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Mark Andrew Ritchie

Autor(a) de Spirit of the Rainforest

6 Works 173 Membros 7 Críticas 1 Favorited

Obras por Mark Andrew Ritchie

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I was assigned to read this book for class. This book is powerful, but it can also be very sad and disturbing. The book contains graphic depictions of rape and murder and many other things. It is definitely not for squeamish. It is a page turner, but after reading some of the stuff, I would have to put it away for a little while which is why it took me a while to read it. But I do recommend this book.
 
Assinalado
TimeLord10SPW | 6 outras críticas | Jul 4, 2023 |
One of few book I read in one sitting. Absolutely riveting, fast paced, and a challenge to the sophisticated and arrogant world. For those who discount the existence of a spiritual realm or attribute it to substance use or a lack of intellect of tribal peoples, this book should cause you to pause. Some of the situations described by the author are eerily coincidental and far to specific.
 
Assinalado
tillywern | 6 outras críticas | Nov 12, 2011 |
Vorneweg eine Warnung: Dieses Buch beschreibt u.a. Gewalt gegen Frauen und Kinder (und könnte problematisch sein für Menschen, die selbst ähnliches erlebt haben).

Wenn ich spontan ein x-beliebiges Buch empfehlen müsste, so wäre es dieses: die spannende Geschichte eines Schamanen aus dem Volk der Yanomamö-Indianer.

Jeder Kampf hat eine lange Vorgeschichte. So ist es auch mit jener Auseinandersetzung, mit der Dschungelmann, der alte Schamane, seinen Bericht beginnt. Mit der neuen Friedfertigkeit der Indianer scheint es schon wieder vorbei zu sein, der Pfeil ist schon abgeschossen, mit dem Tod und Vergeltung wieder aufflammen.

Dschungelmann muss weit in die Vergangenheit ausholen, in die Zeit seiner eigenen Kindheit, als er seinen ersten Geistern begegnete, und als bei einem Rache-Feldzug ein Dorf fast vollständig abgeschlachtet wurde. Er berichtet uns von der Angst vor Vergeltung, die das ganze Dorf schließlich auf Wanderschaft gehen ließ, ohne die Nahrung ihrer Felder, und mit schlechten Chancen bei der Jagd. Und er berichtet von den ersten Begegnungen mit den Nabas, den weißen Fremden: Abenteurern, Anthropologen und Missionaren.

Es ist ein schonungsloses und ehrliches Buch, das nichts schönredet. Einige der Nabas sind den Indianern eine Hilfe, andere dagegen entpuppen sich als Ausbeuter, Leichenschänder oder Pädophile. Und dann ist da noch der große, feindliche Geist, für den manche Schamanen nun ihre Geister verlassen, und seinetwegen sogar auf Rache verzichten.

Was dieses Buch so besonders macht: Es wird nicht in den Worten eines Naba nacherzählt, sondern basiert auf Tonband- und Video-Aufnahmen von Interviews mit Dschungelmann und anderen Yanomamö. Dadurch bleibt uns die Welt der Indianer nicht fremd, sondern wir tauchen tief in ihr Denken und Fühlen ein.

Oftmals wird die Welt der Ureinwohner als paradiesisch verklärt. Die Yonomamö fühlen sich verhöhnt, wenn sie so etwas hören. Mit diesem Buch - und dessen Verfilmung - kommen sie nun selbst zu Wort.

Mark Andrew Ritchie, der Verfasser, gibt die Einkünfte aus dem Buch an die Indianer weiter.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
hnau | 6 outras críticas | Jul 27, 2009 |
Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamö Shaman’s Story. By Mark Andrew Ritchie. Island Lake, Illinois: Island Lake Press, 2000. 288 pp.

Commodities trader, amateur anthropologist and author Mark Ritchie has ventured deep into the spiritual reality and history of the Yanomamö people in his work Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamö Shaman’s Story (Island Lake, IL: Island Lake Press, 2000). Although best known for his work as one of the founding partners of Chicago Research and Trading, one of the largest options firms in the country, his expertise and passion for the Yanomamö people shine in his writing.

Spirit of the Rainforest is not told from Ritchie’s point of view. Rather, he has told the majority of the story through the eyes of Jungleman, a Yanomamö shaman - and a great leader of their people. Ritchie researched this project over thirteen years and six visits to the Amazonas. As often as possible, he conducted multiple interviews in order to corroborate the information he was receiving from Jungleman.

The narrative of this account is told largely as a flashback from the perspective of a shaman who has many spirits living within him. The detail given of how the Shaman of the various villages communicate with, acquire and struggle with their spirits is quite vivid and descriptive. We see a tribal people caught up in a spirit ruled shamanistic society with a moral compass that is beyond our understanding.

There are many graphic accounts of battles between villages, the murdering of infants, raping of women and spiritual warfare that redefines our perceptions of that realm. The battles waged with clubs and arrows are only a small part of the warfare between these villages. The shaman of one village will send out murdering spirits to kill children in neighboring villages. This supernatural assassination will often serve as the impetuous for the other village to physically attack the other.

After this framework has been set, we are introduced, along with the Yanomamö to the Naba – white people – who enter in their villages. Some are missionaries, others are cultural anthropologists, and others are simply looking for cheap labor or a new experience. Through this introduction of the Naba, the Yanomamö are exposed for the first time to the realities of sexual disease, profiteering, homosexuality, and Christianity.

Ritchie tells the story of one particular tribe, Honey, that embraces peace and the message of these Christian missionaries. When a shaman surrendered himself to the Great Spirit, all of the spirits that had been living within him would depart. This was visible and troubling to the other visiting shaman. In time, many of the Yanomamö come to faith in Christ, including Jungleman, the greatest of the Yanomamö shaman.

This book is graphic in nature. The author very capably delivers the horrors of this spirit-driven people through his retelling of battles, both spiritual and physical. In fact, Spirit of the Rainforest may be too much for some of a more sensitive nature to bear. It may also be difficult for those who have experienced a reality similar to what is being told in the book.

That said, this graphic portrayal of reality serves the author well in drawing in the reader to a context outside of their experience. We are given the opportunity to see a fierce people without any distorting lens. We are also given the unique perspective to see what the introduction of the Naba do to their society, both good and bad.

Worldview – Yanomamö Meets “Civilized” Society

The Yanomamö are a society that is attenuated to the intense reality of spiritual warfare. A shaman who has been given the gift of relationship with many spirits leads them. A good shaman, like Jungleman or Shoefoot will possess several of the strong spirits, and have discernment to recognize a spirit of power (like the jaguar) versus a spirit of weakness (like the deer). These shaman will intercede on behalf of their people through the power of these spirits, and conduct great battles with other villages and individuals nearly entirely in the spiritual realm.

In Western Christianity, we often pay lip-service to the concept of spiritual warfare. We have allowed ourselves to live in an intellectual and rational bubble where the events described in this book are fanciful and impossible. But the stark reality is that there is a very real spiritual warfare going on around us, both seen and unseen.

Scripture shows us example after example of men and women under the influence of demons. Some of these demons cause illness, as in Matthew 4:24 and 8:16. Some of these demons cause insanity and grant supernatural abilities as in the spirits named Legion in Mark 5. Others grant the ability to see things that no one else can see as in the slave girl in Acts 16. We know this warfare is a reality. We just often choose to look the other way.

Although the Yanomamö have an intense familiarity with the spiritual realm, they also have an innocence and purity due to their being isolated from the mainstream of society. They are unfamiliar with many of the perversions and vices that is just taken for granted in mainstream America. Also as a result of their immediate acceptance of the spiritual, they are very receptive to conversations concerning the supernatural and the spiritual. In the worldview of many in America, there is an intellectual and experiential hurdle that must be overcome before the conversation can turn seriously to issues of eternal and spiritual significance.

On one hand, it appears as though the intensity of spiritual activity in the United States is nothing like what we read in Spirit of the Rainforest. The idea of a shaman sending out a spirit to kill a child doesn’t fit into our grid. It would appear as though Satan would rather use an intellectual and rational attack on the people in this country. On the other hand, there has been a growing fascination with the occult. All we need to do is read popular fiction, turn on the TV or attend a movie to see a terrifying spiritual reality.

Although most would say that “civilized” society has much to offer a tribal people like the Yanomamö, I would argue that they have much to offer us. With their help, the scales may fall from our eyes, and we would be able to see the very real threat being waged against us each day by the powers and principalities of this world!

Christ and the Yanomamö

In the book Spirit of the Rainforest, it is interesting to see how the Yanomamö viewed the different Christian missionaries with which they came in to contact. It is clear that in order to effectively communicate the truth of the gospel to the people in this tribal context we are going to have to stretch ourselves, and change our way of thinking.

One realization was the hurt that was felt by the Yanomamö when Granny Troxel and Padre Coco left their village to return home. They felt betrayed and confused. There is great value in short term missions for both the individual on the missions trip, and those to whom the individual is ministering. However, there needs to be a strong missions base where they are serving. Relationship and familial loyalty is a large part of the Yanomamö culture. Intermittent missions may have some value, but there is far greater value in establishing long-term relationship.

Another aspect that would be key in relationship and witness with the Yanomamö culture would be to truly live among them. If a missionary comes down with a desire to hang on to his modern conveniences and culture, he will separate himself from the people and make it difficult, if not impossible to engage with them in a significant way. Many mission organizations have overcome this challenge by only sending trained indigenous missionaries into the field. That way they are able to understand those to whom they are ministering, and they wouldn’t possess a desire for a lifestyle that would separate them from those they are trying to reach for Christ.

As was discussed earlier, the Yanomamö are very comfortable with the reality of spirits all around them. As a result, it is easier to talk to them about Yai Pada as the creator of us all, even the other spirits. By sharing with them the truth of the love of God, they will learn that their picture of Yai Wana Naba Laywa is incorrect. The key would be to speak to them of Yai Pada not simply as another spirit – a spirit of love, but to speak to them of the Creator Spirit.

If he is simply a god of love, they would place him in their minds along side of all the other spirits they know and acknowledge. But if Yai Pada is the great creator spirit, He must be greater than all the other spirits! Once they understand that, we can then show them that he is not the enemy spirit who hates, but he is the Creator God who loves. That truth is what brought Shoefoot, and eventually Jungleman to a saving knowledge of Christ!

One of the most impressive things about Ritchie’s Spirit of the Rainforest is that he painted a picture of a violent, brutal and demonized people – yet he endeared them to us. All mankind is created in the Image of God. All people of every tribe, tongue and nation are precious to Him. It is easy for us to be disgusted with an individual for what they have they have done, or repulsed by a people group because their “societal norm” is so drastically different from ours. But we need to remember that the Imago Dei resides within all of us, and we have been called to share the message of Christ with the world. Not just those parts of the world where we are comfortable, but to every corner of this earth.

I am thankful for the missionaries that have made an eternal difference in the lives of the Yanomamö people, and to Mark Ritchie for taking us on a journey of understanding and hope. The message of the cross shines brightest where the darkness is the most deep.

Soli Deo Gloria
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Innerstrife | 6 outras críticas | Mar 27, 2009 |

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Obras
6
Membros
173
Popularidade
#123,688
Avaliação
½ 4.7
Críticas
7
ISBN
8
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1
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