Jungle Garden

Yves Meynard · 17 Apr 2003, 00:42 · from urth-v0304.mbox · original

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From: Yves Meynard <ymeynard at globetrotter.net>
Subject: (urth) Jungle Garden
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 20:42:11 -0400
Message-ID: <urth-v0304-3201 at digest.urth.net>
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Dan'l Danehy-Oakes writes:

> I recall a while back there was an argument that the Jungle Garden
> scene was connected somehow to the South America of roughly-our-time.
> In fact, it must be Africa, because Isangoma -- or iSangoma or
> isaNngoma -- is a Zulu title for a diviner.

OK, but what about when Isangoma says:

"[The Proud One's] breath is the mist that hides the infant uakaris=3D20
from the claws of the margay!"

(p.160 in my Pocket edition of _Shadow_)

 =3D46rom  http://ds.dial.pipex.com/agarman/margay.htm :

The Margay, also known as the Long Tailed Spotted Cat, is similar in=3D20
appearance to the Ocelot - its body however is smaller, growing up two=3D20=
=3D

25-27 inches and in comparison with the Ocelot, the margay displays=3D20
longer legs and tail.

The range of the margay extends from Mexico down through Peru, parts of=3D2=
0=3D

Paraguay to the northern areas of Argentina.

 =3D46rom http://www.animalinfo.org/species/primate/cacacalv.htm :

The red uakari is a medium-sized monkey weighing about 4 kg (9 lb). [=3D85]=
=3D20=3D

The red uakari is found in flooded swamp forests of Amazonia in Brazil,=3D2=
0=3D

Colombia and Peru.

 =3D46rom http://www.animalinfo.org/species/primate/cacamela.htm :
The black uakari is found in the northern Amazon basin in Brazil,=3D20
Colombia and Venezuela.

This seems to point rather strongly to a South-American context.

Still, as Dan'l writes:

> So I'm thinking that they don't come from the "real"
> South Africa at all, but from the South Africa of jungle movies.

Or more generally speaking, from the jungle country of jungle movies,=3D20
that obscenely fecund, oppressively green realm that seems firmly=3D20
rooted in our 20th-century subconscious, without any need for external=3D20=
=3D

validation -- or consistency.

Yves Meynard


--=20

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