Amazonia : Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise

Chicago, Illinois: Aldine Atherton, 1971. A nice copy of the tough-to-find, hardcover First Edition. Bright, clean, square, tight, unmarked copy. Sharp corners. No chips or tears. No owner's name or bookplate. No remainder mark. Illustrated with photos, maps, drawings, and diagrams. Original gray cloth. From the Dust Jacket: "Drawing on more than 20 years of study and field research, the author examines in detail the patterns of cultural adaptation among the peoples of the two main ecological zones of the Amazon: the terra firme (Amazon basin) and the varzea (floodplain). The book shows clearly how human societies develop and survive in what appears to be a luxuriant Garden of Eden but is really a counterfeit paradise. The author analyzes adaptations in technology, social institutions, and ideologies, and the theoretical basis for this analysis is provided in lucid and provocative statement of evolutionary theory applied to culture." Glossary. Selected References. Selected Further Reading. Index. [This copy bears the ownership ink stamp of Charles W. Myers of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Myers, Curator Emeritus, Department of Herpetology, along with John W. Daly, discovered several new species of frogs, and identified over 300 new alkaloids derived from the frog skins. It was Myers who first called the public's attention to the world's most poisonous creature - the tiny, 1.5-inch, Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis). The skin of this frog contains about one milligram of poison, enough to kill 10,000 mice, or 10 to 20 humans if the poison entered their bloodstreams. Myers was first to explain how the Embera Indians of western Colombia, use the frogs to prepare poison darts for their blowguns.] . First Printing of the First Edition. Hardcover. Fine condition/Very Good dust jacket. 8vo. ix, 182pp.