Voyage au Tapajoz - Coudreau, Henri Anatole

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Résumé :
Henri Coudreau's 1897 Voyage au Tapajoz testifies to the author's experience as explorer, geologist, and anthropologist as it comprehensively charts his progress along an Amazonian tributary. This fascinating and intelligent account of the villages, peoples, and environs of the Tapajoz assures Coudreau's place as one of the last great explorers.

Sommaire:
In the first of three exploratory missions into the Amazon basin, the French explorer, geologist, and scholar Henri Coudreau spent nearly seven months on the Tapajoz river, from 28 July 1895 to 7 January 1896. Coudreau was working as a teacher and scientist in French Guyana when he was commissioned by the governor of Brazil's Par? state to explore the Amazon's tributaries. His 1897 Voyage au Tapajoz carefully records the villages, towns, peoples, and environs encountered throughout his journey. Illustrations, meteorological tables, and vocabularies of indigenous languages demonstrate Coudreau's wide-ranging interests and observations and his rigorous approach to data collection. He also includes poetic detail, describing, for instance, 'un ciel du matin d'une douceur exquise'. This allows the reader to enter into Coudreau's sensory and affective experiences, and makes the book an enjoyable travelogue as well as a thorough scientific report....