If outsiders know anything about the Waorani who live in the Ecuadorian Amazon, it is that in 1956 they speared to death five US missionaries. Or perhaps more recently, they have heard of the globally renowned celebrity environmentalist Nemonte Nenquimo, who in 2019 won an Ecuadorian court case that required free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) before engaging in resource extraction on Waorani lands, for which she won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. In this volume, which draws on 25 years of fieldwork, High (anthropology, Univ. of Edinburgh, UK) is concerned with how the Waorani translate local concepts of territory and conservation for a global audience. In particular, High describes his work with the Waorani Language Documentation Project, especially with young videographers who use modern forms of technology to preserve the use of an endangered language in their communities. In the process, those who had previously been High’s informants now become speakers, researchers, and political activists in their own right as they engage with a changing world. While presented as a collaborative endeavor, the center of this story becomes the foreign observer rather than the local protagonists, as is too often the case.
Summing Up: Recommended. Faculty.
- Reviewer: M. Becker, Truman State University
- Recommendation: Recommended
- Readership Level: Researchers/Faculty
- Interdisciplinary Subjects: Environmental Studies , Latin American & Latina/o Studies , Native American Studies , Racial Justice
- Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences - History, Geography & Area Studies - Latin America & the Caribbean
- Choice Issue: aug 2025 vol. 62 no. 12
- Choice Review #: 62-3031