For ten years, author Lucas Bessire pursued the Black Caiman; however “every time [he] came close, the Caiman slipped away” (224) In Behold the Black Caiman, he describes the Caiman as a dark ghost formed by:
“The terror of savagery, by the world-ending violence relentlessly stalking… Indigenous populations and the New Worlds they have tentatively remade… by renewed desires to protect the last primitives and the ontological alterity they purportedly embody…” (xi)
The Indians were in the midst of the Black Caiman, yet they did not comprehend it. To my understanding, Bessire’s reason of his pursuit is to halt the Caiman from further “stalking” and leaving the already diminishing Ayoreo people in ruins. This book is about encounter, experience …show more content…
Behold the Black Caiman recounts the disintegration of Ayoreo culture, and the onslaught of poverty, disease, and discrimination that ensued after contact. Their story was a story of conflict. Contact itself was a debate about the ways and values of the Ayoreo people. Some critiqued that this was an act of exploitation that led to a future of disparity; yet, the one thing that is most bewildering of them all is that the Ayoreo Indians themselves claimed that they wished to be integrated into the modern society and live new lives. Bessire clearly notes that “witnessing meant taking a side,” and, in the beginning of his field work, the author strongly suggested that contact steered the Ayoreo towards victimization and ethnocide (89). The author insistently looked for any kind of backlash that the Ayoreo might have felt after what had been done to them and the trauma they experienced. However, many Ayoreos rejected this claim even after years they had been captured. For example, Aasi explains that “before [they] were always scared, [but] now [they] were happy” and also in favor of tracking the rest of Ayoreo down (90). Bessire ruled out that the Indians were not exactly trying to appease the missionaries nor could he pinpoint that …show more content…
The belief that they will one day transform into “prosperous, white-skinned, celestial beings… and have a New Body [that] will never die” (127). Maybe, traditional Ayoreo culture and evangelical Christianity were not mutually exclusive. Instead, Christianity had something to offer to their ayipie that the Ayoreo always desired. Apocalypticism had something to offer and that it provided an opportunity for self- transformation. Yet, as I agree with what Bessire says, this was so terrifying that their foundation of optimism was based on the Ayoreo’s inescapable future of marginalization and devastation. The Ayoreo people held the belief that God hated them before contact; they “were worthless and ignorant;” and the New World brought power and knowledge (137). In my opinion, this was the epitome of the Black Caiman. Their thoughts and beliefs haunted and hunted them down. They developed their own version of self-transformation that far surpassed the evangelical aspirations of Ayoreo
“The terror of savagery, by the world-ending violence relentlessly stalking… Indigenous populations and the New Worlds they have tentatively remade… by renewed desires to protect the last primitives and the ontological alterity they purportedly embody…” (xi)
The Indians were in the midst of the Black Caiman, yet they did not comprehend it. To my understanding, Bessire’s reason of his pursuit is to halt the Caiman from further “stalking” and leaving the already diminishing Ayoreo people in ruins. This book is about encounter, experience …show more content…
Behold the Black Caiman recounts the disintegration of Ayoreo culture, and the onslaught of poverty, disease, and discrimination that ensued after contact. Their story was a story of conflict. Contact itself was a debate about the ways and values of the Ayoreo people. Some critiqued that this was an act of exploitation that led to a future of disparity; yet, the one thing that is most bewildering of them all is that the Ayoreo Indians themselves claimed that they wished to be integrated into the modern society and live new lives. Bessire clearly notes that “witnessing meant taking a side,” and, in the beginning of his field work, the author strongly suggested that contact steered the Ayoreo towards victimization and ethnocide (89). The author insistently looked for any kind of backlash that the Ayoreo might have felt after what had been done to them and the trauma they experienced. However, many Ayoreos rejected this claim even after years they had been captured. For example, Aasi explains that “before [they] were always scared, [but] now [they] were happy” and also in favor of tracking the rest of Ayoreo down (90). Bessire ruled out that the Indians were not exactly trying to appease the missionaries nor could he pinpoint that …show more content…
The belief that they will one day transform into “prosperous, white-skinned, celestial beings… and have a New Body [that] will never die” (127). Maybe, traditional Ayoreo culture and evangelical Christianity were not mutually exclusive. Instead, Christianity had something to offer to their ayipie that the Ayoreo always desired. Apocalypticism had something to offer and that it provided an opportunity for self- transformation. Yet, as I agree with what Bessire says, this was so terrifying that their foundation of optimism was based on the Ayoreo’s inescapable future of marginalization and devastation. The Ayoreo people held the belief that God hated them before contact; they “were worthless and ignorant;” and the New World brought power and knowledge (137). In my opinion, this was the epitome of the Black Caiman. Their thoughts and beliefs haunted and hunted them down. They developed their own version of self-transformation that far surpassed the evangelical aspirations of Ayoreo