AbOUT THE BOOK

A Photojournal of the Guyanese Amerindians contains almost 200 captivating photographs that will give readers a visual journey into the everyday life and other issues of the nine Amerindian tribes currently living in Guyana: Ackawaois, Arawaks, Arekunas, Caribs, Makushi, Patamona, Wai Wai, Wapishana, and Warrau. This unique volume captures such scenes as: the Barama Caribs, the different types of Amerindian dances; house building; making tasso; cultural activities; children travelling by canoes to school; Basil Rodrigues’s Mariaba band; the construction of the benab or Umana Yana by the Wais Wais in 1972; Rupununi cowboys or vacqueros in action; making the much-prized Wapishana hammock; village scenes; making food from the poisonous bitter cassava; fishing; and much more. 

The book covers these different aspects of life relating to Guyana’s indigenous peoples in the following 14 chapters: 

The Landscape; Popular Buildings; Everyday Life; Cultural Activities; Cattle Ranching; Food from Cassava; Farming; Fishing; Craft Work; School Activities; Transportation; Church Activities; Village Scenes; and Faces of the People. 

It is an accompanying volume to the author’s two previous publications: Encyclopaedia of the Guyanese Amerindians and The Rupununi Savannas of Guyana: A Visual Journey. Amerindian culture, unlike ours, is a process of accommodation with nature. Their concern for ecology and the environment and the balance of nature is part of their belief system. Everything has a role to play in the overall scheme of things. Many of the technological contributions of Amerindian societies have already been recognised. In Guyana, quite a number of native products became current only after the Europeans and other immigrants settled on the coast – pepperpot, hammocks, balata, medicinal herbs, íte palms, and troolie leaves. 

Apart from introducing the benefits of forest resources to the world, the Amerindians’ greatest contribution to modern Guyana was the help they gave to colonists and subsequent coastlanders in penetrating and understanding its hinterland. Feel this contribution and experience the beauty of the different environments in which they live through these photographs. As a bonus, there is a colour map showing their geographic distribution plus a glossary of terms used in some of the pictures.