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Who lives in the Who lives in the Amazon?Amazon?

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Last week …Last week …

We look at the physical geography of the AmazonWhat is physical geography?What is the physical geography of the Amazon Basin like?

that is the land which is drained by the Amazon and its tributaries

This week we are going to look at the original people – what is believed about them and what we are discovering

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When the Portuguese arrived …When the Portuguese arrived …

……in April 1500, they found, to their astonishment, a widely inhabited coastline, teeming with hundreds of thousands of indigenous people living in a "paradise" of natural riches. Pêro Vaz de Caminha, the official scribe of Cabral, the commander of the discovery fleet which landed in the present state of Bahia, wrote a letter to the King of Portugal describing in glowing terms the beauty of the land.

Question 1

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At the time of European discovery, the territory of current day Brazil had as many as 2,000 nations and tribes. It was thought that the indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture.

When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, the Indians were living mainly on the coast and along the banks of major rivers.

Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848), Famille d’un Chef Camacan se préparant pour une Fête

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But more recently, archaeologists But more recently, archaeologists think it might have looked think it might have looked

something like thissomething like this

More about this later

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But the Portuguese, like the Spanish in their South American territories, had unknowingly brought diseases with them against which many Indians were helpless due to lack of immunity. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza killed tens of thousands. The diseases spread quickly along the indigenous trade routes, and whole tribes were likely annihilated without ever coming in direct contact with Europeans.Question 2

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Initially, the Portuguese were greedy for brazilwood (from which Brazil took its name) for its treasured red dye. So it was the communities along the rivers, which the Portuguese used as highways that suffered the greatest annihilation from disease.Smaller bands, deeper in the forests survived, and some still today are ‘uncontacted’ which means they have no link to the outside world.

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Even the Portuguese knew there Even the Portuguese knew there were some large citieswere some large cities

The American rainforests were once home to some of the world's most developed civilizations of antiquity including those of the Incas (Andes), Mayas (Central America), and Aztecs (Central America), although only the Incas are know from the edge of the Amazon. These peoples created vast metropolises and made great developments in agriculture and the sciences.When Pizarro arrived in Peru, more land was under cultivation and more food was being produced in the Andean region than today.

An image of a pre- 15th century fish

farm in the Bolivian Amazon

by Clark L. Erickson, PhD

Question 3

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Why the cities were forgottenWhy the cities were forgottenThere was little stone used in building – wood was the most easily available material. And because the climate is so hot/wet, the wood rotted quickly leaving little evidence of civilisation.So until the last 10 years ago, it was believed that the Amazon had only ever been inhabited by small groups of very primitive people. But now we have new evidence that seems to show it was not always like that

Question 4

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Terra preta (“dark earth” in Portuguese) is the name of very dark, fertile soils found in the Amazon Basin. It owes its name to its very high charcoal content. It is also known as “Amazonian dark earth” or “Indian black earth. For a long time, the origins of the Amazonian dark earths were not clear and several theories were considered. One idea was that they resulted from ashfall from volcanoes in the Andes. Another theory considered its formation as a result of sedimentation in Tertiary lakes or in recent ponds.

A typical riverside landscape where terra

preta was found

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Ancient civilisationAncient civilisation

However, because of their elevated charcoal content and the common presence of pottery remains, it is now accepted this that is part of widespread development.The method of farming, still used, is slash and burn.

The trees are cut down and burned, providing fertilizer for the crops. After 3 -5 years the yields go down and so they move one, leaving the trees to re-grow.

The places in Amazonia where the terra preta has been found

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ImplicationsImplicationsBecause the Amazon's most skilled agriculturalists were killed off by European diseases, much of what was known about cultivating the rainforest ecosystem has been lost. Undoubtedly, these forest farmers relied on a far different agricultural philosophy than that used todayAs Clark Erickson from the University of Pennsylvania says, it was one that sustained significant populations without destroying biodiversity. Their techniques, if uncovered, could prove useful and possibly essential in creating areas of high agricultural productivity without utter destruction.

Question 5

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ImplicationsImplicationsIt is probably unfair and unreasonable to expect Brazil and other Amazonian basin countries to leave the region's remaining forests completely untouched from development. However, if there is a way to minimize the damage to the forest and biodiversity losses while maximizing agricultural yields, we should try and find out a bout and think about it, especially if past inhabitants proved that it worked. Already 15 percent of the Amazon rainforest is gone. We should not waste what remains.

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What is it like today for What is it like today for Amerindians?Amerindians?Today, despite the population decimation,

natives peoples still live in American rainforests, although virtually all have been affected by the outside world. Instead of wearing traditional garb of loin cloths, most Amerindians wear western clothes, and many use metal pots, pans, and utensils for everyday life. Some groups make handicrafts to sell to the boatloads of tourists that pass through, while others make routine trips to the city to bring foods and wares to market.

Question 6

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What is it like today for What is it like today for Amerindians?Amerindians?Nearly all cultivate crops, with hunting,

gathering, and fishing serving as a secondary or supplementary food source. Usually a family has two gardens: a small house garden with a variety of plants, and a larger plantation which may be one hectare in area planted with bananas, manioc, or rice. These plantations are created through the traditional practice of slash and burn, a method of forest clearing that is not all that damaging to the forest if conducted in the traditional manner.

Question 6 continued

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How are Amerindians doing?How are Amerindians doing?

Research has found that indigenous peoples are very healthy compared to that of assimilated tribal peoples, peasants, and many city dwellers. In the 1970s, an American team documented the health of the Waorani at the time of contact. The team found no evidence of hypertension, anaemia, heart disease, or cancer. In fact, the Waorani "ranked as one of the few populations in the world where blood pressure does not increase with age.” The people had practically no internal parasites and virtually no secondary bacterial infections. They had never been exposed to polio or pneumonia, nor was there any evidence that smallpox, chicken pox, typhus, or typhoid fever affected the tribe.”

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But while most groups have been But while most groups have been contacted ….contacted ….

…… recent research has shown that there at least 50 tribes who are what is known as ‘uncontacted’ .And these numbers are growinghttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7736779.stm Is about how the Brazilians are going to make sure they can find any more, and so protect them from loggers and miners, by the surveying the area from the air using body heat sensors.

Question 7

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Many of the Many of the uncontacted uncontacted tribes live in tribes live in

Indian Indian Reserves Reserves

(IR)(IR)

While it has been shown that these areas are among the best protected rainforest, they are still subject to loggers, miners and others trying to take over

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The homework - about asking The homework - about asking questionsquestionsThose of you who were in the class at the

start of the year may remember that being able to ask questions about things is part of geography.The key to good question is to remember the question words:

What?How?Who?Where?Why?When?Which?

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HomeworkHomeworkNext week we are going to look at what are the problems with the Amazon at the moment – why it is a fragile environment. So I want you to think about the questions you need to answer. There may be questions that you think you know something about already – but ask them anyway.Choose 3 different question words to ask 3 question about the Amazon and the dangers it faces that makes it a fragile place:Here is one to start you off:WhichWhich parts of the Amazon are most in danger or is all of at risk?