Indigenous Communities
We Will Not Be Saved - Nemonte Nenquimo
Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, Nemonte Nenquimo was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. Age 14, she left the forest for the first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture. She listened. Two decades later, Nemonte has emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate-change activism. She has spearheaded the alliance of indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest. Her message is as sharp as the spears that her ancestors wielded - honed by her experiences battling loggers, miners, oil companies and missionaries.
I, Rigoberta Menchú - Rigoberta Menchú
Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.
The Aztec Myths - Camilla Townsend
How did the jaguar get his spots? What happened to the four suns that came before our own? Where was Aztlan, mythical homeland of the Aztecs? For decades, the popular image of the Mexica people – better known today as the Aztecs – has been defined by the Spaniards who conquered them. Their salacious stories of pet snakes, human sacrifice and towering skull racks have masked a complex world of religious belief. To reveal the rich mythic tapestry of the Aztecs, Camilla Townsend returns to the original tales, told at the fireside by generations of Indigenous Nahuatl-speakers.
Fresh Banana Leaves - Jessica Hernandez
Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate devastation, Indigenous science is nowhere to be found in mainstream environmental policy or discourse. And while holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from millennia of Indigenous knowledge systems have much to teach all of us, Indigenous science has long been ignored, otherised, or perceived as soft - the product of a systematic, centuries-long campaign of racism, colonialism, extractive capitalism, and delegitimisation. Here, Jessica Hernandez - Maya Ch'orti' and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of environmental agency Piña Soul - introduces and contextualises Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys.
The Maya - Michael D. Coe
The definitive history of the Maya, fully updated with the latest archaeological studies. The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the ancient Maya on the market today. This classic book has been updated by distilling the latest scholarship for the general reader and student. Highlighting the vitality of current scholarship about this brilliant culture, The Maya remains the gold standard introductory book on the subject.