In modern times, unfortunately,
the cultures brought by the Europeans and those held by the natives have
clashed. While peace reigned in the days of Vasco de Gama's first arrival,
splits soon occurred between the two cultures. The natives were seen as
savages who needed to be "enlightened" by Jesuit missionaries
and foriegn rule. Soon, the cultures began to war with each other
Though the Amazonians were
in Brazil from the start, they were pushed away as if they were pests, used
by the modern society and thrown away like rag dolls. They tried to protest
this, but the desire for land by modern people overruled their judgement
of the Amazonians.
As a result, there are only 140,000 left on the Amazon today out of the
millions that once thrived in harmony with nature.
The modern culture cares
little for what happens to the land they get but that it is theirs. As a
result, deforestation and pollution
have begun to overrun the Amazon in the just under 500 years that the new
culture has existed.
Many people are trying to make a difference, from the Amazonians, fighting
a new war of words, to groups of concerned individuals and even parts of
the new society. The culture is changing to fit the times, as the "Take
all land" philosophy is beginning to lose momentum. Thanks to efforts
to save the rainforest and its peoples, events such as the declaration of
1994 as 'The Year of Indigenous People' by the U.N. have taken place. A
new culture, mixed between the old and new is forming. The children who
are growing up, caught between these two worlds, are making decisions to
learn the strange ways of the new society but to take back what is important
to the Amazonians. They cannot live in the old society as before, but they
are creating their own culture, a mix between the two, for the future.
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