The falling sky : words of a Yanomami shaman / Davi Kopenawa, Bruce Albert ; translated by Nicholas Elliott and Alison Dundy.

Chute du ciel. English

The shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami tribe of the Brazilian Amazon describes the culture conflicts his people have faced in Western industrial society and global politics, issuing a plea for the native peoples of the Amazon.

"The Falling Sky is a remarkable first-person account of the life story and cosmoecological thought of Davi Kopenawa, shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon. Representing a people whose very existence is in jeopardy, Davi Kopenawa paints an unforgettable picture of Yanomami culture, past and present, in the heart of the rain forest--a world where ancient indigenous knowledge and shamanic traditions cope with the global geopolitics of an insatiable natural resources extraction industry. In richly evocative language, Kopenawa recounts his initiation and experience as a shaman, as well as his first encounters with outsiders: government officials, missionaries, road workers, cattle ranchers, and gold prospectors. He vividly describes the ensuing cultural repression, environmental devastation, and deaths resulting from epidemics and violence. To counter these threats, Davi Kopenawa became a global ambassador for his endangered people. The Falling Sky follows him from his native village in the Northern Amazon to Brazilian cities and finally on transatlantic flights bound for European and American capitals. These travels constitute a shamanic critique of Western industrial society, whose endless material greed, mass violence, and ecological blindness contrast sharply with Yanomami cultural values."--Publisher's description.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, [2013]

xvi, 622 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Translation of: La chute du ciel : paroles d'un chaman yanomami, ©2010.

Drawn words -- First shaman -- Xapiri's gaze -- Animal ancestors -- Initiation -- Spirits' houses -- Image and skin -- Sky and the forest -- Outsider images -- First contacts -- Mission -- Becoming a white man? -- Road -- Dreaming the forest -- Earth eaters -- Cannibal gold -- Talking to white people -- Stone houses -- Merchandise love -- In the city -- From one war to another -- Flowers of dream -- Spirit of the forest -- Shamans' death.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Text in English, translated from French.