1. Images of Amerindians stone- age Green Hell Cannibal El Dorado
Hobbes
El Dorado
Columbus
stone-
age
Dog-snouted
warriors
Hobbes
archaic
primitive
Rousseau
Green Hell
Léry
Garden of Eden
Amazons
Savage
Homer 1

2. Orientalism
Edward Said (1979): the “Orient” as European invention, holding a special place of exotic-ness in Western imagination – the distinction of West and East
Academic: “Oriental” area studies
Style of thought: the nature of Asian peoples, their ways of thought, customs, and destiny
Discourse: the west on top (positional superiority), more “progressive” and advanced

3. Tropicality
That unique variant of “Orientalism” that creates the tropics as primitive exotic
Aristotle felt the tropics were uninhabitable
Tropical forest peoples as “nature folk”
State of nature: Hobbes and Rousseau
John Locke: “in the beginning all was America”

4. Portrayed as “The Fierce People” in the Best selling ethnography
Yanomamo, 1960s and 70s,
Portrayed as “The Fierce People” in the
Best selling ethnography
Fallen from grace, the one contrast in
indigenous culture is corrupted by
Western society

5. Early contact with Xavante, central Brazil
Saturday Evening Post, March 15, 1947
(first published: March 19, 1945 in Life Magazine)

6. “Uncontacted Tribe of the Amazon (May 2008)
Envira river region, Acré, Brazil
(border with Peru)

7. All the usual suspects: Bows Feathers Nakedness Savagery
“People who bought The Emerald Forest [on Amazon.com] also bought:
Quest for Fire, Clan of the Cave Bear, The Mosquito Coast, Hell in the Pacific”

8. From www.mongabay.com/.../
Kaiapo medicine man,
Brazil. Photo: Sue Wren
From
pictures/wren-shaman-1.html
(3/28/06)
Warriors from the upper Xingú region of Brazil
participating in the Quarup ceremony.
From Conservation International's Wilderness: Earth's Last Wild Places
© Russell Mittermeier

11. “Brazil Opens the West”
“Battling dense jungles, defying hostile Indians and angry insects, these few modern frontiersmen are breaking a path that will bring civilization to a wilderness empire that encompasses 2,000,000 square miles”
The Saturday Evening Post, March 15, 1947

12. For 500 years, explorers have been searching the Amazon for traces of its fabled lost cities...now host Josh Bernstein searches for the most famous of them all. Following in the footsteps of explorer Colonel Percy Heath Fawcett, Josh treks through thick overgrown regions of the Amazon rainforest on the trail of the legendary "Lost City of Z". Along the way, he braves piranha-infested rivers, hacks through virgin jungle, and comes to terms with massive regions of deforestation. Finally, he joins up with the Kuikuro tribe. This warrior people will take him to investigate the archaeological remains of a huge forgotten city. Could it be the "Lost City of Z"? They'll teach him the ancient hunting, fishing, and horticultural techniques that allowed them to flourish long before European contact...and which may be the key to the rainforest's future.
From “Lost Cities of the Amazon” in series “Digging for the Truth, History Channel, 4/24/06

14. “In the beginning all the
World was America”
John Locke, 1690

15. “THE SAVAGE,” and the Innocent
O cacique Paulinho Paiakan, da reserva
etica das matas tropicais, estupra uma
estudante e permanece livre (1992)
Assassinato do lider seringueiro
Chico Mendes em Xapuri, no Acre,
provoca revolta no mundo inteiro (1989)
“THE SAVAGE,” and the Innocent
Eles marcaram a década
Veja, 30 Anos,

16. “A Challenge to Conservationists” (Mac Chapin, 2004)

17. Images of the Rainforest
Amity Doolittle (Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies):
“Without deep reflection on the images and rhetoric that surround the rain forest, how can we really know what it is we are trying to ‘save’?” Is it the jungles of our imaginations teeming with exotic flora and fauna that must be protected? Or, is it the gardens, orchards, and forests of resident peoples that need our attention. And what are we trying to save it for? Is it to safeguard the vast repository of undiscovered pharmaceuticals, minerals, and oils? Or is it to comfort ourselves that the ‘lungs of the world’ are continuing to compensate for our extravagant lifestyles? More than just an entertaining exercise in deconstruction, probing what lies behind the iconic and simplified representations associated with rain forest preservation has significant consequences for its inhabitants and the resources it contains.”
(Review of Candice Slater’s “Searching for the Rainforest,” 2003, American Anthropologist)

18. “A Challenge to Conservationists” (Mac Chapin, WorldWatch2004)

19. “A Challenge to Conservationists” (Mac Chapin, 2004)

20. Cartoon: Khalil Bendib, from
“Conservation at All Costs: How Industry-Backed Environmentalism
Creates Violent Conflict Among Indigenous Peoples”
By Shefa Siegel, Special Report to CorpWatch December 22nd, 2003

21. The Illusion of the Ethnographic Present
Due to the ill effects of European contact many Amazonian peoples were destroyed or dramatically reduced in size
Traditionally, anthropologists assumed that these ethnographic societies were accurate examples of prehistoric Amazonians