Banzeiro òkòtó : the Amazon as the center of the world / Eliane Brum ; translated from the Portuguese by Diane Whitty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brum, Eliane, author.

Contributor:

Grosklaus Whitty, Diane R., translator.

Standardized Title:

Banzeiro òkòtó. English

Language:

English

Portuguese

Subjects (All):

Brum, Eliane--Travel--Brazil--Amazonas.

Brum, Eliane.

Amazonas (Brazil).

Indians of South America--Brazil--Amazonas.

Indians of South America.

Social problems--Brazil.

Social problems.

Brazil--Social conditions--21st century.

Brazil.

Social movements--Brazil--Amazonas.

Social movements.

Indigenous peoples.

Social conditions.

Brazil--Amazonas.

Physical Description:

397 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2023]

Summary:

"In lyrical, impassioned prose, Eliane Brum recounts her move from São Paulo to Altamira, a city along the Xingu River that has been devastated by the construction of one of the largest dams in the world. In community with the human and more-than-human world of the Amazon, Brum seeks to "reforest" herself while building relationships with forest peoples who carry both the scars and the resistance of the forest in their bodies. Weaving together the lived stories of the region and its history of violent corruption and destruction, Banzeiro Òkòtó is a call for radical change, for the creation of a new kind of human being capable of facing the potential extinction of our species. In it, Brum reveals the direct links between structural inequities rooted in gender, race, class, and even species, and the suffering that capitalism and climate breakdown wreak on those who are least responsible for them. The title Banzeiro Òkòtó features words from two cultural and linguistic traditions: banzeiro is what the Amazon people call the place where the river turns into a fearsome vortex, and òkòtó is the Yoruba word for a shell that spirals outward into infinity. Like the Xingu River, turning as it flows, this book is a fierce document of transformation arguing for the centrality of the Amazon to all our lives"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 11. Where does a circle begin?

31. Destructuring

2. The clitoris and the origin of the forest

15. The amazon is a woman

45. Rape, and reforestation

7. Fierce life

24. Confession

0. Resistance

100. We are NOT all in the same boat

666. The end of the world isn't the end. it's the middle

13. In-betweens of the forest

5. Forestpeoples: the alliance of the beings and in-betweens

87. Between-worlds

12. The conversion of the forestpeoples into the poor

87. Joao da silva and the return of the poor

33. Flying rivers

10. The soccer ball

121. Overlords, vassals, and serfs

171. The amazon locusts

51. Altamiracles

4.0. The children of altamira

2018. The first generation without hope

68. Hope is overrated

1937. Self-extermination as a gesture

1987. Belo monte refugees

5. The resistance equation: me + 1 +

100. About ties

9. Pigeon claws on the roof

2018. alice

69. Translingual

2041. Eduardo

2042. Amazon center of the world

2019. Caravels of decolonization in terra do meio

00. #Freethefuture

Between-worlds.

Notes:

"Originally published in Portuguese as Banzeiro òkòtó: uma viagem à Amazônia Centro do Mundo by Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, Brazil, 2021"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-397).

ISBN:

9781644452196

1644452197

OCLC:

1310767955