Tropical rainforests may cover only two per cent of the planet’s surface but they’re home to half of all its species, including humans.
Nevertheless, surviving in this hostile environment demands both skill and an intimate understanding of the jungle ecology.
The main impediments to survival in the jungle is not a lack of edible species, but the fact that most of the things you might want to eat live high in the canopy, 30 metres or so above a hungry human’s mouth. As a result, securing enough meat for dinner can be a constant struggle and rainforest-dwellers must develop an extensive knowledge of the plants and animals around them.
The People of the Rainforests
The Pygmies
The Pygmies live across the rainforests of central africa and are known as
'forest dwellers' as they live by hunting and gathering. However in the past
few decades there have been many threats to their way of living due to logging,
war and encroachment by farmers.
Although their collective name is The Pygmy tribe, each district has its
own name as well as hunting techniques and language.
Forest lives
Central to the
identity of these peoples is their intimate connection to the forest lands they
have lived in, worshiped and protected for generations.
Jengi, the spirit of the forest, is one of the few words common to many of the diverse languages spoken by forest peoples.
'A Pygmy loves the
forest as she loves her own body' this is a Mbendjele saying.
The importance of the forest as their spiritual and physical home, and as the source of their religion, livelihood, medicine and cultural identity cannot be overstated.
Traditionally,
small communities moved frequently through distinct forest territories,
gathering a vast range of forest products, collecting wild honey and exchanging
goods with neighbouring settled societies.
Hunting techniques
vary among the forest peoples, and include bows and arrows, nets and spears.
Current
estimates put the Pygmy population at half a million.
Pygmy children
The Yanomami
The Yanomami are one of the largest relatively isolated tribes in South
America. They live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and
southern Venezuela.
Like most tribes on the continent, they probably migrated across the
Bering Straits between Asia and America some 40,000 years ago, making their way
slowly down to South America. Today their total population stands at around
32,000.
At over 9.6 million hectares, the Yanomami territory in Brazil is twice
the size of Switzerland. In Venezuela, the Yanomami live in the 8.2 million
hectare Alto Orinoco – Casiquiare Biosphere Reserve. Together, these areas form
the largest forested indigenous territory in the world.
The Yanomami live in large, circular, communal houses called yanos or
shabonos. Some can house up to 400 people. The central area is used for
activities such as rituals, feasts and games.
Each family has its own hearth where food is prepared and cooked during
the day. At night, hammocks are slung near the fire which is stoked all night
to keep people warm.
The Yanomami believe strongly in equality among people. Each community is
independent from others and they do not recognise ‘chiefs’. Decisions are made
by consensus, frequently after long debates where everybody has a say.
Like most Amazonian tribes, tasks are divided between the sexes. Men hunt
for game like peccary, tapir, deer and monkey, and often use curare (a plant
extract) to poison their prey.
Although hunting accounts for only 10% of Yanomami food, amongst men it
is considered the most prestigious of skills and meat is greatly valued by
everyone.
No hunter ever eats the meat that he has killed. Instead he shares it out
among friends and family. In return, he will be given meat by another hunter.
Women tend the gardens where they grow around 60 crops which account for
about 80% of their food. They also collect nuts, shellfish and insect larvae.
Wild honey is highly prized and the Yanomami harvest 15 different kinds.
Both men and women fish, and timbó or fish poison is used in communal
fishing trips. Groups of men, women and children pound up bundles of vines
which are floated on the water. The liquid stuns the fish which rise to the
water’s surface and are scooped up in baskets. They use nine species of vine
just for fish poisoning.
The Yanomami have a huge botanical knowledge and use about 500 plants for
food, medicine, house building and other artefacts. They provide for themselves
partly by hunting, gathering and fishing, but crops are also grown in large
gardens cleared from the forest. As Amazonian soil is not very fertile, a new
garden is cleared every two or three years.
Over 1,000 gold-miners are now working illegally on Yanomami land, transmitting
deadly diseases like malaria and polluting the rivers and forest with mercury.
Cattle ranchers are invading and deforesting the eastern fringe of their land.
The Huli
The
Huli are one of the many tribes that live in the remote highland forests of
Papua New Guniea. They live by hunting, gathering plants and growing crops. Men
and women live seperately, in large group houses. The men decorate their bodies
with colored clay and wear elaborate headdresses for ceremonies.
The
Huli exist mostly on a diet of yams, manioc (also known as "cassava",
a plant with a large starchy root) and on occasion meat from village raised
pigs, wild cassowary (a large flightless bird related to the emu) or other
forest game (such as tree kangaroos and cuscus - a marsupial with a yellow nose
and prehensile tail).
The
Huli live in rounded grass huts; the two to four huts in each community are
surrounded by split-wood and mud walls. The compound walls serve a dual purpose
of keeping domesticated pigs in the compound and away from the gardens while
keeping enemies and evil spirits out. Traditionally, the men sleep in one hut
while the women and pigs sleep in a another. Villagers cover their bodies with
pig-fat grease and ash to keep warm during the cold mountain mornings. At
night, a small fire is kept inside the hut so that the heat - and smoke - fills
the hut and keeps the occupants warm.
While
women wear grass skirts, men wear nothing but a koteka, or "penis
gourd." The gourd is tied under the man's genitals and around his waist
with two pieces of string.
Tribal
warfare is a common occurrence among the highland tribes of New Guinea. Though
national authorities and missionaries have helped to reduce the fighting,
skirmishes between villages persist.
One of
their most important customs is to display the wealth of each tribe. Tribal art
consists of their extravagent headdresses and their beautiful weapons, as well
as jewellery, baskets, and other things. Some of their artifacts include a
stone axe called an Aju and a hardwood digging stick, called a Keba.
In
the Huli society, there are no chiefs and no government of any kind. Power and
special importance can be gained by any man with the right ambition. If the man
proves his worth, others will tend to follow his lead.
Uncontacted
Rainforest Tribes
Brazil’s
Amazon is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere in the world. There
could be up to 70 isolated groups in this rainforest, according to the
government’s Indian affairs department FUNAI.
Their
decision not to maintain contact with other tribes and outsiders is almost
certainly a result of previous disastrous encounters and the ongoing invasion
and destruction of their forest home.
For example,
the uncontacted groups living in the state of Acre are probably survivors of
the rubber boom, when many Indians were enslaved.
It is likely that the survivors escaped by fleeing up the rivers. Memories of the atrocities against their ancestors may still be strong.
Very little
is known about these peoples. What we do know is that they wish to remain
uncontacted: they have shot arrows at outsiders and airplanes, or they simply
avoid contact by hiding deep in the forest.
Some, like the Awá, are nomadic hunter gatherers constantly
on the move, able to build a home within hours and abandon it days later.
Others are
more settled, living in communal houses and planting manioc and other crops in
forest clearings as well as hunting and fishing.
In Acre there
could be as many as 600 Indians belonging to four different groups. Here they
live in relative tranquility in several demarcated territories which are
largely untouched.
Perhaps 300
uncontacted Indians live in the Massacó territory in Rondônia.
They use
enormous bows and arrows – one bow was found measuring over four metres – very
similar in size and design to the Sirionó tribe live in neighbouring Bolivia.
They clearly
like to eat tortoises as mounds of shells have been found in abandoned camps.
However,
other uncontacted groups are teetering on the edge of extinction with no more
than a handful of individuals left.
Today they
are still deliberately
hunted down and their forests homes are being rapidly destroyed.
Mega dam and road building projects, part of
the government’s ‘accelerated growth programme’, pose huge threats.
The Jirau and Santo Antonio dams being built on the
Madeira river are very near to several groups of uncontacted Indians.
A recent
report says that some of them are abandoning their land due to the noise and
pollution from the construction sites.
All are
extremely vulnerable to diseases like flu or the common cold transmitted by
outsiders and to which they have no resistance: good reasons to avoid contact.
Even in this
grim scenario, some remarkable stories of survival have emerged. Karapiru an
Awá man survived an attack by gunmen and lived on his own for ten years hiding
in the forest until he finally made contact with some colonists and now lives
with other Awá.
The
uncontacted peoples of Brazil must be protected and their land rights
recognised before they, along with the forests they depend on, vanish forever
