The Amazonian Chronicles

``The white presence, artificially imposed on other cultures, creates a destructive and hostile climate,'' state the authors in this passionate and powerful volume originally published more than 20 years ago in France and reissued recently there. Having lived among the Indians of the Amazon basin in the late '60s, cultural anthropologists Meunier and Savarin were angered about the treatment of the native peoples and pessimistic about their future. Here they review the history of Amazonia, from the explorers and missionaries of the 16th century to today's traders, miners and loggers. They report on their visits with shamans and storytellers, recounting a trip among the Chacobo Indians and a wild raft ride on the Yata River. Noting that storytelling is the consummate art of the Indians, Meunier and Savarin suggest that their propensity to integrate imagination into quotidian reality may be an antidote to the dehumanizing effect of Western culture. (Jan.)