Tobias Schneebaum (1922–2005)

Completely dissatisfied with the 1999 documentary of the same name, I decided to pick up Tobias Schneebaum's book "Keep the River on Your Right" to learn more about his experiences in Peru myself.

In the mid-1950's Schneebaum walked into the jungle in search of acceptance and became a member of a tribe of cannibals. He lived amongst them, naked, painted and yes, eating flesh from their dead enemies, for more than seven months before he turned around and walked back out to civilization.

The book is less an interesting anthropological study than a look at Schneebaum himself -- he finds it easier to say that he was a cannibal than to say he is a gay man who fled a 1950's society that wouldn't accept him. His sexuality is very much up front throughout the book, but he never addresses it head on.

He paints a rather romantic view of the "noble savages" who accept him into their tribe, despite their raid of another camp, where they murder the men and kidnap women and children.

If you're looking for a ton of information about Peruvian tribes, this book isn't it. However, it is a fascinating look at the lengths a man will travel to find a place to fit in and belong.… (mais)

The synopsis sounded like semi-dry anthropology describing an undocumented tribe in the Peruvian jungle. But Schneebaum is not and anthropologist, he's an artist. Rather than objectively documenting a culture, he strips down and joins them and is welcomed into their life. He joined the Akaramas for seven months in 1955. He indulges in cannibalism, but it's not meant to shock. His story about self-exploration and discovery. His sexuality is a subtext throughout. With no interest in the '50s mainstream culture, he craves exploration and escape into a world with no familiar rules. One of the final chapters is the text of a letter from another man engaging in similar explorations with a much different result. Deeper than the cover suggests.… (mais)

I have mixed feelings about this book. The story is compelling and Schneebaum's nearly hypnotic style really conveys his sense of living in the moment. However, I wasn't sure that he quite understood his relationship with his adopted Arakmbut community. After all, he was able to turn up there one day and then, some years later, to just leave; his companions could no more turn up in Schneebaum's Manhattan than he himself could casually arrive on the moon. Schneebaum was respectful and admiring of his Amazonian family, but his insistence that the Arakmbut way of life reflected his true self is only possible because he had another, "modern", world to reject. He certainly understood that his cultural background set him apart from his adopted people, but he never seemed to grasp the full implications.… (mais)