Shattered Myths
Review of Spirit of the Rainforest, 2nd edition, by Mark Ritchie. Island Lake Press, 1996, 2000 [288 pages]
By Pierre Gilbert
In his book Spirit of the Rainforest Mark Andrew Ritchie presents a first-hand account of life among the mysterious Yanomamö people who live in the jungles of southern Venezuela. What is most remarkable about this book is the fact that the narrator is none other than a Yanomamö shaman. Jungleman, as he is known, first seeks to describe the daily existence of the Yanomamö.
The first chapters are jarring. Spirit of the Rainforest shatters the myth of the “noble savage” who, untouched by Western civilization, lives in perfect harmony with his natural environment. Extreme violence, fear of the spirits, hunger, insecurity, terror, and death characterize the existence of the Yanomamö. This is a culture where violence and deception are glorified, where children are left to starve when food is in short supply, where women are little more than objects to be raped at will or brutally killed in fits of anger.
Beyond this description of life among the Yanomamö, Jungleman describes his people’s first encounter with westerners. The story more particularly focuses on two men: a Christian missionary and a renowned anthropologist. The contrasts between the one and the other are nothing short of shocking. The anthropologist literally turns the tribes he comes into contact with into his own personal playground. Even the natives are appalled by his sexually abusive behavior towards women and teenage boys.
In contrast, those natives exposed to the missionary and his message discover a completely new way of life: fear of the spirits is replaced by confidence in the one Spirit, superstition gives way to knowledge, women are given dignity, children are taken care of, the extreme violence and consuming thirst for revenge of the traditional Yanomamö are replaced by compassion (see, for example, pp. 113-124).
Spirit of the Rainforest is without a doubt one of the most remarkable books I have read in the last decade. This book is not for the weak-hearted. In fact, most readers will find the depictions of violence and human abuse profoundly disturbing. But this is a must-read for anyone who wishes to reflect on the human condition and the relevance of the Gospel. Spirit of the Rainforest represents a powerful response to the popular notion that the introduction of Christianity into so-called “primitive” cultures always only results in some form of detrimental contamination of that culture.