| 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 foreign 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. |