In the dozen years Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) lived in a Sao Paulo, Brazil, shanty slum, she survived by rummaging for junk. She also kept a diary of her abject poverty. Black, illegitimate, and poor, she suddenly became at age forty-six Brazil's best-selling author when a book drawn from her diaries appeared in 1960. An English translation, "Child of the Dark," was published in 1962 and sold over 300,000 copies in the United States in a decade. "Newsweek" heralded her book as "a desperate, terrifying outcry from the slums of Sao Paulo . . . one of the most astonishing documents...
In the dozen years Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) lived in a Sao Paulo, Brazil, shanty slum, she survived by rummaging for junk. She also kept...
Now available in paperback, 'People of the Peyote' explores the Huichol Indians of Mexico, who are best known for their worship of the peyote cactus. Ritually harvested each year, the peyote flower plays a central role in most Huichol observances of the annual ceremonial round. The Huichols have been the most culturally persistent indigenous group in Mexico and have maintained their pre-Christian religion with only minimal accommodation to Catholicism. Eighteen essays explore Huichol ethnography, ethnohistory, shamanism, religion, mythology, art, ethnobotany, society, and other topics. The...
Now available in paperback, 'People of the Peyote' explores the Huichol Indians of Mexico, who are best known for their worship of the peyote cactus. ...
