Spirits of the jaguar: the natural history and ancient civilizations of the caribbean and central america

Central America and the Caribbean lay claim to some of the world’s greatest biological riches. BBC producer Reddish proposes that through the shifting of continental plates, the land moved to where the plants and animals already existed. This companion volume to the PBS series charts the history of these regions from their drifting land masses to the arrival and evolution of exotic inhabitants, including humans. Human impact has been both a blessing and a curse: the greatest civilizations of the New World, the Maya and the Aztecs, were shaped by the regions’ animals (jaguars and quetzals) and volcanoes, while Europeans brought advanced technology and new domesticated plants and animals as well as disease, slavery, and death. Enhanced by beautiful color photographs, this book covers the same material as Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel (LJ 2/15/97) and David Rains Wallace’s The Monkey’s Bridge (LJ 8/97), yet it is ultimately more informative for the general reader.? Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., Kan.