Venezuela Books

This is an interesting missionary biography. Everyone I know that has read it (people of all ages), has enjoyed it.

Amazon.com sent me an ad for the book Bruchko two days before one of my best friends flew to the high jungle of Columbia to be a missionary with the Motilone people. She had never seen the book and can use her computor once a day by generator electricity so I typed it out for her a chapter at a time. Within a week she hiked the Andes Mountain where Bruce Olson resides with the Motilone, had a wonderful visit with him and received from him personally her own copy. She hiked the mountain barefoot just like the Motilone people do. Bruce Olson was 19 when he went, my friend, a devoted Christian, is 67. This book would be very interesting to anyone who likes to hear about modern day missionaries and the work they do. I loved it.

This book is amazing...This is a perfect book for anyone that wants to see how the power of God works...Read it...

One of my all-time favorites. This is the second copy purchased. Never got the other returned.

This is not a good book. This Bruchko character ruined the Motilones Indians lives in Colombia to build up his own ego under the guise of helping spread Christianity. Maybe he thought he was doing a good thing, but really all he did was try and assimilate a people in a culture they wanted nothing to do with. He should have left them alone. My Grandmother, a Motilon Indian, and I do not recommend this book except to show how European explorers, and missionaries have helped to ruin countless cultures by trying to "help" them to not be "savages".

this is an exceptional book. I could not put it down. It is a book that will capture your soul and heart from beginning to end. I also had the pleasure to be taught by the author, Dr. Good. He is a marvelous, enlightening, and kind man. His story is a real eye opener to other cultures that are very different from the U.S. incredible book that I will continue to read over and over again. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did!

Good's work is a participant observation study of a primitive group of Indians who live along the Orinoco river in the Amazon. These people live communally and have a different world view than most of us are familiar with. As a result, the Yanomama normative structure is based on their world and culture. As I tell my sociology students, certain patterns may be considered universal, but the content of culture varies. For example, the Yanomama have no concept of privacy. Everything they did according to Good was public, except for sex and defecation. This is similar to the south African !Kung (Bushmen) who have no word for stranger. (Lee, 1969, !Kung Bushmen Subsistence...) They lived in large circular houses called shapono. There were no walls in these structures, and people arranged themselves by kinship and lineage so that the social organization of the families in the village is reflected in the placement of hearths and hammocks. It is within this structure and the central plaza that nearly all domestic activity takes place: child rearing, food distribution and preparation, trading and feasting, curing and cremation, drug taking of the men, singing and dancing of the women. (p. 33)

Good referred to the Yanomama as the pain in the neck people instead of the fierce people as Napoleon Chagnon did in his original work of the same title. Good found the Yanomama's lack of concern for privacy somewhat difficult to deal with. In our culture, privacy and independence are the expected norm. We even have terms for behaviors that violate such norms such as invasion of privacy and, of course, trespassing. The Yanomama are not viewed as violent or aggressive but rather as highly emotional and acting without (social) constraints. We might call this behavior impulsive.

Good believed that "... the best way to study the Yanomama was to understand the entire cultural context, rather than concentrate solely on the quantitative measurements...wanted to understand them--and I wanted them to understand me...not simply to record what they were doing, but to comprehend what it meant in the context of their lives." (p. 47)

The Yanomama never use their names in public...they call each other by the appropriate kinship term (father, mother, son, daughter) (p. 52) With a numeric system that stops at two, the Yanomama do not reckon years or ages; instead they categorize people according to general age groups: infants, children, adolescents, adults, elders. (p. 66) Their sense of self (women) included lack of concern for the way they appeared to others. Judgments about another person were not based on how they looked/appeared. Although skills in hunting and shamanism were valued, still every person was on the same level as every other one. There was minimal concern with vanity. (p. 80).

Among the Indians, a visit is never just a visit...and trade is always involved. (p. 97) Normally, the Indians don't like to have their pictures taken since they believe that the image (soul-noreshi) is captured. They were especially irritated when the German scientist Eibel-Eibesfeldt set up a video camera in the middle of the village all day. (p. 137)

I certainly empathize with Kenneth Good's comments about Chagnon's work. Unfortunately, I have never been to the Amazon, or lived with the Yanomamo. I do envy his experiences. In addition, I give complete credibility to his comments and find them most interesting. In the past, I assigned his book as required reading for my Sociology classes. I also list Chagnon's work as supplementary reading as well.

I was lucky enough to have Dr. Good for a class one semester at NJCU where he teaches. This book is an insightful look into a world far removed from ours. If one had read this book without meeting Professor Good, one would wonder what type of man he is given the difficulties he faced in the Amazon. Ken is one of the most down to earth professors I've ever had and opened my eyes to a new culture while teaching me to put aside ethnocentrism. If you attend NJCU, I suggest taking him for an anthropology class. Be prepared to have your cultural horizons broadened.

Book review

I have found the book "Into The Heart" by Kenneth Good very appealing both from a woman's point of view and from a Scriptural aspect. When reading the Bible about how a husband ought to love his wife: Ephesians chapter 5 verses 25, 28, 29, 31, 33, is very clear on that. In Kenneth Good's book I could sense the genuine love this man had for his wife which he had demonstrated in so many ways.

In the jungle, he tried to protect her from harm. During an imminent miscarriage, he insisted on carrying her heavy basket, while they were trekking in the rainforest. Husbands in that culture did not carry women's baskets even if these women were at death's door. Later, when the miscarriage was in progress, he was at her side in the dark of night, trying to comfort her. To shield her from insect bites he sprayed her back with mosquito repellent. A woman is obviously not at her attractive best during a miscarriage or childbirth, but this author was not turned off by her appearance. He did what he could to minimize her suffering. These were acts of kindness out of love. All he wanted to do was to ease her suffering, discomfort and fear. How many men in our Western civilized society would do this? A few but not all!

He further demonstrated his love for his wife when he took her back to the United States. By marrying her, he had made a statement to the WORLD: This is the woman I love, she is the one I have chosen to be the mother of my children. He knew full well that by this interracial cross cultural marriage he would face some criticism. Racism after all is alive and well in our Western Societies. But this author stood by his wife, was never ashamed to be seen with her. Financial sacrifices were made to return for a visit to his wife's tribe and family. It was during such a trip that their second child was born in a jungle hut. It is obvious that every thought of the author was to please his wife, to make her happy, to make her isolation and separation from her family bearable. This is a poignant love story, a story of endurance, a story of sacrifice, a story of one man's unselfish love for his wife. Albeit he lost his wife, but I concur with the saying: " It is better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all".

A reader in Canada. macska@christiancanada.com

LIke many, I picked this book up from an interest in anthropology. Like most of those same people, when I finished it, it felt as if i'd ended a great novel. To be completely honest, there are a severely limited number of times I (a twenty-six year old male graduate student in politics) have read a book only to have tears roll down my cheeks. Seriously, this is a glorious story as well as a fascinating anthropological commentary.

Here's the context: Ken Good was a graduate student under Napoleon Chagnon who was one of the first to do work with the Yanomamo indians. Chagnon wanted Good to do some research (field work) that might help supplement Chagnon's thesis that that Yanomamo are violent more by nature than culture. No matter the reasons, Good ends up not only abandoning Chagnon and his research, but finds the Yanomamo significantly less violent (by nature or culture) than Chagnon did. This may, in part, have been due to the fact that where Chagnon always remained the detached observer (his book is full of graphs, charts, and statistics), Good's got very personal (no stats here, for better or worse).

...Which brings us to the next layer of the story. Beyond being an anthropological perspective on the Yanomama, it is a fantastic - FANTASTIC! - love story. After a few years of living in the Yanomama community, good was offered a wife according to tradition. It took him a while to warm to it (and her even longer, given that he had strange habits like writing in notebooks and wearing 'foot coverings' Who would do such things?!). Their love blossomed, though, and the second half of the book is much about a host of difficulties: his struggle to 'hold on to her' when obligation took him out of the village for months at a time, the struggle to get a legal marriage to a woman who has no birth records, and later, how to get her out of the village with him.

The only problem i had with the book has less to do with the book and more with its circumstances. Good comments that Chagnon, in painting the Yanomama to be 'fierce people' overexaggerated (rather than fabricated) their ferocity. My guess, after reading both books, is that Good did the same thing by possibly underexaggerating. Good, for instance, will speak of some of the heinous things that Yanomama do, speak of it as a ancillary side-note, and wrap it up in two sentences, only returning to the topic chapters down the road. Truth be told, I think the truth lies betwixt Chagnon's and Good's accounts and I can't fault either book, but when one reads the two together, one gets the impression that BOTH authors completely missed (or ignored) things that the other got. How else could such different accounts come to pass?

For all that I strongly recommend this read both for education in anthropology and as one of the best love stories around.

Bart Jones, in my opinion, wrote one of the best biographies about a man who might lead South America in a revolution that will upset or at least seriously impress all of us. As he makes very clear, Hugo Chavez is brillent, sleeps little, moves around a lot with restless energy, has a definate goal, an admirable goal, and is on his way to reaching it.

But there is another side to Mr. Chavez.

I recommend that Mr. Jones read the life of Huey Long, who came from an immodest background in Lousiana, surrounded by the poor an oppressed, worked his way through enough college to meet his needs and was on his way to making a serious run for the U.S. presidency, all for the successful work he did for the poor. And he did a lot. But his passion was for power, not just helping the poor.

The depression produced a lot of these guys, the ones in Itly and Germany come to mind.

Being dedicated to the poor can be dangerous.

We have been receiving a one-dimensional, Bush Administration-driven perspective on Hugo Chavez. Bart Jones paints a complete picture of this Venezuelan Abe Lincoln. It helps us ordinary readers to remember that we certainly have no reason to dislike a man just because he is unpopular with the rich and influential. Jones's experience as a Maryknoll missioner and an AP reporter in Venezuela give him the depth of knowledge and discernment necessary to dissect a complex figure such as Hugo Chavez.

Since retirement a couple of years ago, I have read over a hundred books on Latin America, and political science...subjects I never studied in college. This is one book I place near the top of the list. It is accurate, unbias, and reads like a great novel. If only people could/would take time to become better informed, we could have a better world. By the way, another good book on Hugo Chavez is by Nikolas Kozloff.

Bart Jones lived and worked in Venezuela for eight years and had unprecedented access to its president, Hugo Chavez.

Latin America's income per head grew by 82% between 1960 and 1980, before the IMF policies, but only by 10% between 1980 and 2005 under IMF policies. In 1989, the previous president, Carlos Perez, ordered the army into Caracas, killing more than a thousand people, in food riots triggered by price rises ordered by the IMF.

Chavez won the presidency in 1998 with 56% of the votes. Jones writes, "He was elected in free and fair elections, and won three more referenda to write and approve a new constitution. The jails held no political prisoners. No opposition parties were outlawed. No newspapers, television networks, or radio stations were censored, even though the majority were virulently opposed to Chavez. ... No media outlets were closed or reporters jailed." Even US Ambassador John Maisto said of Chavez's rule, "no one can question its democratic legitimacy."

However, the US state has been ruthlessly hostile to Chavez, which only shows that the US state's primary commitment is to capitalism, not to democracy. The US government knew in advance and approved the April 2002 coup against his government. The US Agency for International Development had given opposition groups, including the coup plotters, $26 million.

Metropolitan Police and snipers fired on both pro- and anti-Chavez marchers. The coup plotters taped, in advance, a statement that marchers had been killed, accusing Chavez. Coup leader Pedro Carmona shut down the Congress and the Supreme Court, tore up the constitution and sacked every elected official from the attorney-general to state governors to local mayors. Carmona's first visitor was US ambassador Charles Shapiro.

Chavez won the 2004 recall referendum with 59% of the votes and in 2006 he won a new six-year term with 63% of the votes. He is popular because his policies genuinely benefit the majority of the people. His government has cut poverty from 43% to 33%. The Mision Milagro flies patients to Cuba for free eye surgery. Venezuela's health spending per head rose by 74% between 1999 and 2005. Before land reform, 2% of the population owned 60% of the land and Venezuela imported 70% of its food. By 2007 the government had distributed nine million acres of idle land to 130,000 families.

Chavez's government continues to work for the people of Venezuela, ensuring their right to control their country's resources. On 1 May 2007, the government took majority control over oil projects from ExxonMobil, Chevron, Conoco and Total.

Journalist Bart Jones's detail-laden HUGO! tells the story of Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, the complete story that America's corporate "news" media ignores. And reading the HUGO! passage regarding the Venezuelan people's demand for Chavez's release after moneyed interests overthrow his administration in 2002, you realize this book also tells the story of that South American country's citizens. World history is nothing more than the wealthy few attempting to steal from and dominate the poor masses. In Venezuela, the rise of Hugo Chavez personifies the people establishing democracy, the most radical notion in humanity's chronicles.

Read HUGO!

In meticulously chronicling US/German relations before the Great War, Mitchell has managed to reveal that there never was any German designs on the Americas, and that she was used as a bogeyman and cover for US imperialism under the guise of the Monroe Doctrine. She also exposes the innate anti German bias of the Fifth Estate, as well as the perfidy and treachery of the British in sowing/fanning the flames of US hatred for Germany, while appeasing the US by bending over backwards, in Venezuela, Mexico and Panama

Actually what was most interesting was the last pages when Mitchell cursorilly mentioned the blatant land grabs, occupations and annexations in Carribean and South America in 1915 and thereafter by that hypocritical, amoral imperialist, Wilson once the Euroepean Powers were heavily engaged in mortal combat, all under the name of protecting freedom, democracy and human rights (sound familiar?).

Prof. Mitchell has written a very good, well-paced and well-argued treatise on a particular situation (German-American relations vis-a-vis Latin America at the turn of the last century), that is relevant to broader, more current issues. American exceptionalism has always required demonization of a perceived villain or adversary, the Devil if you will, in order to mask our neo-imperialist ambitions. As Mitchell argues in her concluding chapter, Imperial Germany and its bombastic monarch made convenient demons to suit the ambitions or moods of particular institutions, such as the Navy or the yellow press, and even Woodrow Wilson conjured up the Teutonic bogeyman when it suited him.
In reality, the central theme of her book is of inconsequential historical significance, since the German dog had no bite to support its shrill bark (as one German wag deftly remarked.)There simply never was any credible German threat to American security or even the ambiguous Monroe Doctrine to worry about. But what is more relevant today is how perception can be manipulated to justify imperialism in the guise of some nobler ideal. If you need any modern evidence of this proclivity of ambitious politicians, look at the Iraqi Tar Baby and the President that's struggling to break free of it today.
This book is a must-read for any serious student of international relations, especially of the tense situation prior to WW One.

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.

A superb read. If I were a dog, I would be salivating.

I re-read this book recently, which allowed me to place it on my list of books worthy of review. To begin, Dr. Nancy Mitchell is an outstanding professor. Having sat in her classroom several years ago as a graduate student, I can now look back and add that she is one of the best teachers I've ever had.

The Danger of Dreams is exceptional because it is timeless. In the early twentieth-century, there was a political game being played between the US and Germany; but, as Dr. Mitchell clearly demonstrates through careful research, "the uncertainty of it all, of perception and reality," allowed policy makers to distort and twist perception until it could become reality. In this case, it was the dreams of a kaiser versus the ambition and intent of a rising power.

As a history book, Mitchell stepped to the plate and knocked the ball out of the park. She writes like she teaches (grabbing your attention and pulling you in), using such a wide range of sources that any student of history will be both envious and enlightened. As a careful analysis of diplomacy and policy making, she has added a great volume to the shelves of political scientists as well. For those who read purely for pleasure, here too she rounds the bases because this book is a great story and it is exceptionally told.

In the games that nations play, "perhaps there is a constant ratio of power to sense of threat," and perhaps there are some powerful and very modern lessons here. Perception is reality, isn't it?

Major Allen C. Boothby, Jr.
Infantry Officer
US Marine Corps

This is a splendid book. It is extremely well researched, yet it reads like a novel, because the author writes so well. It illuminates US-German relations in the 1890-1914 period, as well as US and German policies toward Latin America in those years, providing a subtle and nuanced interpretation that is based on an impressive amount of evidence culled from the US, British and German archives. And, again, it combines the rigor of a superb historian with the grace of a first-class novelist.

_Searching for El Dorado_ by Marc Herman is an intriguing look at a land of contrasts, the South American nation of Guyana. Though the nation has potentially billions of dollars of untapped gold and a large percentage of its citizens are employed in the gold-mining industry, it is one of the very poorest nations in the western hemisphere. The various ways in which gold is mined are all destructive and dangerous yet the consequences of stopping the mines could possibly be even worse.

There are two main ways in which gold is produced. One way is used by large foreign-owned internationally-financed mining corporations, mines which employ professional geologists and millions of dollars in heavy equipment. The other is used by small-time local miners, sometimes working in small groups, often independently. These are subsistence operations and are run with only a few crude tools, often by uneducated if not illiterate men.

Local miners can produce gold from the creeks and rivers. River-mining uses slow rafts that float low in the water, made of scrap metal and of questionable seaworthiness. Located on the center of these rafts is an engine and pump, connected to a hose that goes over the side. A diver (breathing through a small rubber hose gripped in his teeth) takes the hose to the riverbed, dredges the bottom, and the other miners (usually there are about five or six) collect the riverbed mud, which is treated with mercury, which bonds with the gold in the sediment and forms heavy nuggets which drop out of solution in the mud. The mud is strained to remove these nuggets and the rest of the mud is dumped back into the river.

Land mines are created when miners cut down a patch of trees and dig holes ten or twenty feet across in the forest floor. Men would then enter the clearing and wet down the bottom and the sides of the hole with water from buckets or high-pressure hoses (the water drawn from a nearby river or swamp). Other miners would haul out the mud and place it in a long box where it would be treated with mercury.

With either method, once the nuggets were obtained the miners would use a blowtorch on them. Most of the mercury would boil and rise as vapor though some could be saved, often collected in a rag which was later wrung out. What would be left would be small amounts of gold, often just a few ounces resulting from tons of mud being collected.

The small-time miners had it hard. The work was very physically demanding. There were no police (indeed, the mining was often illegal) and the miners had to keep their gold on them in the form of cheap, badly made jewelry or gold teeth. Miners were occasionally robbed or more often forced by other miners off of particularly rich patches. They would also have to compete with miners from other countries, such as Venezuela or Brazil (border control being almost nonexistent in the jungle) or being preyed upon by corrupt police (more often a problem in Venezuela than Guyana). The mercury was very toxic over time and eventually many got sick from that as well as catching malaria.

Herman viewed a large mining operation at Omai, located on the Essequibo River, four hours south of the Guyanese capital of Georgetown. At the time of his visit it was the largest gold mine in South America. The large gold mines can afford machinery to process hard rock in addition to mud; Omai blew huge chunks of rock out of the ground, took the several ton boulders to their mill, and ground down the rocks into sand in huge rock tumblers nicknamed "cyclones." However, instead of using mercury they used cyanide, which much like mercury could draw or leech out all the gold dust from the sediment, though apparently cyanide pulls out more gold than mercury does. This type of operation is very expensive, and as a consequences mines could and did close if the prices of gold on the world market fell too much, and also made Guyana dependent upon foreign companies (as Guyana did not have the money to operate its own mines).

Both methods have their pros and cons. Omai and other mines require large lakes of very deadly cyanide (which occasionally did spill), while the local miners only need small amounts of mercury. However, cyanide decomposes in direct sunlight while mercury can stay in a region for centuries (mercury used by the California gold rush still is causing problems). Unfortunately cyanide is too expensive for local miners to use and is also more deadly (cyanide can immediately kill you while mercury does not). By and large however, environmentalists, if forced to chose, would rather have a single massive cyanide mine than fifty teams of untraceable local miners using mercury throughout the jungle.

The mines and mining caused many problems. Miners spread diseases such as dengue deep into the rain forest to the detriment of Amerindian groups. Fights often occurred, either between local miners or involving Amerindians and/or the big mines.

For all their effort, most miners were very poor (a nation of "gilded paupers"). For instance, a crew of six might work for an owner, the owner getting 70% of the gold, the crew 30%, split six ways. Each man might get 5% of the week's gold, which might be half an ounce, working out to wages of about a dollar or two U.S. a day.

Unfortunately, gold-mining is a declining industry. The value of gold has been declining for two decades and changes in the jewelry industry and in international currencies has increasingly made gold a commodity exchangeable for money rather than money itself.

Guyana though has few choices. Mines make up one-fifth of the national economy and mining is often the only job open to thousands of people.

The book is not all grim, as Herman did provide many amusing stories of his travels.

Fantastic (and very accurate) accounts of his encounters with the local folk and descriptions of the places he passed through on his journey. Made for a racey, entertaining and somewhat exotic read. Alot of first hand information for anyone thinking of travelling through Guyana indeed!

I want Marc Herman to be my travel guide, whenever I sit back in my armchair -- or whenever I enter a new land. His easygoing style is seductive, but the energy of his insight into the culture is what makes him so appealing.

How can a country so full of gold have so many problems? Journey with Marc and find out; and have a blast along the way.

There are basically 3 kinds of travel writing

1. The writer visits an exotic location, finds the scenery appealing, the locals quaint and whimsical but good hearted, has some sort of personal ephiphany, and writes a condescending, patronising book about all the amusing things that happen to him. Possibly he later sells the film rights. Call this the "My autumn in Europe" type book

2. The writer maximises to an adsurd level the level of discomfort in order to have a "real travel experience" and is found quaint and whimsical but good hearted by disbelieving locals. Call this the "Down The Nile on Crutches" type book

3. The writer goes somewhere he knows little about and actually learns something, which he manages to pass on to the reader

Thankfully this is the third type. Herman doesn't find Guyana quaint, he finds it on the brink of collapse with little prospect of future improvement, increasingly hopeless. Its unlikely that this book has done anything to boost the fledgling Guyana tourist industry - indeed he'll be lucky if they let him into the country again

Herman reveals the extent of the Amazon gold rush, but also its utter futility, with neither big multinationals nor small miners able to turn even a small profit. But he also reveals the desperate lack of choices that will continue to drive so many down the mines to the deteriment of both their, and the nation's health

Herman vividly brings to life the people he meets in his (genuinely) arduous travels and while his writing is often laugh out loud funny, it never belittles its subjects.

Before reading this I knew little about Guyana or about the gold rush. I now feel like I do. I heartily recommend this book

I was puzzled when my friend gave me a copy of this book; had I ever expressed an interest in gold or indeed in South America? The mystery was solved when my gaze rested on the author's name, an old university friend. Not knowing much about Marc's politics or his writing style, I was a afraid that the book would be some tirade against big business and globalization. Refreshingly, I discovered an engaging search for answers in a country that seems to only have questions. The book is interesting, provocative, and well-balanced journalism. But even better then that is Marc's humorous description of his own journey, his adventures, and his eye for details. I am not sure I reccomend traveling "Marc-style" but I sure do enjoy the product of his adventures!

We've sailed and chartered in the USVI and BVI numerous times and ALWAYS take this guide with us. From little known anchorages (Mermaids Chair on St. Thomas) to the most frequented (Great Harbor on Yost Van Dyke)this guide is without equal.

Excellent It bailed us out when we ran out of light before getting into the anchorage at Philipsburg and got us into several beaches that were completely deserted.

A bit dated is spots (it is 7 years old) For example, Saba has installed a number of excellent mooring on the south and west sides on the island, making it much easier to get either by the traditional landing or LLadder Landing on the West side. There is a road down to that now (no more 1000 steps to climb). However it was out when we were there (4-1-00)

This is one of the bests books on sailing ever. Mr. Street is obviously a very acomplished sailer. I strongly suggest this book to anyone who is planning to sail in the Caribbean

Although I have been sailing for 40 years, this was the most useful and informative sailing guide I have ever read. It adverted me from several unknown and possibly costly collisions...and I'm not referring to other boats. His harbor guides and navigational charts were indispensible! BUY BUY BUY!!!!

Into the Heart is a book written by Kenneth Good, an anthropologist. Good went to the rainforests in Brazil to live among the Yanomama. He went there to study their way of life. He discovered how different these people are from the people in the United States.
Their diet consisted of what they hunted and things they planted. They worked very hard and lived off the land. These people never complained no matter how bad a situation was. Unlike our society, the only transportation they had was by foot, they slept either outdoors or in houses with large open rooms with many people, and they did not have medicine or doctors.
During his stay, Good learned the lifestyle of the Yanomama. He learned their ways and accepted the things they did. While there, he met a very young Yanomama girl. He gradually fell in love with her. Even though they had major cultural differences, the two of them left the rainforest and came to the United States where they were married.
This is an excellent book to read. There was suspense not knowing what was going to happen next. It was extremely interesting to see how other people in the world live as compared to our own traditions. Plus it had some romance mixed in by the marriage of this couple from totally different cultures. I would recommend that everyone read this very interesting book.

An anthropologist spends many years (multiple trips) amongst the Yanomamo Indians of the Amazon, who had had very little contact with civilization, and only a limited amount of its goods (e.g. some matches, a few better axes). He eventually marries one of the tribe, who returns to the United States with him. Anthropologist's faculty advisor is a real villain. The account is personal, rather than scholarly, although Good did write scholarly papers, and he refrains from much abstract analysis or generalization. The Indians have strong human emotional attachments for children, and family, and are not very violent, but the society is very sexist, tribes are prone to get mad at other tribes, and there isn't much concept of an abstract morality. It is a utilitarian morality, and tribe members are not likely to stick their necks out to protest unfair treatment to others. Disapproval does carry weight.

This is a truly remarkable book, much different from most anthropological literature. Although Good sets out to do a very mainstream anthropological study, he gets drawn in to the community, and what ensues is a fascinating tale, a touching love story, and hopefully, a major change in people's beliefs about so-called "primitive tribes". As Good becomes more and more frustrated with the competitive and stuffy world of academia and more connected to his Yanomama tribe, he truly begins to change his life. Remarkable!

EAGERLY DEVOURING EACH LEAF OF LITERATURE IN KENNETH GOOD'S INTO THE HEART, READERS ARE CATAPULTED INTO MYSTICAL, UNSEEN EXPANSES WITHIN THE VAST AMAZON RAIN FOREST. WE READERS VIRTUALLY BECOME AN ANTHROPOLOGIST'S TRAVEL COMPANIONS AS GOOD EXPLORES A LAND BLANKETED WITH A PEOPLE KNOWN AS THE YANOMAMI. CIVILIZATION IS RARE IN SUCH VIRGIN TERRAIN, NEIGHBORING THE PIRANHA-INFESTED ORINOCO RIVER. YET, INTO THE HEART, PUMPING WITH THE LIFE-BLOOD OF SURVIVAL, EXPOSES HOW ONE PRIMITIVE CULTURE SUBSISTS WITHOUT A SPARK OF TECHNOLOGY OR MODERN CONVENIENCE. RAYS OF INSIGHT EMANATE CROSS-CULTURAL AWARENESS AS WE REALIZE THAT A DISTANT VENEZUELAN COMMUNITY SHARES CERTAIN QUALITIES THAT INTERCONNECT ALL HUMAN BEINGS, HOLISTICALLY. INSTITUTIONS, SUCH AS MARRIAGE, AND KINSHIP RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE YANOMAMI EXEMPLIFY CROSS-CULTURAL SIMILARITIES. OTHER UNIQUE ASPECTS DIVERGE FROM THIS INTEGRATED OUTLOOK, HOWEVER. IMAGINE SPORTING ONLY A MERE LOINCLOTH OR DRINKING A POTION, ITS KEY INGREDIENTS BEING YOUR LATE GRANDFATHER'S ASHES. tHOUGH CULTURE-SHOCKED INITIALLY, THE HEIGHTENED COGNIZANCE WE HAVE ACHIEVED THROUGH THIS EXOTIC TRUDGE THROUGH THE AMAZON OVERSHADOWS ANY HARDSHIPS WE HAVE ENDURED. GOOD'S JOURNEY INTO THE HEART HAS FOREVER IMPACTED MY LIFE. WE DEPART FROM THIS MEMORABLE EXCURSION WITH OUR DWELLINGS CARPETED BY GIGANTIC ANTS, OUR TOES NIBBLED BY RAVENOUS VAMPIRE BATS, AND OUR BODIES STRICKEN WITH STRAINS OF MALARIA. AS PASSENGERS ON THIS UNFORGETTABLE VOYAGE, WE READERS HAVE ABSORBED A TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL FIELDWORK. FOR MORE THAN A DECADE WE HAVE WATCHED AN ANTHROPOLOGIST FULLY EXAMINE A CULTURE DIFFERENT FROM OUR OWN. THROUGH KENNETH GOOD, MANKIND ACROSS THE WORLD HAS BEEN INTRODUCED TO THE YANOMAMI, A REMARKABLE PEOPLE WHO BOLDLY LEAD US INTO THE HEART OF HUMANITY.

Racing the Wind is part of the Dolphin Diaries series. Although I have not read any of the other dolphin books, it didn't matter. Racing the Wind was great! I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Initially, I was drawn to the novel because I had traveled to the Amazon last year and swam with pink dolphins in the wild. Naturally I was curious to see if the book could capture the essence of these delightful and illusive creatures. I was impressed by the accuracy of description and the plausibility of the events that occurred. The various encounters with the dolphins as well as the development of the characters added the kind of suspense that makes you want to read on.

The pink river dolphin, called boto rosa, is an amazing animal. The myths and legends surrounding botos are numerous and many natives both fear and revere them. I found these animals fascinating and very gentle. I fed them, and I swam with them. When one in particular first looked me in the eye, I felt like the creature was gazing into my very soul. I was prepared, therefore, to be under whelmed by Racing the Wind. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that although my personal adventures were wonderful, this novel enabled me to bring back all those memories, and I even learned some new information about botos that I hadn't known before. In my opinion, Racing the Wind provides the reader with a true picture of pink dolphins. I would encourage anyone who loves animals and adventures, to join Jody on an amazing journey to a place where some of us can only dream about.

After a while, the stories of Jody's dolphin adventures on the blue sea, which all seem to be slightly similar to one another, can be become rather boring. That is why this book is so entertaining! Imagine Jody, cruising down the colorful-but-dangerous Amazon river with her family and friends, in search of rare dolphins that, for once, don't befriend Jody right away as though they've known her all their lives. I could hardly put this book down until the time when I finished it, and couldn't help wishing that it wasn't over yet. I highly recommend this book if you have finished the fifth one, and I recommend this series to girls who love originality and adventure!

This story is amazing. It has so much warm hearted characters. I also like this story because I am interested in botos like Jody.
Jody is my favorite character. She really loves to study marine animals. She is very brave to save a baby boto from the deadly sinking sand. Even though I'd never been in Amazon, I had a great feeling like that I was in Amazon with Jody, her family and her friends, while I was reading this story. It is very adventurous and exiting story.

From the world's highest waterfall to Venezuela's beach coastline and mountain scenery, Traveler's Venezuela Companion blends maps, practical information and an A-Z index to make it easy for destination-bound travelers to learn about Venezuela's many travel opportunities. Add color photos throughout and you have a marvelously inviting take-along companion.

The Author of this Book has definite passion for Venezuela ,Hamiltons colorfull book really brings Venezuela to life. Insightfull infomation on Venezuela and its people is well balanced with commom sense and practical tips.
Accomodation recommendations were spot on aswell.
The Book may be biased in favor of those with their own transport but it doesnt leave out public transport infomation either. All in all its a Great Book and its comming with me to venezuela again next December
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(Planeta.com Journal) - We've waited several years for the publication of this excellent guidebook. Dominic has been a frequent contributor to Planeta.com. Who better to pass along choice tips for travelers eyeing the South American country of Venezuela? Maps and a thorough index are a big plus. Lavish color photos by Anthony Cassidy compliment the text. This is your guide to Angel Falls, Margarita Island and the magnificent tepuis. The book also provides an in-depth look at what makes the capital of Caracas just an interesting city. Highly recommended!

Great story about an amazing pitcher for a Terrific Team!! He has come a long way, but is still humble and "God-fearing." An easy read, too. This makes you grateful for all that you have, considering the beginnings some people come from.

I was encouraged to read this biography of Carlos Zambrano. He is a truly humble (if unpredictable!) baseball player who loves the Lord with all his heart. It's exciting to think of where the road will lead for The Big Z.