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- Saving Jungle Souls
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- Homelands Productions
A sound-rich profile of Ataiba, chief of one of the last bands of nomads in the Americas, as he leaves the Bolivian jungle to live with evangelical missionaries. The story is told by Ataiba and the missionaries from starkly different points of view. Part of the Vanishing Homelands series, chronicling the dramatic changes to land and culture across the Americas.
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Piece Description
A sound-rich profile of Ataiba, chief of one of the last bands of nomads in the Americas, as he leaves the Bolivian jungle to live with evangelical missionaries. The story is told by Ataiba and the missionaries from starkly different points of view. Part of the Vanishing Homelands series, chronicling the dramatic changes to land and culture across the Americas.
2 Comments
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Review of Saving Jungle SoulsWonderfully produced documentary that reminds you why it's so essential to get the right sound for your piece. The subject was disturbing to me, but that's a personal issue and not to take away from the story at hand. This piece speaks to you -- as though you are the only person experiencing this story. The producers were very effective by presenting two sides, two different points of viewl, by the evangelical missionaries and by Ataiba, the chief of the nomadic tribe he's just left. Powerful. |
Broadcast History
First broadcast in 1991 on NPR
Timing and Cues
HOST INTRO (audio not provided): On Friday, October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus wrote in his journal, "At dawn we saw naked people." It was the day Columbus and his men walked upon a new world for the first time. They planted flags with crosses on a small island in the Bahamas. He gave the natives red hats and glass beads. "These Indians," he wrote, "ought to make good and skilled servants. They could easily be made into Christians." Today, just as in the time of Columbus, Christian missionaries bearing gifts and promises of salvation venture into the world's last hidden outposts to try to save the lost souls. Producers Sandy Tolan and Nancy Postero bring us the story of the Yuqui [YOO-kee] Indians, 130 forest dwelling nomads in central Bolivia, and of the evangelical Christians who coaxed them out of the jungle.
OUTRO: That piece was produced by Sandy Tolan and Nancy Postero of Homelands Productions. For more information, go to www.homelands.org.
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Anna Magarian
Posted on August 30, 2011 at 06:43 PM | Permalink
Beautifully produced, unfortunately one-sided
This is a beautifully produced, very compelling story of the missionization of a group of people in the Bolivian rainforest. Unfortunately, although the producer seemed to try to represent the Yukui people, only a single, converted, Yukui person is interviewed. He and his community are described using the relatively racist (paternalistic) terms that the missionaries themselves use. The Yukui are described as primitive, and are portrayed as benefitting from the destruction of the rainforest and the (relatively violent) imposition of Christianity. The story portrays only one side of the encounter, erasing the Yukui people's agency and intelligence, painting them as primitive heathens who were lucky to be yanked out of the forest and introduced to Jesus Christ.