Into the Depths of the Amazon
Culture
The Amazon is made up of a broad spectrum of diverse people. From the native Amazonians who have lived in the forests for thousands of years to the poor settlers who come into the Amazon now, they all make up a part of the interesting society that populates the Amazon.
Ancient Rituals
Native Amazonians have lived here for over 20,000 years. Though there are many different tribes spread along the Amazon, they all have developed their own ways of life in harmony with nature. They believe in sharing the hunt and the food they gather. Most of them believe that they are reborn through their grandchildren, though rules for marriage vary much. They also traditionally live in communal or family houses made from materials such as tree bark and palm leave fronds. Dressing up in various ceremonial costumes, they have various festivals and ceremonies during the year to celebrate harvests or their gods. In this open culture, people help each other to make it through life. Sharing is key to survival, as the Amazon does not tolerate misers. Though tribes do have leaders and sometimes used to engage in warfare, this was never for territory, but merely to right wrongs done (or imagined) and as exercises in combat. Nonetheless, this is starkly different from the culture that invaded the Amazon just a few hundred years ago, ending the centuries-long peace with nature and throwing the balance askew.
Modern Developments
The modern culture of Europe that swept over Amazonia came with the arrival of Europeans after initial exploration. Unlike the Amazonians, these people saw themselves as supreme beings as they moved into their new land of savages who needed to be educated. The culture of the Europeans blended together with the Amazonians to make the people of the river, a mixed breed who live with the river as their main method of transportation and home. The ranchers who arrived see themselves as God's missionaries out to make a difference through changing the course of history and proving Amazon is a wonderful place to make money by cattle. The loggers work to produce the woods demanded by the outside market, seeing the way to fortune but losing the battle as woods become harder to find.
The miners seek to make a decent living and are driven by competition with big businesses moving in and the glint of gold. Settlers are interested in escaping the poverty of the rest of the land and finding a dream home in the Amazon. All of these modernized people call the Amazon home, turning to their resources and that of their state government for support. They are new compared to the long standing Amazon society, and yet are in strife already, fighting over land and ideas for the future. The modern society, with its many different groups, has always sought to overcome the society of old, and the cultures clash as modern society meets ancient practices.
Culture Clashes
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.