The North-West Amazons: Notes of some months spent among cannibal tribes

The author recounts months of travel in upper Amazonian forests, combining natural-history observations with detailed ethnography of indigenous groups: settlement layout, material culture, agriculture, hunting, weapons, and crafts; social organization, marriage, kinship, law, and taboos; religious and magical beliefs, role of the shaman, funeral practices, and ceremonies; music, dances, myths, language features, and communication methods; practical aspects of travel, climate, flora and fauna, food, drugs and poisons, medicine, and warfare including rituals of anthropophagy. Chapters intersperse descriptive narrative, comparative notes, and appendices intended to aid students of cultural contact.