Entangled Edens: Visions of the Amazon (review)

Most outsiders perceive the Amazon simply as a rain forest inhabited by a few exotic Indians and rubber tappers confronting ruthless gold miners and rapacious cattle barons intent on devastating the environment. Insiders, the 23 million people who populate the ecologically diverse basin, tell a more complex story about their everyday relationships with each other and their surroundings. In this elegantly written book, Candace Slater explores the contradictions and connections between these viewpoints, juxtaposing a wealth of images and myths. In the process, she reveals a larger story, one in which human beings probe nature's secrets to gain control over their world.

Early European fantasies flourished in the Amazon, and, over the past five centuries, writers have further embellished the mythology. Women warriors left the region its name. The gold of El Dorado gave way to the wealth of nature, such as cacao and rubber, and the botanicals and minerals still exploited today. While other scholars have dealt with her sources, Slater's analysis is innovative and her ability to draw new connections is impressive. She shows how the image of an earthly paradise, for example, has persisted in outsider imagination; the Amazon remains an icon for environmental causes. Sir Walter Ralegh's dream of a rich kingdom, nineteenth-century botanist Henry Walter Bates' vision of a new world in the tropics, Theodore Roosevelt's immense, hostile jungle, and the elusive primitives of Claude Lévi-Strauss are seen as precedents in the clamor for outside intervention.

Slater compares these views with insider stories collected over the past fifteen years among people living in the Trombetas-Tapajós region of the Brazilian Amazon. Her storytellers, both urban and rural, descendants of runaway African slaves, as well as members of the mixed-race majority, provide a resonant perspective. They tell of underwater cities populated by aquatic seducers, gold personified as a powerful female figure, and a mysterious lake within a lake. Their stories are diverse, but all reflect the power of nature and often incorporate images from the outside world for political ends. Gold miners, responsible for violent intrusions on indigenous peoples, enhance their reputation as thugs to keep out the competition. Yet, they in turn are overwhelmed by natural forces. Slater covered this material in her previous book, Dance of the Dolphin, but here she highlights aspects of performance and examines the complex dialogue between these stories and outsider portrayals.

In the third and final section of the book, Slater contrasts the popular rain forest image with the enchanted lake described by descendants of runaway African slaves on the Trombetas and Erepecuru rivers. Focusing on three specific save-the-rain-forest documents, the 1992 United Nations report Amazonia without Myths, a Simoniz car wax advertisement, and a McDonald's Corporation flyer, Slater shows the effect of misinformation and environmental hype. In contrast to the image of a fragile world that needs our assistance, the descendents of runaway slaves tell of a nature that is powerful enough to defend itself and them. When their nineteenth-century ancestors fled up the Amazonian tributaries to escape slavery, for example, Mother Waterfall hid them from their pursuers. New versions of these stories link historic struggles to recent battles with mining companies and government agencies for land. They underscore the paradoxical behavior of outsiders, who destroy the environment, then take their ancestral lands for reserves. According to them, the enchanted lake is already set aside for future generations. They recast this mythological place as a biological reserve and portray themselves as guardians of the natural world.

In this insightful study, Slater highlights the diversity of Amazonian people and disseminates their views. Her astute analysis challenges stereotypes and brings a new perspective to economic, political, and environmental concerns. Her message, intended for academic and general audiences, should resonate in policy circles.