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Amazon Town: A Study of Man in the Tropics
Amazon A Study of Man in the Tropics (Galaxy Books)
- GenresAnthropology
360 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1976
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January 31, 2018
classic ethnography holds up well
At a time when most anthropologists were still thinking about remote tribal peoples, Charles Wagley carried out this study of a small town on the lower banks of the Amazon. Though he gave the place a pseudonym, it is now widely known that the actual site was Gurupa. The picture drawn---of Gurupa in 1948-52---remains clearly in a reader's mind; the large trees along the riverfront, the big houses on the street facing the river, the poorer ones on Second Street, behind, and the poorest houses, really shacks, on Third Street. The jungle and manioc fields began after the third street. Many citizens of Gurupa actually lived isolated lives out along forested creeks that ran into the big river. Wagley draws a portrait, through several well-constructed chapters, of a town that suffered from centuries of boom and bust, the last boom having been in rubber which brought great prosperity to some in the Amazon region up until 1912, when prices collapsed. Since agriculture remained very basic, almost nobody could subsist on what they grew. They could trade collected rubber or forest products for the food they needed. A true colonial economy. Still, a large number of citizens went hungry. Disease and malnutrition took a heavy toll. A rigid class system held in Gurupa, based largely on race, but without rigid barriers to marriage or association as found in the American South at the same time. Besides a few store keepers and government servants, most people had little access to cash. Most knew little about the outside world. Wagley included two very interesting chapters---one on social and cultural life, the second on how folk beliefs merged with Catholicism to create a unique Amazonian vision of the world. Fascinating stuff about dolphins in human form. In another useful chapter, the author contrasts Gurupa with "Plainville", an anonymous Midwestern town in the USA, studied by James West at around the same time. In my edition, the final chapter was written about changes by a graduate student who went to Gurupa in the early 1970s. Though the population had increased and the old class system had largely broken down, economically little had changed.
After half a century, concerns and methodology in any field can hardly be expected to remain the same. Few authors include any longer factoids like "upper class women own 3.6 pairs of shoes, while the lower class women in town own only 1.7 pairs". Applied anthropology---the use of anthropology to help bring desired changes to undeveloped areas of the world---("desired by whom ?" is the question.)---has largely disappeared now, along with much quantification. Western anthropologists in the 1940s and `50s lived in righteous belief that they possessed the knowledge to bring new lives to millions and that their duty was to do so. Though AMAZON TOWN is infused with this spirit, the basic clarity and accuracy of observation still holds up well. I can not claim that the book will give you a picture of the Amazon today, but as a document of social history, AMAZON TOWN must be a classic, indispensable for those who would like to understand the region, and if not up there in the realms of beautiful writing with "Akenfield" or "Village in the Vaucluse", is still a strong example of an old-school ethnography.
At a time when most anthropologists were still thinking about remote tribal peoples, Charles Wagley carried out this study of a small town on the lower banks of the Amazon. Though he gave the place a pseudonym, it is now widely known that the actual site was Gurupa. The picture drawn---of Gurupa in 1948-52---remains clearly in a reader's mind; the large trees along the riverfront, the big houses on the street facing the river, the poorer ones on Second Street, behind, and the poorest houses, really shacks, on Third Street. The jungle and manioc fields began after the third street. Many citizens of Gurupa actually lived isolated lives out along forested creeks that ran into the big river. Wagley draws a portrait, through several well-constructed chapters, of a town that suffered from centuries of boom and bust, the last boom having been in rubber which brought great prosperity to some in the Amazon region up until 1912, when prices collapsed. Since agriculture remained very basic, almost nobody could subsist on what they grew. They could trade collected rubber or forest products for the food they needed. A true colonial economy. Still, a large number of citizens went hungry. Disease and malnutrition took a heavy toll. A rigid class system held in Gurupa, based largely on race, but without rigid barriers to marriage or association as found in the American South at the same time. Besides a few store keepers and government servants, most people had little access to cash. Most knew little about the outside world. Wagley included two very interesting chapters---one on social and cultural life, the second on how folk beliefs merged with Catholicism to create a unique Amazonian vision of the world. Fascinating stuff about dolphins in human form. In another useful chapter, the author contrasts Gurupa with "Plainville", an anonymous Midwestern town in the USA, studied by James West at around the same time. In my edition, the final chapter was written about changes by a graduate student who went to Gurupa in the early 1970s. Though the population had increased and the old class system had largely broken down, economically little had changed.
After half a century, concerns and methodology in any field can hardly be expected to remain the same. Few authors include any longer factoids like "upper class women own 3.6 pairs of shoes, while the lower class women in town own only 1.7 pairs". Applied anthropology---the use of anthropology to help bring desired changes to undeveloped areas of the world---("desired by whom ?" is the question.)---has largely disappeared now, along with much quantification. Western anthropologists in the 1940s and `50s lived in righteous belief that they possessed the knowledge to bring new lives to millions and that their duty was to do so. Though AMAZON TOWN is infused with this spirit, the basic clarity and accuracy of observation still holds up well. I can not claim that the book will give you a picture of the Amazon today, but as a document of social history, AMAZON TOWN must be a classic, indispensable for those who would like to understand the region, and if not up there in the realms of beautiful writing with "Akenfield" or "Village in the Vaucluse", is still a strong example of an old-school ethnography.
Displaying 1 of 1 review