Seducing the Spirits
Synopsis:
Jenny Dunfre is a graduate student in tropical ornithology who, because of a sexual indiscretion, is banished from her relatively staid appointment at research compound near the Panama Canal to a field site so remote that the only people she has contact with are the residents of a nearby indigenous community, the Kunas. Her touchstone for handling the dodgy social situation she's thrust into is a parting shot from her superior: "Don't piss anyone off." Knowing nothing of Kuna culture, language, or tradition, Jenny has problems with the community from the beginning. She also has trouble with her study, which is supposed to focus on a pair of nesting harpy eagles but as far as Jenny can tell the eagles that inhabit her site are not harpies but another species entirely. As Jenny muddles through her assignment, she gradually becomes acquainted with members of the community who nudge her toward greater understanding, not only of the Kuna's traditional culture, but of the intricate web of species in the rainforest, and her relationship as an outsider to both the human and animal components of the forest. Through Jenny's eyes, the reader is drawn into Kuna culture and its struggle to retain a traditional identity in the face of erosion from both outside and within the community.
Book Excerpt:
In the uneasy hour before dawn, the jungle surrounding the reseach compound steams like the exhale of a sleeping, warm-blooded animal. Crickets mutter. Distance mellows the roars of a howler monkey into something vaguely human. Moths bewitch bats and are in turn betrayed by the lights of the jeep that waits in the clearing behind the dormitory. Their wings ghost at my hair as I heave the last of my duffle into the back seat, swing my leg over the rusted metal of the passenger's door, and hop inside.
Reilly's eyes, green like a bug's in the dashboard's glow, flash toward me. "I expected Calabrese to be out here to see you off."
I swipe my hand to chase the moths in front of my face but they ride the wake and return thicker than before. "Wouldn't that imply that he has some compassion, some conscience, some -- maybe one ounce -- of humanity? And balls too, for that matter. You think he has any of those?"
As if in response, the howler monkey lets loose with a full-throated bellow. Reilly glances at me again. "I guess you'd know more about that than I would -- especially the last one. You don't want to wait?"
"I just want to get out of here. Now."
Topics/Categories:
Indigenous Culture, intercultural relations, Nature, ornithology
Genre:
Type of Work:
Publishers:
Original Publish Date:
November 1, 2009
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