Indians Of Amazonia

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30965, 22 January 1966, Page 4

Indians Of Amazonia

The Cocaine Eaters. By Brian Moser and Donald Taylor. Longmans. 204 pp. The title is derived from the practices of Tukano, Kogi and Noanana Indians of Colombia and Amazonian regions who collect and prepare leaves of Coca and regularly imbibe these concoctions with marked effects on their personality. Two interesting young Englishmen, not specialists in the scientific disciplines allied to the region or people, have achieved distinction in this report on their expedittion among five divergent indigenous tribes. Although a good deal of the narrative deals with physical experiences of their movements by plane, boat, canoe—also a major mountain ascent, and though the announced objective was to record patterns and form in the music of the indigenes, readers will find a fund of information in the account of social structure and economy of these South American Indians. The artistic interests of the authors will account for the emphasis on religious and ceremonial festivals and

dances. Eighty beautiful colour plates adorn the book, all depicting these people, not of places or landscape—also line drawings of their artifacts. The low price of such a book of normally expensive printing indicates that British publishers have found economy in the colour work of Danish firms, as .have others in the case of the Japanese. The authors have made good use of the human interest within their aides and collaborators. They had only a few months in the region but what was accomplished and recorded is very comprehensive. Initially unable to get financial support for the expedition, the British Museum ultimately gave aid and would appear to have been well recompensed in the anthropological and artistic value of this report. The book abounds with information many people would wish to have access to—subject matter like chica and other fermented beverages and narcotics, native agriculture, manioc, maize, preparation of poisons, types and use of arrows. It is all the more regrettable that the index is entirely unsatisfactory, confined as it is to place names and persons with the rich subject matter lost for reference purposes.