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Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman (first half)As a Land and Food Systems student, it was so interesting to read a text that focused on Latin American indigeneity within the global context of climate change. One of my favorite words from this firs... read full post >>

 “You don’t believe they sky is falling until a chunk of it falls on you - Margaret AtwoodThe transition from Marcos to Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert continues the trend of composed assaults on entities that do not understand the significance of ... read full post >>

 “You don’t believe they sky is falling until a chunk of it falls on you - Margaret AtwoodThe transition from Marcos to Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert continues the trend of composed assaults on entities that do not understand the significance of ... read full post >>

In my opinion The Falling Sky is a novel that seems extremely self aware of its own interpretation and implications. A great source of this awareness is from the editor Albert who comes off as the over enthusiastic scholar in his own writings. I find it an interesting choice of his to place the forward […] read full post >>

I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of the parts of the introduction (or rather, postscript?) this week. I like how Albert talked about how his ideas changed over time, and acknowledged some of his previous assumptions that were harmful. To me this made his writing feel more authentic. It’s one thing to acknowledge the […] read full post >>

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”. […] read full post >>

This book has taken us in an interesting turn, and I see why it’s last on the syllabus. It parallels almost every. other text in a very intriguing way, opposing Guaman Poma and mirroring Rigoberta Menchu. What is most interesting to me, though, is the conversation about translation. Specifically, how Bruce Albert wrote the book […] read full post >>

The book so far has been a very interesting read. I appreciate engaging in environmentalism from an indigenous lens and it was something I was personally very curious about going into this course. With Kopenawa’s descriptions of how “white people” have come in and ignorantly destroyed Yanomami’s surrounding natural life, I think we have come […] read full post >>

You know, all this talk about how good things were before the white people came reminds me of a few things. Like “everything was fine until the fire nation attacked” or maybe it’s something like “back in my days”. Of course the subject can’t really be treated with the same light heartedness that comes with […] read full post >>

In the “How This Book Was Written” section of The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman, editor/collaborator/we’ve-talked-about-whether-or-not-this-role-counts-as-authorship-but-I-remain-divided Bruce Albert describes how he and Davi Kopenawa  met, became close, and wrote this book. Albert says: “[…] Davi Kopenawa decided to use that recording to describe his view of the Yanomami’s tragic situation and to launch … Continue reading The Falling Sky, Week One read full post >>