- 1991 first edition. 240 pages
- Published by George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. Great Britain.
- Hardcover with dust jacket. Green Boards. Large book - approx 31.5 cm long x 24.5cm wide.
- Very good condition. Minor scuffing to dust jacket.
Illustrated and Indexed.
For many thousands of years Indians have lived among the rainforests of the Amazon: some in areas so remote and inaccessible that they remain to this day untouched by the outside world. In this century in Brazil alone one tribe has become extinct every year. This is the world, ancient and now tragically threatened, that Mirella Ricciardi has captured in Vanishing Amazon.
Her epic journey took her to the heart of one of the most inaccessible regions on earth, where she was received by three different Indian tribes.
A three-day canoe journey up a remote tributary of the Amazon took her to the Kampa, in the far western reaches of Amazonia. A hazardous flight to a tiny and obsure airstrip then led her to the reclusive and little-known Marubo, who are now estimated to number only some 600 people. Her journey ended with the Yanomami, prehaps the most publicized and the most poignant of all the Amazonian Indian tribes, who in recent years have led the campaign to draw international attention to the multiple threats to the Indians' environment, and hence to their very existence.
With each tribe Mirella Ricciardi found a way of life that had remained unchanged in its essentials for countless generations. Her photographs of the Indians in their daily life - hunting, gathering, decorating each other, caring for children or simply enjoying themselves, are an eloquent and intimate portrait both of these unique cultures and of the families and individuals within them.
Her personal diary of her tirp, which accompanies her photographs, provides an illuminating commentary and fascinating insights into the rewards and frustrations of such a daunting undertaking. A parallel text by Dr Marcus Colchester, who has lived among the Amazonian Indians, provides the anthropological and historical background, interpreting the Indians' view of their world and their remarkable understanding of their forest environment.
Haunting in its imagery and startling in its beauty, Vanishing Amazon is therefore not only a moving celebration of the Indian way of life but also a valuable record of an enduring but endangered culture. It stands as an elegy to the past, a testament to the present, and a challenge to the future.
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