Florinda Donner-Grau - Shabono: Book Start

FRONT FLAP

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Shabono

"From across the river, out of the distant darkness, the wind carried the Iticoteri's laughter... The voice rustled through the ancient trees, then vanished, like the silvery ripples on the water."

So writes Florinda Donner in this truly remarkable book. Like "The Children of Sanchez" by Oscar Lewis, "Shabono" breaks new ground in revealing the life of another culture by drawing the reader into its strange and unique world. Ms. Donner, an anthropologist, traveled into the deep jungle between Venezuela and Brazil to study the "curing," or witchcraft practices, of certain Indian tribes. Shabono is the story of her total immersion in a primitive society and its exotic way of life.

For days Florinda Donner follows an old Indian woman and her son into the steamy undergrowth to their village, or shabono. As day becomes night and night day, time loses all meaning, and her sojourn among the people she calls the Iticoteri extends to a year. Adopted by a native couple, she goes beyond observation; she begins to absorb their totems and taboos as her own.

(continued on back, flap)

DELACORTE PRESS/NEW YORK

BACK FLAP

(continued from front flap)

Behind the hardness of life in the jungle is an exquisite magic, a world in which the Iticoteri are born, undergo grueling rites of passage, marry, make war, and die. A world where they feast on ripe plantain and fresh fish. Where there are ceremonies in which men sniff epena and dance wildly in costumes made from the feathers of exotic birds to become shapori, or witch doctors. Theirs is a civilization in which illness is cured by the rhythmic chanting of shapori, where fire releases the soul from the body, and the soul rises to the house of thunder.

With amazing warmth the Iticoteri accept Florinda Donner as one of their own, gently teaching her their religion, their customs, even their language. Reluctantly they guide her to the edge of the jungle at the end of her year with them.

In prose that is enchanting, almost sensual, Florinda Donner combines the storytelling appeal of a novel with the very real facts of her stay in the shabono. The result is as unusual as it is irresistible, a book that will fascinate equally readers of fiction and nonfiction.

FLORINDA DONNER is an anthropologist whose specialty is the study of Indian tribes.

DELACORTE PRESS/NEW YORK

0582 PRINTED IN U.S.A.

BACK COVER

"There is no doubt in my mind that Shabonois a masterpiece. For me, it is at once art, magic, and social science, and so skillfully balanced that I cannot assess which takes the lead.

"It is superb social science because with an unerring sense of choice in describing her experiences among the Indians of the Venezuelan jungle, Florinda Donner literally plummets the reader into an unknown but very real world. The ethnographic data are there but presented in a rich, alive, and functional way.

"At the same time the author's haunting arid utterly powerful narrative succeeds in communicating to the reader a most peculiar sense of awe. Thus, Shabono is sheer magic because it sustains, all the way through, the overpowering and forbidden aura of a mysterious and enchanting world.

"And finally Shabono is art because of a masterly arrangement of words and ideas. Florinda Donner's artistry is to strike with words; to create fleeting images of supreme poignancy and then string them and connect them until they achieve a final result: a catharsis of feeling."

- by CARLOS CASTANEDA, author of "The Eagle's Gift" and "The Teachings of Don Juan"

® DELACORTE PRESS/NEW YORK

ISBN: 0-440-07828-8

Published by
DELACORTE PRESS
1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing
Designed by Mary Jane DiMassi

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Donner, Florinda.
Shabono.

1. Yanomama Indians. I. Title.
PS3554.0534S5 813'.54 81-19422
ISBN 0-440-07828-8 AACR2

“Shabono: A Visit to a Remote and Magical World in the South American Rainforest” - ©1982 by Florinda Donner

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