Spanish / Argentina
Origen
(Origin)
Cardozo, Nat
(text/illus.)
Ferrada, María José
(ed.)
Buenos Aires [et al.]: Libros del Zorro Rojo, [2023]. – 55 p.
ISBN 978-987-8998-10-7
Indigenous people | Origin | Nature | Non-fiction
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2024
Books about ethnology and anthropology can be challenging because of the danger of exoticizing »the other« as something »foreign«. In »Origen« Nat Cardozo succeeds exemplarily in introducing the reader to 22 ethnic groups from different parts of the globe. By taking the narrative approach of the first-person plural, each ethnic group is able to introduce itself, as it were, rather than being »put on display«. In double-paged chapters about the more well-known peoples, such as the Cherokee or the Tuareg, and lesser-known, such as the Orang Rimba or the Bijagó, the texts do not consist primarily of the usual figures and facts, but rather focus on how closely these peoples – some of whose very existence and cultural integrity are now threatened – are connected to their natural surroundings and what this bond means to them. This is impressively shown in the examples of their languages, rituals or myths. For each chapter, a full-page colour portrait of a child underscores the indivisible unity between man and nature. [JW]