Analysis Of Savages By Joe Kane

Amazon Response

Core 8

Toadvine

Spring 2016

The Huaorani are the bravest people in the Amazon. It says so throughout Savages by Joe Kane. It is about the indigenous group called the Huaorani residing deep in the rainforest of the Amazon. They have their culture that struggles to maintain tradition, “Though Moi hit the streets of Washington D.C., at the evening rush hour, he walked in the city as he does in the forest-in slow, even strides “(Kane, Savages). The small indigenous group that reside in the Amazon are fighting against outer forces. The petroleum companies are destroying the land of the Huaorani people. Joe Kane who is the author and narrator of the book, tells the story of the Huaorani people and their struggles in the outer world

Evangelical missionaries came to change the ways of the indigenous people by showing them the western culture. Schools were built for children to learn about the outer civilizations, but not of their lifestyles. Joe Kane emphasize this with attitude of the people with the missionaries. Rachel Saint is one of the many missionaries that deterred the natives from their culture and have them commit ethnocide which means “killing the culture” (Kane, 7). Rachel Saint place the ministry of education, companies, and religious groups tried to make the Huaorani learn the western ways like the ABCs, mathematics, and geography. This is one of the hardships of the Huaorani because they are losing their culture and are struggling with the adaptation of the western ways. Rachel Saint believed that they are corrupted and need to be helped, “It seemed painfully obvious that [Rachel] by any measure- emotional, physical, material-her remaking of the culture in her own image had been a net loss for the Huaorani (Kane, 88). She is changing the culture of the Huaorani in her way because of her personal experience and it is difficult for the Huaorani to sustain their culture when outsiders are killing it. The hardest part of assimilating into the western world is have their culture dead. It is very sad to see because the years in preservation and living in harmony within the community and the Amazon. Destroying the culture is inhumane and it is shown in the 1990’s. Adapting into a different world is difficult and other worldly. Think of Moi as he walks in the streets of the city, not grasping the concept of society. The change is hard to adapt; the environment is hard to adapt. The city is different from the Amazon. There are so much the westerners can learn from them. They know the ways of the jungle and destroying their culture is like destroying the live history passed from their