although this book has been criticized by people with a background in anthropology, as a practicing anthropologist (with research expertise in media studies), I beg to disagree. Certainly, the book has weaknesses, and the fieldwork it is based on was flawed. Yet it presents a balanced view of Amazon peoples -- if one reads carefully one finds that they are NOT merely portrayed as "noble savages." Moreover, the book has a chance of reaching a FAR greater audience than most anthropology works ever do. I aspire to write as compellingly as Kane; it's about time anthropology had more of an impact on the world. I have done research and writing that is critical of journalists and journalism, but I'm aware that anthropological fieldwork is far from perfect, either. Instead of taking pot shots at a nuanced, in-depth view of the geo-political problems of indigenous peoples, we should celebrate the possibilities of collaborating with journalists as careful and sensitive as Kane.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've ever read!, January 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Savages (Paperback)

I first read this book about two years ago and have since given copies as gifts to friends and have passed my own copy about to many colleagues. I work in the oil industry and I believe that this book is a MUST READ for all foreign workers in the Amazon region. My field of work involves protecting the interests of the local people and the health of the environment and I can assure the previous reviewer that while the oil companies have much to answer for historically that there is a small army of us working on the inside and who have found Savages to be one of the best books around. Joe Kane writes in journalistic style presenting events as they unfolded and he sheds light on several issues relating to foreign activity in developing countries that are seldom thought about by those who participate in the "invasion". Mr Kane's writing had me in fits of laughter at times and at other times I was in tears. By the end of the book I felt that I almost knew the people whose lives were discussed and I certainly closed the cover with a new understanding and questions that I had not asked myself before. Anyone contemplating a trip to the jungle of Ecuador, or other Amazonian nation, should make a point of reading this book. It is factual, interesting and tells a real life drama that describes the beginning of what will probably be the final days of the isolated people of the Amazon. It will be up to you as the reader to form an opinion on the situation as Kane doesn't do it for you. He does however raise the interesting question that may not be answered easily - what rights do isolated people have to remain isolated and completely unaffected by the development of the world? Read Savages for yourself and see if you can answer that question.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good memoir., June 18, 2002

By 

Type12point (Ottawa, ON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Savages (Paperback)

June 18, 2002

This is a well written book, but not an inclusive
piece of research. The author writes of his
experiences in South America with skill and passion,
but a reader should come to the story with the full
knowledge that he is reading the work of an interested
observer and not that of an anthropologist, or
sociologist, or even much of an activist.

Still, I'd recommend this book to someone who wouldn't
normally be interested in the subject matter. It's a

pleasurable and moving read. Author Joe Kane seems
more interested in the people he met during his travels
than in cleansing or condemning his various subjects.
Persons truly interested in the puzzle that is big oil,
bad politics and embattled natives in South America,
however, will probably finish `Savages' with as many
questions as answers.