Around the World: Folktales of the Amazon by Juan Carlos Galeano

Folktales of the Amazon by Juan Carlos Galeano is today's selection for Around the World folktales.

Book description:

Here are forty-one tales gathered from Amazonian fishermen, hunters, lodgers, small plot farm gardeners, and villagers in Venezuela, Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Organized thematically, these tales for mature readers convey messages of kinship bonds and reciprocity, capturing the socialized relationships between peoples, animals, plants, places and a variety of shape-shifting supernatural entities. Often shocking or hair-raising, some of these tales even range into illicit topics, such as cannibalism and psychotropic plants.

JUAN CARLOS GALEANO is a poet, translator and filmmaker who has worked extensively in the Amazon basin. He grew up in the Amazon region of Colombia and is a professor at Florida State University.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Tales of Origin
Chapter 2: Tales about Anacondas and Boas
Chapter 3: Tales about Dolphins and Other Aquatic Seducers
Chapter 4: Tales of Beasts and Forest Defenders
Chapter 5: Tales of Dark and Malevolent Shamans
Chapter 6: Tales of Punishment for Ill Behavior
Chapter 7: Tales of Special Places, Plants, and Birds