John Hemming is a world-renowned expert on Brazilian Indians, the Amazon environment, the Incas, Peruvian archaeology, and the history of exploration. His work delves into the depths of these fascinating subjects, offering readers an engaging glimpse into past and present cultures and their environments. Through his extensive knowledge and research, he brings these realms to life, providing unique perspectives on their rich heritage.
Sheds new light on our understanding of the people of the rainforest. Given the current spotlight on nature and the future of the planet, an understanding of the people of the rainforest is highly topical.
Alfred Russel Wallace, Henry Walter Bates and Richard Spruce were English naturalists who went to Amazonia 150 years ago. This book combines all three young mens experiences of the Amazon, drawing heavily on their own letters and books.
Focusing on the discovery of a mineral water source in Gloucester, John Hemming's work details the initial observations by locals and the thorough investigation that followed. It features a comprehensive chemical analysis of the water, highlighting its mineral content and potential health benefits. Hemming offers scientific insights into the water's properties, making this book a significant resource for those interested in the history and medicinal qualities of mineral waters. This facsimile reprint preserves the original work's cultural importance.
Describes the passionate struggles that have taken place in order to utilize, protect and understand the wonder that is the Amazon. This book features the adventures and misadventures down the centuries of the explorers, missionaries, indigenous Indians, naturalists, rubber barons, scientists, anthropologists and archaeologists.
'Die if you must, but never kill' was the injunction of the enlightened leader of the Brazilian movement to 'civilize' the Indian population in the first part of the 20th century. Years of exploration and exploitation of the Amazon's resources had revealed that those tribes living in the interior would need somehow to be brought into the modern world. Hemming describes the slow process of exploration, contact, their customs and practices and, disturbingly, their almost immediate decline on meeting modern man. He describes too, the change of heart which has led to a renaissance of tribal culture. It is heartening to learn finally that there are as many as 40 tribes still living in the Amazon forests-protected.
An account of the conquest of the Incas by the Spanish. From the first small band of Spanish adventurers to enter the mighty Inca empire to the execution of the last Inca 40 years later, this book tells a story of bloodshed, rebellion and extermination.