Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians

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by Pierre Clastres,

Foreword by Paul Auster

Zone Books

Due/Published October 2000, 360 pages, paper

ISBN 0942299787

New in paper (F00)

Clastres was one of the most respected political anthropologists of our time and this is an account of his first fieldwork in the early 1960s--an encounter with a small, unique, and now vanished Paraguayan tribe. The book was translated by Paul Auster, the novelist, who says, "It is, I believe nearly impossible not to love this book. The care and patience with which it is written, the incisiveness of its observations, its humor, its intellectual rigor, its compassion--all these qualities reinforce one another to make it an important, memorable work. . . . It is the true story of a man's experiences, and it asks nothing but the most essential questions: how is information communicated to an anthropologist, what kinds of transactions take place between one culture and another, under what circumstances might secrets be kept? In delineating this unknown civilization for us, Clastres writes with the cunning of a good novelist.

"It is, I believe, nearly impossible not to lovethis book. The care and patience with which it is written, theincisiveness of its observations, its humor, its intellectual rigor,its compassion--all these qualities reinforce one another to make itan important, memorable work. . . . It is the true story of a man'sexperiences, and it asks nothing but the most essential questions: howis information communicated to an anthropologist, what kinds oftransactions take place between one culture and another, under whatcircumstances might secrets be kept? In delineating this unknowncivilization for us, Clastres writes with the cunning of a goodnovelist."--From Paul Auster's Foreword