Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians

Pierre Clastres (1934-1979) was one of the most respected political anthropologistsof our time. Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians is an account of his first fieldwork in the early1960s--an encounter with a small, unique, and now vanished Paraguayan tribe. From "Birth" to "TheEnd," Clastres follows the Guayakis in their everyday lives, determined to record every detail oftheir history, ritual, myths, and culture in order to answer the many questions prompted by hispersonal experiences. Now available for the first time in English in a beautiful translation by thenovelist Paul Auster, Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians will alter radically not only the Westernacademic conventions in which other cultures are thought but also the discipline of politicalanthropology itself.