Entangled Edens: Visions of the Amazon

384 Pages·2001·3.37 MB·English

by  Candace Slater

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Entangled Edens
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“The Continent of Paradise,” a map of South America based on
Antonio de León Pinelo’s bookNew World Paradise (El paraíso
del Nuevo Mundo).First published in 1656, the map shows
Eden at the juncture of the present-day Orinoco, Amazon, and
Paraguay Rivers.
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Candace Slater
Entangled Edens
VI S I O N S O F TH E AMA Z O N
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley / Los Angeles / London
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Excerpt from “Santarém” from the complete
poems: 1927–1979 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright
© 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted
by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, llc.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2002 by the Regents of the University of
California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Slater, Candace
Entangled edens : visions of the Amazon /
Candace Slater.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-22641-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Amazon River Region—Description and
travel. 2. Utopias—Amazon River Region.
3. Myth. 4. Amazon River Region—Public
opinion. I. Title.
f2546 .s67 2002
981—dc21 2001035866
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the
minimum requirements of ansi/nisoz39.48–1992
(r1997) (Permanence of Paper). (cid:2)(cid:2)
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I liked the place; I liked the idea of the place.
Two rivers. Hadn’t two rivers sprung
from the Garden of Eden? No, that was four
and they’d diverged. Here only two
and coming together. Even if one were tempted
to literary interpretations
such as: life/death, right/wrong, male/female
—such notions would have resolved, dissolved,
straight off
in that watery, dazzling dialectic.
Elizabeth Bishop,
“Santarém,” Questions of Travel
Here in the Amazon the stories spring up as fast
as trees.
Taxi driver, age eighteen,
Santarém, Brazil, 1995
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Contents
1. The Meeting of the Waters 1
A Tale of Two Cities
2. El Dorado and the Golden Legacy 29
3. The Encante as a World in Motion 54
Amazon Women
4. Warrior Women, Virgin Forests,
and Green Hells 81
5. Gold as a Woman 102
The Amazon as Water,
the Amazon as Woods
6. Roots of the Rain Forest 133
7. Lakes within Lakes 158
8. Beyond Eden 183
Chronology of Key Dates 205
Glossary of Selected Terms 218
Notes 223
References 281
Acknowledgments 313
Index 317
Illustrations follow page 132
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