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Savages
by
Joe Kane,
Marty Asher
Savages is a firsthand account, by turn hilarious, heartbreaking, and thrilling, of a small band of Amazonian warriors and their battle to preserve their way of life. Includes eight pages of photos.
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
January 4th 2012
by Vintage
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I was a slap-happy travel writer looking forward to experiencing the most bio-diverse country on the plant for its size. Ecaudor is touted as a paradise for nature lovers with 46 different eco-systems, home to 1,600 bird species, 250 mammals, 358 amphibians 345 reptiles and 4,500 butterflies. Then I read Joe Kane’s horrifying expose of what has been taking place in the Amazon forests of Ecuador in a region called the Oriente since the 1970’s. Oil companies have systematically been destroying th...more
I highly recommend this compulsively readable and manically engaging true tale of Amazonian "Indians"--the Huaorani--at war with oil companies deep in the jungle. The Huaorani had lived isolated and content with their traditional way of life for so long that their language cannot be connected to any other language known to humankind. Basically, if anybody tried to encroach upon them, they would simply tell them to leave and if they didn't, the Huaorani would kill them. Stoic to godlike...more
This one was a tough one to rate. I felt it deserved at least a four for drawing attention to and describing a pretty shocking situation in Amazonian Ecuador that is virtually unheard of outside the region. It was surprisingly interesting and very entertaining for the most part, but it just felt like it kind of dragged a little bit in a few parts. On the other hand, maybe it just seemed that way because I was sick for a few days while reading it.
I have to admit that I've never r...more
I have to admit that I've never r...more
You might have recently heard recently of that an Ecuador court ordered Chevron Co. pay an $8.6 billion fine for polluting the Amazon for Texaco’s oil-drilling activities of the 70s and 80s.
In 1991, Joe Kane was working at a Rainforest Action Network, one of many environmental organizations squabbling over the expansion of oil drilling by Dupont-Conoco within the protected lands of native Huaorani in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But despite the Ecuadorian government and all these organizat...more
In 1991, Joe Kane was working at a Rainforest Action Network, one of many environmental organizations squabbling over the expansion of oil drilling by Dupont-Conoco within the protected lands of native Huaorani in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But despite the Ecuadorian government and all these organizat...more
Dear Joe,
Just finished reading your book, Savages. What a fascinating view of humanity, both good and evil. Couldn't believe it was true at times, kept thinking I was reading fiction. Horrifying accounts of the damage done to the lands of the natives. Your thorough research provided a shocking view of politics between government, oil companies, and even non-profit organizations.
What I really wanted to tell you was how I loved the last few sentences of your Ackno...more
Just finished reading your book, Savages. What a fascinating view of humanity, both good and evil. Couldn't believe it was true at times, kept thinking I was reading fiction. Horrifying accounts of the damage done to the lands of the natives. Your thorough research provided a shocking view of politics between government, oil companies, and even non-profit organizations.
What I really wanted to tell you was how I loved the last few sentences of your Ackno...more
A white man travels to Ecuador to learn about the Hauorani (wow-RAHN-ee) Indians in the Ecuadorian Amazon, whose way of life is being threatened by oil companies. This glimpse of the Hauorani's culture and struggle against the oil interests is fascinating and riveting. My biggest complaint about the book is that it really needed (and lacked) an index to help keep straight all the names of people and places and all the Spanish and Hauorani terms. I'm also not really keen on the title, although I ...more
insight to the one existing native tribe living in the amazon (Ecuador region) and how the oil industry and drilling has effected their lives. Rowling is a great author
In the 90s, Ecuador was in such hopeless debt that the gov allowed oil companies to destroy pristine jungle and manipulate the "simple-minded natives" with impunity. Conservation groups protested, but few of them had relationships with the tribes deep in those jungles. Joe Kane is crazy enough to befriend the Huaorani -what we get is a rare look at how they live, how they think, and how difficult it is for illiterate hunter-gatherers who live in the moment to take on a cynical and se...more
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This a bitter-sweet real story of a clash between traditional tribal life and gross money grabbing in the oil industry. It is hilarious yet extremely tragic. The characters are portrayed with a great insight. It prompts rethinking one's outlooks on what is truly important in life. Endearing. Will def. read more from this author in the future.
Lauren Johnson
is currently reading it
A friend of mine recommended this as a must-read for anyone involved with indigenous rights activism. Savages is about the Huaorani people of Ecuador and how their communities have been devastated by oil companies. It's written in the first person by a journalist-turned-environmental activist, and is very easy to read. I'm hooked so far.
This is such a fun book about the Huaroni tribe, living a subsistence lifestyle in the rainforest of Ecuador, as well as the broader forces of global capitalism and hydrocarbon development at play. The Huaroni are remarkable in their self reliance and great humor - I want to visit them! Really fun, well-written book.
One white dude's hilarious / heartbreaking account of the Huaorani people and their doomed struggle to keep oil development out of El Oriente (aka the Ecuadorian Amazon). Veers from jaded environmentalist screed to wild-eyed adventure journal, with the best bits revolving around one man in particular named Moi.
An incredibly well-written portrait of some of the Huaorani people and their fight against "The Company" (aka Big Oil). This book is both horrifying and exhilirating, it picks you right up from your chair and drops you into the middle of the Amazon rainforest (the Oriente) from page one.
I had this book out going through airport security in Guayaquil in 2003. One of the female security officers pointed at her colleague and laughed: "Savage!"
"No, no!" I interjected, "the petroleros are the 'savages'," but it didn't do any good, they ignored me.
"No, no!" I interjected, "the petroleros are the 'savages'," but it didn't do any good, they ignored me.
I read this just after leaving the Amazon in Ecuador. It struck home for me. Joe Kane meets and lives with the Huaroni Indians in the jungle, an elusive and historically aggressive tribe that has been fighting oil exploitation for years. He reports on their struggle, helps when he can, and becomes good friends with them.
The Huaroni are a beautiful Buddhist-esk culture, embracing of their on hypocrisy as well as thriving in the moment - essential to the transitory nature of living ...more
The Huaroni are a beautiful Buddhist-esk culture, embracing of their on hypocrisy as well as thriving in the moment - essential to the transitory nature of living ...more
This book details Kane's interactions with the Huaorani tribe of South America, who were once a highly secretive (and intriguingly violent) people, as they deal with an encroaching oil company and modern society. The story's alternatively funny and tragic. One of my favorite books.
Erin
added it
The next time you think YOU'RE paying a lot for gas, read Savages. The book's principle unwritten question is, of course, "Who are the real savages? The Huaorani Indians of the Amazon, who practice revenge killings now and then, and carry real big spears, or the first world interests that choose to wipe out an entire, sustainable ecosystem and way of life for oil?". All the intrigue of The Poisonwood Bible, but with real people this time, from the misguided missionaries to the "sa...more
Great and startlingly humorous look at how one group of people "discovered" the modern world, how they defined their relationship to it, and how they decided to negotiate the tensions.
Sad and funny book, great narration and reasoned depiction of how oil companies affect indigenous groups in Ecuador. Going out to find more stuff by Kane!
A heartfelt and heartbreaking work clearly illuminating the ethnocidal pressures exerted by global capitalism and resource "development".
Page-turning nonfiction. After my travels in the Ecuadorian Amazon, I was hooked.
Just reread this 12-year-old book about development and exploitation in the rainforest. The first time I read it, I thought it was about the Huaorani people, but now with age and perspective I think it's more about colonialization and resource extraction.
I liked thinking about the different ways to experience time, as the two clashing cultures in the book demonstrate. For some people there is now, and the time that is not right now. Could I ever lose my sense of time like this? Can ...more
I liked thinking about the different ways to experience time, as the two clashing cultures in the book demonstrate. For some people there is now, and the time that is not right now. Could I ever lose my sense of time like this? Can ...more
Reading this book kinda made me want to burn down every gas station I saw.
I am more of a fiction reader and did not expect to like this book as much as I did. If James Herriott's "All Creatures Great and Small" books made me want to become a veterinarian when I was younger, this book certainly glorified activism for the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador against petroleum for me, and made living in the forest and learning their ways look amazing.
Joe Kane is a gifted writer. He brought the people, their life, and their struggle to life for me.
Joe Kane is a gifted writer. He brought the people, their life, and their struggle to life for me.
An interesting read, with no side being 100% good or innocent.
Very interesting read about the plight of Ecuadorian indians and the oil companies that have wreaked havoc with their culture, their land and the Ecuadorian economy in general. Great pictures as well.
A fast-paced and informative (yet enjoyable) read about the conflict between the oil companies and Ecuador's indigenous population in the Amazon jungles during the early 1990s. This isn't a part of Latin America I'm very familiar with, so reading this book taught me a lot.
Were I not living in Ecuador, I may have given this book 4 stars for it's rambly nature. BUT, I think it's an absolute must-read for anyone who's been to South America, lives/lived here, or is even remotely intersted in globalization and what it does to the planet and people.
oil.Ecuador. environmentalists. missionaries. money. indigenous people fighting for their land. it's not fiction. and it's one of the saddest stories I have ever heard.
This was funny, interesting and completely depressing.
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