My only complaint is the standard....better maps! Otherwise, the book is filled to the rim with humor, good insight, and a great deal of empathy. I worked for minerals companies for some years and, generally, I found that the were unsympathetic to the problems the create. Also, tis a shame that consumers are quick to jump on the bandwagon of anti-exploitation, but continue to overuse resources for their individual benefit.
Back to the book....Kane's description of how Moi and the rest see the world was humorous, sad, enlightening, and just plain wonderful. Currently in Bolivia, but ma be going to Ecuador next ear. This is superb background material. ( )

You might have recently heard recently of that an Ecuador court ordered Chevron Co. pay an $8.6 billion fine for polluting the Amazon for Texaco’s oil-drilling activities of the 70s and 80s.

In 1991, Joe Kane was working at a Rainforest Action Network, one of many environmental organizations squabbling over the expansion of oil drilling by Dupont-Conoco within the protected lands of native Huaorani in the Ecuadorian Amazon. But despite the Ecuadorian government and all these organizations claiming to protect the interests of the Huaorani, none had actually spoken to these natives, until a mysterious letter convinced Joe Kane to go find the voice of the Huaorani himself… and found him deeply involved with their brave and ingenious battle to stop the complete destruction of their very society.

When Joe Kane sticks to speaking about the shocking negligence of oil drilling in the Ecudaorian Amazon, the effects of this mass pollution on the Huaorani culture, and the struggle of the natives to stop this Conoco plan is when Savages works best:
- of people hanging laundry upon the omnipresent pipelines, of gushing leaks in said pipelines that remain undiscovered for weeks before they’re mended, of sludgy pits where oil byproducts were disposed
- how whole villages are poisoned by the river or suffer low birthrates
- how this ecological destruction has only further degraded a lifestyle already weakened by missionary colonialism
- the attempts of corrupt bureaucracy and greedy oil companies to further prevent the Huaorani from having a political voice
- & the counter-attempts of certain individuals of the Huaorani to mobilize against the “cannibals” who would cripple their native way of life using their unique know-how of both cultures.

But Kane often loses this thread in the confusion of his intention: Is he mere reporting these politics or is he involved in helping the Huaorani? Is he studying them anthropologically fairly (on their own terms) or is he casting them into roles of the “savage”—noble or child-like? Is his book intended to be informative ecological expose or is it a colorful travelogue about a white man’s foibles in the jungle among hunter-gatherers? Kane doesn’t really seem to know, either in the present moment or in looking back upon the experience, and the resulting book is rather jagged and unfocused as a result. He frequently jabbers on, forgetting to place important events in context and merely spews forth a mountain of names, dates, and meetings that occurred without generally explaining their significance… that is when he’s speaking about something with significance at all (and not pondering his foot rot or his friendships or making some ponderous sweeping statement… with touches of ethnocentrism).

I can see why this was a text in my Cultural Anthropology class: it presents a riveting real-life case study of globalism, cultural clash, and the desperate need in this world for applied anthropology (even if it is only through the example of a fiasco). However, I can’t really recommend it as a primary read—both because of Kane’s flimsy reporting and unchecked bias, the lack of scope, and its general outdated-ness. ( )

One white dude's hilarious / heartbreaking account of the Huaorani people and their doomed struggle to keep oil development out of El Oriente (aka the Ecuadorian Amazon). Veers from jaded environmentalist screed to wild-eyed adventure journal, with the best bits revolving around one man in particular named Moi. ( )