Amazon Rainforest Indigenous Tribes
Thursday, 25 March 2010 20:39
There are hundreds of indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest.
The indigenous groups in all of South America have disappeared or been
torn apart by the colonization process, disease, alcohol, forced labor
and war.
There are still over 200 indigenous groups in the Amazon
Rainforest, talking 180 different languages and each with their own
cultural heritage. If you narrow your view to language families you will
still find 30 different language families in the Amazon rainforest.
This shows that like the flora and fauna, the cultural diversity in the
region is also very high, making it an even more interesting and rich
place.
There are at least 50 groups that still don't have regular contact
with the outsides and keep away from them. The Brazilian government
policy towards these groups is to leave them alone, as they wish. Not
very much is known about these groups as they keep going deeper and
deeper into the forest as the outsiders get closer to where they live.
To stop the constant migration of tribes it has been suggested that an
Indigenous Protected Area be setup so they can stop running away into
the most remote places of the forest.
Another interesting fact and a hope about the indigenous population
is that their numbers are increasing. This means that, after 5
centuries being destroyed, they are actually being able to live and grow
in their demarcated lands. This is hope for their cultures and way of
life.
Since there are different kinds of indigenous, there are also
different forms of organization. Some groups are nomads and they don't
settle in a place for long periods, exchanging locations every now and
then. There are others that settle in a tribe and live in the same place
for centuries. The size of the groups are also very different, you can
find groups with as few individuals as 200 and other with 30 000.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 April 2010 19:21 )
