Histories and Historicities in Amazonia

Rating:
Summary: Lacking important references
Review: Although the title says Amazonia, a lot of the content pertains to Orinoquia. Prospective buyers should be aware that a recent volume of Ethnohistory (also edited by Whitehead) contains much of the same material (by some of the same authors). The biggest problem that I had with the book is that very important recent work done among some of the native groups mentioned in the text is totally ommitted in the references. It seems like a collection of friends got together to write this book and dismiss the work of other good and emerging scholars. One of the important lessons taught to all graduate students is to cite the work of others, particularly when it is relevant. This work is careless in its review of the current literature and contains some factual errors that specialists will have no problem detecting. I found that it offered nothing new.