I found this weeks reading rather unique, as solely focused on the traditions of the Yanomami tribe and Davi Kopenawa’s journey to become a shaman. Each chapter is very detailed, describing how Davi first decided he would become a shaman to the how be became a shaman when first drinking yãkoana powder to become an “other”. His first time inhaling the yãkoana powder was a little hard to read, as imaging how much pain his body went though for not eating for about a week as the hallucinogenic was slowly taking its effect.
n Words Given section, Davi has his own message towards the Bruce Albert, reasoning why he allowed this book to be written. “This is why I would like them to be able to hear my words through the drawings you made. I would like these words to penetrate their minds”. Davi constantly criticizes “white people” for how they treated the Yanomami people, how they impacted their lives and think of them with prejudices. He also compares how the Yanomami did not need to write down their stories and history as everything was told by oral tradition. “As for the white people, they constantly need to draw their words. This is also something that Omama did not teach them!” He even argues that just because they don’t have this type of method of teaching and communication, it does not make them any less intelligent. It is very clear that they use their voice a main may of communicating and sharing information with another rather then writing or “drawing” it down. By writing this book, Davi hopes to reach an even greater audience. This sort of reminds me about how Guoma Poma decided to learn Spanish and write a letter so that he could be “heard” by the king.
Bruce Albert provided an in-depth chapter about why he is qualified to be the writer for this book and how his relationship with Davi is built on a many years of trust and learning about each other. He also admitted to his own prejudices and initial view of Davi, which he argues change as he learns more about Davi and the Yanomami people. This is in contrast to Marcos and Menchu’s editors who seem to just feel that they have already gained a connection to the individual right away, nor as much detail as to who these editors are. By providing this background context, I feel like this gives the reader reassurance that he is being true to every word he has written. He even goes into detail about how he translated to French along and even admits that there are some in the book that are of his own words. However we don’t know what are actually his words in the book. Being and editor is not easy because you have to choose very carefully how you want to translate and convey the message of the speaker so that the audience can understand. This makes me wonder if this book is a good example of the closest one could come to reading spoken dialogue to hear the individuals voice while still including the voices of others they aim to represent.