So they ate the earth: a collective ethnography of forest destruction

Abstract

This review analyzes the work Diários Yanomami: Testemunhos da destruição da floresta, organized by Corrado Dalmonego, Estevão Senra and Alcida Ramos. A product of the participatory action-research project “Urihi a temi: Saúde e meio ambiente na TI Yanomami”, involving Yanomami researchers and their communities, the work presents a collection of texts produced between 2021 and 2023, aiming to bring to light the indigenous experience and interpretation of the process of illegal mining invasion. In this review, I examine some of the main testimonies presented in the collection, showing how, through a myriad of details resulting from the methodological freedom granted to Yanomami research, the work explores the devastating consequences of the exploitation and environmental degradation caused by illegal mining, offering as a result a collective ethnography that is also a mediation between worlds.