Jagua eBook — Full Version

Front & End Matter:
TOC and Bibliography

pp. II-XI; 12; 193-211 • $0.00

A free download! Includes full Table of Contents, image credits, Author's Note and Acknowledgments, map of the Amazon River basin from Peru to Brazil, and Introduction.

Chapter One:
Jagua — the Prequel

pp. 13-26 • $1.99

The entertaining and humor-inflected story starts in the author's kitchen, where she and her husband, Pascal Giacomini, are in the thick of cooking up a batch of Jagua gel. But things quickly go into flashback mode as Carine Fabius thinks back on the good old henna days, when they first got into the temporary tattoo business, and how it led them to search for a way to create temporary body art that looks like a permanent tattoo. Learn a little history on henna and a henna harvesting operation; travel with them to Morocco and back to Los Angeles, where years later they find themselves on a similar journey — only to the Amazon jungle this time!

Chapter Two:
Jagua, the Movie

pp. 27-30 • $0.99

Meet the mysterious jagua fruit. Meet the mysterious Mr. X, who offers to guide Pascal up into the heart of the Amazon to encounter the Matsés people. When he leaves for his trip, Carine suggests that Pascal keep a journal to record his adventures. He agrees.

Chapter Three:
Pascal's Journal

pp. 31-53 • $2.99

Live the day-to-day trip with Pascal as, accompanied by Mr. X, the weirdo, he shops for his Indian hosts, takes an eight-hour canoe ride through dense jungle to the Matsés village, and spends two weeks with the community that will harvest the jagua fruit for the jagua tattoo kits back in the States.

Plus!...

• Visiting with the Matsés
  12 pages of stunning color photographs by Pascal Giacomini.
• Ahhh, Frog Sweat...
  A personal essay by award-winning investigative journalist Peter Gorman, who writes about being introduced by the Matsés to a potent frog poison, which he ingests via his bloodstream. Read all about his harrowing experience and the exciting scientific discoveries it leads to.
• My Life Among the Humans
  A personal essay by David W. Fleck, an American with a Ph.D. in linguistics who gives up life as he knows it to go live in the jungle with the Matsés. He still lives there today, and writes about how he made the decision to stay.

Chapter Four:
Bringing Jagua Home

pp. 75-79 • $0.99

Delve into the intricacies of creating the Earth Jagua gel; the nightmarish logistics of transporting the precious and rare jagua juice extract from one of the remotest corners of the Earth to urban Los Angeles; and a window into the challenging day-to-day lives of the indigenous Indians living in the Amazon today.

Chapter Five:
The Jagua Fruit

pp. 80-90 • $1.99

Everything you ever wanted to know about the jagua fruit, the tree, its flowers, and its many uses, along with an impressive list of medicinal properties, including its ability to save the life of anyone attacked by the dreaded, urethra-invading, bloodsucking Vampire Catfish of the Amazon! Yes, gentlemen, you may get to keep your penis after all.

Chapter Six:
Jagua Magic

pp. 91-106; 120-133 • $2.99

Beliefs and tales surrounding the jagua fruit abound in the Amazon! Need to acquire strength? Check. Protection from bad spirits? Check. Communicate with birds? Check. Shrink your enemy's head? Not a problem. The enigmatic fruit is also known to help reveal the truth, is the reason the sun shines so brightly in the sky, and can help a person become invisible, too. These are but a scant few of the legends revealed in this exhaustively researched chapter.

Plus!...

• The Kayapo
  Eight pages of noted photographer Cristina Mittermeier's gorgeous color photographs of the Kayapo, a group of indigenous Brazilian Indians who still apply jagua body art to their skin as an integral part of their daily lives.
• Indian Ink
  Cristina Mittermeier's personal essay — a thoughtful account describing her experience of being painted with jagua during her first visit with the Kayapo.

Chapter Seven:
Jagua Tattoos

pp. 149-169 • $1.99

Accompany the author to a tattoo convention, where people sporting the most extreme tattoos get her thinking about the motivations behind tattoos — whether temporary or permanent. A brief history of tattoos, followed by a look at the rise in popularity of tattoos today leads to study of and reflection on the important role that ink has played in humanity's endeavor to express itself.

Plus!...

• Jagua and Henna Tattoos
  12 pages of striking color photographs of body art by photographers Michel Bocandé, Jeff Dunas, Kevin Halbert, and Pascal Giacomini.

Chapter Eight:
Frequently Asked Questions about Jagua

pp. 170-176 • $0.99

Is it the same as henna? How does it work? How long does it last? Any side effects? Does it hurt? Does it work on dark skin? Does it stain fabric? These and many other questions are answered in full by the expert!

Supplement One:
Jagua People I 

pp. 107-119 • $2.99

First group of brief, up-to-date histories (as of Winter, 2009) of the indigenous groups who use or have used jagua for body ornamentation, as mentioned throughout the book, in order of appearance. Includes discussions of:

• The Matsés
• The Kayapo
• The Zapara (or Sapara)
• The Shuar (or Jivaro)
• The Tsachila
• The Embera-Waounan (formerly the Chocos)
• The Yucuna (or Yukuna)
• The Kuna

Supplement Two:
Jagua People II 

pp. 134-148 • $2.99

Second group of brief, up-to-date histories (as of Winter, 2009) of the indigenous groups who use or have used jagua for body ornamentation, as mentioned throughout the book, in order of appearance. Includes discussions of:

• The Yuqui
• The Tikuna (or Ticuna)
• The Yagua
• Tha Arakmbut
• The Ka'apor (or Urubu)
• The Canelos-Quichua (or Quchua of Pastaza)
• The Shipibo-Conibo

Appendix I:
Amazonia — Land of Jagua

pp. 177-183 • $1.99

Welcome to Amazon 101! How big is the world's biggest rainforest, and how long is its most colossal cascade of water? How many countries does the Amazon cover? How many different species of plants, birds, fish, mammals, and insects live in the rainforest? What are the weather patterns and population figures? Why is this region so important? And what of the indigenous people who live there? What do they think about all this attention? Find the answers to these and many more questions in this primer on the source of the jagua fruit.

Appendix II
Tales from the Amazon

pp. 184-192 • $1.99

While working on Jagua, A Journey into Body Art from the Amazon, the author stumbled upon a number of tales relating to both the giant anaconda snake and the mythology of the Amazon's pink river dolphin. These stories, widely embraced by nearly all rainforest natives, help shed light on the uniquely charming personality of the Amazon, and help further explain the culture from which the jagua fruit springs.

Plus!...

• Fauna and Wildlife in the Amazon
  Eight pages of spectacular full-color images by various photographers.