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Glossary

Bulletin 4 – 11 August 1997

Telecom Amazon Adventure Update

Update from Andrew

Hi. It's just a short note from me this week because I'm off in Manu Reserve exploring virgin rainforest, and perhaps even meeting some Amazon Indians. The Indians who live in Manu still have their old traditions, and their lives haven't changed much for thousands of years, so it'll give me a taste of what life was like for the first explorers in South America.

I'm going to be out of telephone contact, so this week's audioconference will be handled by Joe Kane. Joe was in the first team to travel the entire length of the Amazon, so I'm sure he'll have lots of exciting tales to tell. (There's more information about Joe later in the bulletin.)

My past week in Cuzco has been very exciting. It took me a while to get used to the altitude (and I still get breathless when I try to climb hills), but I'm surviving okay. I went horse-riding through the Andes and explored some old Inca ruins. My journey took me through lots of little villages where the people wore colourful traditional clothes and talked in a language called Quechua. The Inca ruins were really impressive - some of the individual stones used in their buildings were twice as tall as I am (and I'm pretty tall). The Incas didn't use mortar to stick stones together like we would - instead they cut the rocks to fit together perfectly, almost like a giant jigsaw.

What I am most looking forward to is my trip to Machu Picchu tomorrow (before I go to Manu Reserve). It is an ancient Inca city and is supposed to be one of the most impressive sights in South America. I tried to get a train ticket on the special Andean train that climbs the mountains – I waited a total of six hours, and each time I got near the front of the queue, the ticket booth closed! I was so frustrated I booked a helicopter ticket instead. It's a little more expensive, but it will be very fun and take less time - 25 minutes compared with the four hour train ride.

I'm looking forward to talking to you in my next audioconferences on 20 August.

Talk to you soon,

Andrew

All about ancient civilisations

Civilisation began in the Andes Mountains about 6,000 years ago. “Civilisation” was when people learned how to overcome the whims of nature and take control of their own lives. This meant the development of agriculture – planting crops and raising animals on farms - instead of relying on gathering wild plants or hunting animals in the forest. It also meant building towns and cities, which provided a more comfortable life and safer communities for children.

Although the Incas are the most famous of the Andean civilisations, they were simply the last (and biggest) of the pre-European civilisations in the Americas. Their history was very brief, lasting only a couple of hundred years. Much of the Incas’ success was dependent on the achievements of other smaller civilisations which came before them. Visitors to Peru can still see the ancient cities and artifacts left behind by these older cultures – the Chavin left impressive stone carvings; the Mochica left pottery and ceramics; the Nazca cut huge patterns in the high plateaux where they lived; and the Tiahuanaco and Chimu built great cities and monuments. It seems the inhabitants of the Andes have always been nervous about strangers and mixing with other neighbouring civilisations – which is why many different civilisations grew up in the same area, but remained isolated from each other. However, they all shared a dependence on agriculture.

Once essential skills like producing food and building houses had been learnt, most cultures discovered they had more free time to pursue other activities. They began to experiment with art – writing music and stories, making pottery, textiles, pictures, carvings and other goods. Because these artifacts depict scenes from everyday life, or significant events in the lives of the people who created them, they are a good way for us to learn about ancient cultures. The most impressive Amazônian artifacts are made from gold washed from the sands of Andean rivers and streams, then melted down and hammered into shape to make masks, decorations, and figurines.

Next time you visit a museum, you might see a whole lot of dusty old artifacts, and might not think very much of them. But if you look more closely, these artifacts tell a story about how people used to live. Anyway, here's some more information about the Incas' lives.

Inca religion and culture

Religion was a strong part of the Incas’ lives. The Incas worshipped the sun, and believed the ruling Inca was a direct descendant of the sun god. There were many regular festivals and events where communities gathered together to give thanks for the harvest or request good fortune for the coming year. Inca temples were impressive. They were decorated with dazzling displays of gold to mimic the sun’s radiance.

Religion also created the Incas’ harshest enemies because it involved gruesome sacrifices of people and animals. The sacrifice of someone young and beautiful was meant protect the ruling Inca from illness and ensure his long life. The sacrifice bestowed great prestige on the victim’s family – the victims were given great honours and came from privileged backgrounds. Victims were killed by burying them in a cave, or throwing them off high cliffs or mountains.

Newly conquered tribes were greatly opposed to these sacrifices and fought bitterly against them. The sacrifice of animals was more common and strict rules governed which animals were to be sacrificed. (There is a report of more than 10,000 llamas being sacrificed in a single
ceremony at Cuzco.)

The people of the Andes had other ancient traditions of worshipping other gods and huacas. A huaca represented many different things, but was usually a small temple or sacred place where people gathered or left offerings to the spirits. At one time, priests called orejones (“long-eared ones” because of their heavy gold earrings) wandered throughout the empire claiming to represent different gods and spirits. Worried about the increasing power of the orejones, Inca Pachacuti decreed that there should only be one all-powerful god, the Sun, represented by him. This was greatly debated throughout the empire, but the emperor got his way.

As the Inca empire expanded, it encountered many other people with different religions and beliefs. These tribes were pressured into giving up their old religions, traditions, and language – and had to accept the Incas’ religion, traditions and language (Quechua).

Other Inca traditions

There were other traditions within the Incas’ society. Many of these came from ancient beliefs pre-dating the Inca empire.

The Incas worshipped their dead ancestors in ways we would consider strange. They believed the dead were still part of the community and should be included in celebrations and ceremonies. When important family members died, their bodies were mummified and preserved. Maintaining the goodwill of ancestors was so important that their bodies were presented with fine clothes, offered food and drink, and were provided with houses and palaces complete with servants. At important events, the dead were carried through the streets in processions, seated on golden chairs, and then taken to feasts and provided with food and entertainment.

Another gruesome part of the Incas’ culture was the practise of skull deformation. This involved tightly strapping boards to some children’s heads when they were very young. The boards would be left in place, forcing the children’s heads to grow in an unnatural way, so that their skulls were deformed into an elongated (almost pointed) shape. This was regarded as a symbol of prestige and beauty.

The Lost City – Machu Picchu

In 1911, an American explorer called Hiram Bingham made an exciting discovery, which made headlines around the world. Bingham had heard rumours of an ancient city hidden in the mountains, and had set off on a long quest through wild jungles and up mountain peaks to find it. But the ruins were so well hidden not even the locals knew where they were. Finally, in July 1911, a small boy acting as a guide led Bingham’s team up a mountain and on to a stone path which was overgrown and hidden by the jungle. At the top of this path they discovered the ancient Inca city, Machu Picchu.

Today, Machu Picchu is the best known of all the Inca sites. Access to it has now been cleared and it is visited by more people than any other site in South America.

No one really knows why Machu Picchu was built. It is set in a very remote location, and isn’t likely to have played a major role in the Inca empire. It is thought that construction of the city was ordered by Pachacuti Inca, as a royal retreat or as a religious estate, around the year 1460. Its existence is thought to have been a secret. It is likely that the estate passed into the hands of Pachacuti’s most trusted family members after his death, and that Machu Picchu was occasionally visited by other Inca rulers, until the Spanish conquest. With the exception of those living in the city, very few other people would have known of its existence since people needed official permission to travel within the Inca empire.

When Manco Tupac (also called Manco Inca) began his war against the Spaniards in 1536, a few people may have remembered the city and it is possible that Machu Picchu was used as a hide-out for Manco’s army. He and his army operated from many mountain hide-outs in and around the area. Despite Manco’s brave efforts, the Spanish onslaught was too much, and Manco’s army was driven back into the jungle to another place called Vilcabamba, that was the last Inca stronghold.

Following this event, the ancient city of Machu Picchu became uninhabited and was forgotten about. Without people living in the city and maintaining it, the surrounding jungle closed in and covered over Machu Picchu, leaving it well hidden for many centuries.

The buildings and stonework of Machu Picchu were very well-made – indicating that the city probably had religious significance. Several graves have also been found nearby. The city’s structures include houses, temples, gardens, a royal palace, and ceremonial baths. It may once have supported about 2,000 people.

There are reports of other exciting discoveries in the jungles nearby – including a second city (called Maranpampa) which was discovered in 1986. Archaeologists are currently working on this city and believe that it may be even bigger than Machu Picchu.

Win, Win, Win

Telecom's Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity Competition

Tell us how you're using technology as part of your Amazon studies and you'll be in with a chance to win some beautiful books about the Amazon, donated by Andrew Mercer. Andrew used the books to research his trip. They're in excellent condition and he wanted schools to be able to use them too.

There are six books to be won, so we've divided New Zealand into six regions:

Northern North Island

Central North Island

Wellington region

Nelson, Marlborough West Coast, Buller

Canterbury

Otago, Southland

The class in each region with the most innovative use of information technology as part of their Amazon studies will win one of the books donated by Andrew.

The competition will run until 3 September so there's plenty of time to come up with something exciting.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking

If your school or class has a homepage you may like to use it to feature some of your Amazon activities. You could phone or fax someone and ask them about the Amazon

• You could make and edit a video about the Amazon to show on a computer

• You could set up an on-line forum with other schools interested in the Amazon in New Zealand and overseas

There are lots of possibilities. And remember the simple ones are often the best.

How to enter

Tell us about your Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity. You can present the information any way you like, but remember it has to be faxed or posted. You may like to a write a description of your activity, or draw it on a poster - choose the way that you think best represents your Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity.

You can either fax your entries to Adventure Line on 0-4-498 5575 or post them to Explorers and Adventures

Telecom Education Foundation
Level Two, Telecom Networks House
PO Box 570
Wellington

Your entry must be clearly marked "Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity Competition" and must include the region you're in (from the above list), your school name, your class, your teacher's name, your school address and a contact phone number.

Entries close 3 September and the lucky winners will be featured in the 8 September Fax Bulletin.

Information submitted to the Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity Competition may be shared with other schools.

Contacting Explorers and Adventurers

The best way to get in touch with Explorers and Adventurers Co-ordinator, Danielle Greig, is by fax. If you have any inquiries about Telecom's Amazon Adventure please fax the Adventure Line on Wellington 0-4-498 5575.

Amazon activity

Set up an area of your classroom as an "Explorers and Adventurers area". You might like to decorate it as a jungle. (How about some large wall murals, some stand up jungle trees, stand up jungle animals and so on?) Set up a tent to act as you "base camp" and stock your site with good books on adventures and explorations and other items related to the explorers theme. This area could be your theme corner during your work on this unit.

Fun facts

• The world's biggest snake, the anaconda, lives in Amazônia and can grow over 12 metres long. Anacondas hide on the bottom of rivers and streams, waiting for other animals to cross. Anacondas aren't poisonous, but they kill their prey by curling themselves around it and they squeeze so tightly that the animal cannot breathe. The Anaconda then swallows the animal whole, and lies on the riverbank waiting to digest its unlucky meal – which can take several weeks if it was a big animal. Anacondas usually eat capybaras (large rodents, about the size of a sheep) and peccaries (a type of pig), but occasionally an anaconda is found which has swallowed a human.

• Piranha, the famous fish of the Amazon, can be very vicious when hungry. A school of piranha has been known to eat an entire capybara in 90 seconds so that only the skeleton remained. The teeth of the piranha are so sharp that local Indians use piranha jaws as scissors.

Guest speaker

Andrew is deep in the Amazon this week and will be unable to call us, so we've arranged for Joe Kane to lead this week's audioconferences.

In 1986, Joe took part in the first expedition to travel the entire length of the Amazon – from its starting point high up in the Andes to its mouth where it meets the Atlantic Ocean 6,000 km
later.

Joe spent months travelling, by foot, river raft, and kayak – often through remote, unpopulated, and dangerous areas. The book he wrote about this journey (Running the Amazon) is the best-known modern adventure story about the Amazon region.

In 1991, Joe travelled to Ecuador to find out about the Huaorani Indians and their battle with international oil companies which were invading the Ecuadorian Amazon, setting off explosive charges, building new roads and oil rigs, and causing oil spills in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Joe visited and stayed with the Huaorani many times, and met environmentalists and oil companies to find out what was really happening to the Amazon rainforest and its people. His book, Savages, is a fascinating account of what happens when the 20th Century suddenly hits a remote rainforest people with full force – bringing with it huge multinational companies, lawyers, public relations experts, politicians, environmentalists, evangelists, technology, and ivory soap (popular with Indians as "the soap that floats").

Joe’s articles about Amazônia have frequently appeared in magazines like the New Yorker and Esquire. He lives in California, and is married with two children.

Amazon books

Here are some more books on the Amazon and South America you may like to hunt out.

Rainforest Animals, Ladybird Discovery, Leicestershire, UK.

Brazil, Carlos de sa Moreira, Les Editions Du Pacifique (Distribuidora Record), Rio de Janeiro.

Jungles: Facts, Stories, and Activities, Jenny Wood, Two-Can Publishing, London.

Lost Civilizations: The Search for El Dorado, Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia.

Explorers Mystery Quiz - Bulletin 4

Answer the Explorers Mystery Quiz questions below correctly and be in to win a Panasonic cassette recorder for your class. You will find the answer to this week's first question on your Explorers and Adventurers Mystery Trail poster. You might need to do a bit more research to answer question two. Fax your answers to the Telecom Adventure Line: 0-4-498 5575. Entries close at 5pm on Friday 15 August 1997.

The classes whose students correctly answer the most Explorers Mystery Quizzes during the Explorers and Adventurers programme will go into the draw for a grand prize in December. So good luck everyone.

This week's questions

Question One

How long is the Amazon River?

Question Two

Why is the Amazon River sometimes called the Ocean River?

Last week's winner

The winner of last week's Explorers Mystery Quiz was the senior class from Fraser Road School, Hawera.

Last week's answers

Answer One

The anaconda is the heaviest snake in the world.

Answer Two

Spanish explorer Vicente Yanez Pinzon discovered the delta region of Amazônia in 1500.