The People

Contents

Amazon Indians

Caboclos

Goldminers &
Prospectors

City Dwellers

Sertanistas

The Incas

Rubber Barons

The Brazilians

Related
Information

Indigenous Culture

Yanomami 1

Yanomami 2

Yanomami 3

Indians

Early Amazon Cultures

The Amazon Indians

There are many different Indian tribes living in and around Amaz⌠nia. Historians believe that there were about two million Indians living in Amaz⌠nia when Europeans first arrived. Nowadays it is estimated that there are 200,000 Indians left living in the rainforests of the territory – though many caboclos also have Indian heritage.

History

The American Indians originally came from Asia. They crossed the Bering Strait, separating Siberia and Alaska, during the ice age, about 35,000 years ago. There was once a small bridge of land across the Strait which connected Asia and North America together. Animals such as mammoths and buffalo crossed over the land bridge, with early hunters following after them. These early Americans gradually moved southwards where the weather was warmer and the hunting was better. The facial features of American Indians still have much in common with their Asian ancestors.

Scientists believe that Indians first arrived in Amaz⌠nia about 15,000 years ago. This date coincides with the disappearance of several large animals, such as the giant ground sloth and the native American horse, which used to inhabit the Amazon and were probably the Indians' first major source of food. The Indians also hunted smaller animals such as monkeys and tapir, and lived off the fruits of the rainforest in much the same way as the remaining Amazon Indian tribes live today. It is believed that Indians also played a significant role in altering the balance of life in the rainforest environment – cultivating numerous plants within the forest.

Although Indians in the Amazon practised agriculture on a small scale, their agriculture was never as advanced at that of the Incas or Aztecs – which is probably why Amazon Indian culture never reached the highly organised state of these other cultures. There are stories of advanced civilisations and lost cities in Amazon rainforest, but little significant evidence has been found (with the exception of ruins from the Incas and other cultures already known about).

Some of the tribes in Amaz⌠nia include the Yanomami, Bororo, Tucano, Wai-Wai, Kayap≤, and SaterΘ-MauΘ. Each tribe has its own customs and beliefs.

Village Life

Most Amazon Indians live in small villages in the rainforest. Some Indians make their village close to rivers so that they are close to fishing and can easily travel by canoe. Other Indians tribes build their villages in the rainforest interior, away from the rivers.

The villages have areas set aside for cultivating gardens containing plants such as bananas and manioc. Manioc (or cassava roots) are used for making flour for bread, and can also be fermented to produce a kind of beer used for celebrations. Unfortunately, knowing the production of this beer puts most Europeans off drinking it – the roots are crushed and soaked in water (to remove the poisonous juice) then chewed and spat into a vat. The manioc root mixed with human saliva ferments to produce an alcoholic beverage.

Amazon Indians first practised "slash and burn agriculture". This isn't as bad as it sounds. The Indians need land for growing fruit, nuts, manioc and other plants. So they cut down trees on a small area of land near the village, then burn the remaining plants so that the ashes go into the soil – acting as a fertiliser. This land provides an ideal garden for about three years, until nutrients in the soil begin to run out. At this point the Indians abandon the garden, allowing it to return to natural rainforest, and clear another area for cultivation instead. Because the areas that the Indians clear are very small, it is easy for the rainforest to grow back over them – allowing the land to recover and returning nutrients back into the soil. Unfortunately, this method doesn't work for the large areas of land cleared by by settlers because it is too difficult for the rainforest to grow back on large cleared areas.

The Indians' other major sources of food are through hunting and fishing. Common foods include monkeys, birds, tapir, jacarΘ, capybara and peccary (a type of wild pig). Hunting missions may take several days – and are generally a men-only activity. Some Indian tribes also used to keep animals such as turtles in pens close to the village

Family structures in the village are very important. Village elders are also valued for their advice and experience. Contrary to popular belief, the villages don't have a Chief – all decisions affecting the village are discussed, and actions are decided on jointly by the community.

Most tribes have special rituals to mark adulthood when children reach a certain age. Some of these rituals require the participants to pass certain tests. For example, young males in the SaterΘ-MauΘ tribe must put their hand into a bag full of tocarinda ants. These ants have an extremely painful bite, and young males participating in the ceremony will only be regarded as men if they can withstand the terrible pain of the ants biting them without screaming or wincing. Young women reaching adulthood in some tribes are kept separate from the rest of the tribe for a few days prior to their initiation, and are then are accepted back into the tribe in a ceremony which involves dances and song.

One of the strangest rituals in Indian tribes are the funeral rites of the Yanomami tribe. The bodies of honoured dead are cremated until only the bones are left. These bones are then crushed and finely ground. The powered bone is mixed into a banana soup to be eaten by the dead person's family and friends.

Weapons and tools

Indians have a variety of tools and weapons. The most commonly used weapons for hunting are the bow and arrow, spear, and the blow-gun. Indian blow-guns can be up to 2 metres long, and is surprising how hunters seem to handle them so easily when moving through the rainforest – but they are very accurate and very useful weapons. The blow-darts are usually tipped with poison, such as curare, which will quickly paralyse and kill animals but which somehow doesn't affect people eating meat from the animal.

Indians also use other tools for grinding manioc into flour and carving trees for canoes. Metal tools were unknown to the Amazon Indians prior to the arrival of Europeans. Instead, tools were made from wood, stone, and animal bone. For example, piranha jawbones were sometimes used as scissors due to the piranha's sharp teeth.

Steel axes were a huge improvement over the Indians' own tools and were greatly valued as a trading item – they are still used as gift and trade items today whenever a remote Indian tribe is first contacted.

Love and War

Some Indian tribes have a reputation for being very warlike, whereas other tribes are friendly and hospitable to their visitors. Different tribes behave differently. When making first contact with new tribes, scientists and researchers have to be very careful – because it isn't unknown for remote Indian tribes to attack and kill strangers passing through their territory. However, these days, Indian attacks are very rare.

It used to be common for Indians of different tribes, who were living close together, to engage in periodic warfare – raiding each others' villages, stealing food, women and children, and taking revenge for past aggressions. Warfare was almost like a sport – where young men could prove their manhood and fighting skills. Weapons included clubs, and poison arrows and blowdarts.

Love is also another Indian preoccupation. Indians are reputed to fall into and out of love very quickly, and their relationships are a significant factor in Indian society. Most Indian men have only one wife – although men of high status or with sufficient resources sometimes have more than one. It depends on the custom of each tribe. Competition among men for women, and among women for men, can be very fierce – occasionally resulting in conflicts. Marriage and relationships in Indian society start very young.

Indian Beliefs

Indians have a strong belief in spirits, curses, and magic. The most powerful person in the tribe is the shaman, or witch-doctor.

Shamans claim to communicate with spirits – fighting demons and helping to cure the sick. Some shamans are said to be able to transform themselves into animals and to leave their bodies so that they can visit far-off places without ever travelling there. Shamans are sought after for their help and advice for medical and spiritual matters (and their reputed ability to predict the future). They are feared for their ability to evoke curses and cause evil.

Perhaps the shamans greatest power is their detailed knowledge of the poisons and medicines to be found in the rainforest. These come from plants, animals, and even mud and soil. It is the shaman's duty to pass this knowledge onto an apprentice so that the knowledge can be preserved and added for future generations. The unfortunately, the extinction of some tribes, and the drastic decline in others, has led to much of this valuable information being lost.

Rituals are very important to the shaman. Many of the ceremonies involve the shaman smoking or inhaling substances which put the shaman into a trance-like state and cause hallucinations. The shaman have to be very careful because too much of these drugs may kill them. It is during these trances that the shaman claim to do most of their communication with the spirits.

Contact with Europeans

The arrival of Europeans caused many problems for the Amazon Indians, just as it did for Indians elsewhere in the Americas. The first European explorers were conquistadors who arrived as part of the conquests. They were greedy for gold, exotic spices, and anything else of value. They treated the Indians very cruelly and without mercy. Some tribes accepted the Europeans as guests, whereas other fought valiantly against them – eager to drive out the new invaders. Other Europeans arrived later as settlers and, in later centuries, as scientists eager to discover the hidden secrets of the rainforest.

For the Indians, the arrival of Europeans was a disaster. The settlers often captured Indians for use as slave labour, and a series of bitter wars lasted for centuries in which thousands of innocent (and non-hostile) Indians were slaughtered. But the bigger killer of Indians were the new diseases that Europeans brought along with them. Diseases such as smallpox, tuberculosis, and malaria swept through the rainforests – claiming millions of victims over the centuries.

The loss of land, culture, and cruelty at the hands of Europeans changes the Indians lives forever. Of the tribes that lived in Amaz⌠nia when Europeans first arrived, only a handful survive today. Today they are still under threat from settlers after more land, goldminers and mining companies, logging companies, roadbuilders, and companies building dams for electricity generation. The Indians' environment is sometimes also poisoned by pollution caused from modern industry.

To help protect the Indians, the governments of some Amazon basin countries have set aside reserves for the Indians where only limited development is allowed to take place

The biggest step forward in Indian rights took place with the creation of the Brazilian Indian Protection Service (now FUNAI) in 1910. It was headed by CΓndido Rondon, who is now one of Brazil's national heroes. The Indians were given the legal status of "minors" – where they were regarded as Brazilian citizens who the State had the duty to care for. However, this status didn't give them the right to vote since the Indians were regarded as too inexperienced in the ways of the modern world.

Today, many scientists from all over the world visit Amaz⌠nia to learn more about its native people and cultures. There is increasing awareness all over the world concerning the Amazon Indians, their struggle with developers, and their role as guardians of the rainforest. Some Indian leaders have become skilled political leaders, able to fight for their cause in the modern world.