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Sacred monkey river : a canoe trip with the gods / Christopher Shaw.
Penn Museum Library F1435 .S53 2000
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Shaw, Christopher.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Mayas--Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico)--Antiquities.
- Mayas.
- Mayas--Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico)--Religion.
- Lacandon Indians--Social life and customs.
- Lacandon Indians.
- Shaw, Christopher--Travel--Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico).
- Shaw, Christopher.
- Travel.
- Religion.
- Antiquities.
- Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico)--Description and travel.
- Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico).
- Usumacinta River Valley (Guatemala and Mexico)--Antiquities.
- Physical Description:
- 316 pages : maps ; 25 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : W.W. Norton, [2000]
- Summary:
- At the border of Mexico and Guatemala lies one of the most fascinating and least-known parts of the world, the cradle of ancient Olmec and classical Maya civilization. There the Usumacinta River and its highland tributaries form a tantalizing geographic unity that once undergirded the great achievements of the Maya. The man-made nucleus of the region's culture and spirituality was the canoe, the medium for the "Watery Path" connecting the sacred world with the earthly face of the cosmos.
- Christopher Shaw (a skilled canoeist and former whitewater guide) has traveled these rivers by canoe, penetrating to the heart of an ancient and awe-inspiring landscape, and -- despite near-death in a rapid, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, and the murderous activities of drug lords along the river -- he brings back to us a beautifully told and important tale.
- In a book that is a fitting heir to Bruce Chatwin's Songlines, Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams, and Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, Shaw brings together the thrill of adventure travel with profound historical knowledge, the acute eye of a naturalist, breathtaking prose, and an intuitive gift for the spiritual resonances of the past to be found in earthly realities.
- Contents:
- 1 Foundation 17
- 2 Palenque 45
- 3 Delta and Portage 77
- 4 The Divide 104
- 5 The Headwaters 130
- 6 The Watery Path 153
- 7 The Canadas and Miramar 175
- 8 Canon Colorado 200
- 9 The Lacantun 220
- 10 The Ambiguous Zone 243
- 11 Split Sky 264
- 12 The Cosmogram 289.
- ISBN:
- 0393048373
- OCLC:
- 43757633
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