I picked this book up at a library sale because of my interest in anthropology. I liked it up until I decided to do a deep-dive into the author's backI picked this book up at a library sale because of my interest in anthropology. I liked it up until I decided to do a deep-dive into the author's background. My deep dive proved shallow, as I discovered that her account of a spontaneous year living with the Yanomami of northern Brazil likely never actually happened. Born Regine Thal, she did study anthropology but then gave up her doctoral studies to become a cult follower of Carlos Casteneda. She changed her name, obscured her background, and published this supposedly true account that has been panned in anthropological journals and is almost certainly fictional.
How convenient that she burned all her field notes and gave away her camera to an Indian who deliberately exposed the film - yet she remembered everything about that year in precise detail. How convenient that she had no pressing matters, no obligations, and literally no responsibilities anywhere, so that she could give up her current field work and trek into the jungle on a whim and be gone for an entire year with no outside contact. How convenient that she was "immune" to mosquitoes and snakebite, never got her period the entire time, and apart from a brief fever never experienced any illness or physical discomfort. How convenient that her only pair of underwear lasted an entire year in the jungle intact despite her not wearing any pants.
She claimed to have struggled to learned the tribe's language and dismissed herself as not being fluent. But all conversations rendered in the text (in proper English syntax and grammar) are deep, advanced, occasionally philosophical, rich in vocabulary as well as poetry and song. She relates conversations that would be impossible for anyone not fluent in a language. She immediately made friends with everyone and had a deep sister-wife connection with several women in the tribe. She had no enemies apart from the men in another tribe who wanted to kidnap her for the novelty of having a white woman. She thought this was funny. She giggled way too much throughout the entire book, even at the thought of rape. And yes, she was raped - by a shaman, and she enjoyed it.
Despite those disappointments, it's actually written well, very lyrical, and the descriptions of the village were so precise that when I saw photos of a Yanomamo shabono they were exactly what I'd pictured in my head when reading. But it shouldn't be regarded as anything but fiction that was patched together from other researchers' field studies and publications. ...more
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