Student 28

IDST 2205 - Section 01

October 4, 1999

 

 

                                                   The 2000 World Rainforest Summit

 

                                                   Indigenous Person of the Rainforest

 

My character is effected in many ways by the debate on what to do with the rainforest.  I am an indigenous person.  Indigenous people play many important roles in the rainforest.  The indigenous people want the rainforest to be left alone as it has been in the past.  The indigenous people are willing to compromise on many plans for using the rainforest but still preserving it.  However, we are extremely unwilling to compromise with those who just want to use the rainforest without considering the consequences.  The indigenous people have both a positive and negative relationship with pharmaceutical companies.  Our relationship with many transnational corporations is a negative one.  We also have a negative relationship with many timber companies.  However, there is a completely positive relationship between the indigenous peoples and human rights groups and environmental groups.  If the rainforest is destroyed, there will be many negative effects on the indigenous peoples.  Much of the culture and spirituality of the indigenous people lies in the rainforest.  The development of the rainforest is destroying the indigenous people=s homelands.  The development is also lowering the indigenous population as a whole.  The indigenous people need to have a large say in what to do with the rainforest.

 

I am an indigenous person.  I am a member of a tribe in the Amazon rainforest.  I represent many different tribes on my continent.  The Amazon rainforest is located on the South American Continent.  A large portion of South America is covered in rainforest especially Brazil.  The rainforest are an important resource to almost all of the people who live in South America, but all of the people do not use the resources in the same way.  The inhabitants of South America need to realize the importance of the rainforest to ancient culture and the importance of it to the indigenous tribes who live there. 

 

The indigenous people of the Amazon play many important roles in the rainforest.  We are the keepers of the forest and its secrets.  The rainforest is at the center of the indigenous people=s cultures.  The indigenous people could not survive without all of the things that they get from the rainforest.  It gives us both medicine and security.  The indigenous people take good care of the rainforest because we realize how important the existence of the rainforest is to our survival.

 

The indigenous people of the rainforest wish that the land we have inhabited for many years would be left alone.  No one was interested in the rainforest until a relatively short time ago.  The indigenous people have been there through centuries.  We realize that we are not the only people who have an interest in the rainforest.  Therefore, we are willing to compromise on several points.  We are willing to compromise with those who wish to use the rainforest but are willing to preserve it and replenish it.  However, we will not compromise with those who only wish to take from the rainforest and not give anything back.

 

The indigenous people are willing to compromise with those who wish to use resources of the rainforest but are willing to replenish what they have taken.  The Shamans, healers in the tribes, have knowledge of many plants.  They often work with medical anthropologist to share their knowledge.  The Shamans are trying to teach the medical professionals to only take what is needed:

 

ATake only so much of any plant that the rest of it will survive.@  That reduces the

risk that a precious resource will vanish and with it, part of a potential

livelihood for those whom it rightfully belongs.  Trish Flaster of Shaman put it

strongly: Athe people don=t survive without the plants or the plants without

the people and we are committed to preserving both@ (AA Rare Species@ 76).

 

The fact that the medical anthropologist and some other medical professionals are willing to work with the Shamans and work with the conditions they are given makes the Shamans willing to open up their minds and land to these individuals.

 

On the other hand, there are some groups with no interest in maintaining a stable living environment for the indigenous people.  These are the people that the tribes want to keep out of the forest.  In many cases, the indigenous people have gained support of other groups to drive out those who are destroying the rainforest.  One example is the Awelcoming@ that a ship carrying mahogany from Brazil got in Savannah, GA which surprised it:

 

Activists from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and affiliated Southeastern

human rights groups boarded the Frota Belem, climbed its mast and two cranes

hung a 15 by 40 foot banner that read ABan Mahogany Imports, Save the

Amazon!@ from the bow, and prevented the contraband from being unloaded.

The RAN demonstrators were trying to draw attention to the fact that most

Brazilian mahogany imported into the United States is logged illegally on

indigenous peoples= lands and national parks in the Amazon rainforest (ARAN@ 7).

 

This shows that people other than the indigenous peoples are concerned with the indigenous peoples= rights.  This also shows that many groups are not concerned with protecting the land of the rainforest.  The indigenous people just want others to realize that the rainforest is home, and we want people to quit destroying it.  The people who want to use the rainforest and not worry about the consequences will destroy it.  That is why the indigenous people are unwilling to compromise with them.  Because of our willingness to compromise with certain groups and our unwillingness to compromise with other, the indigenous peoples have formed positive and negative relationships with many groups.

The relationship that indigenous peoples have with the pharmaceutical companies is both positive and negative.  In many cases, such as the one stated earlier about Shaman helping the medical anthropologist, the indigenous peoples have a positive relationship with the pharmaceutical companies.  One other such positive relationship occurs with Mark Plotkin.  He noticed the interest of the younger tribe members was not in the medicinal use of the plants as it had been in earlier generations.  Therefore, he has written a textbook of medicinal rainforest plants.  This textbook is being used to teach others what the Shaman knows (Reed 144).  However, a negative relationship arises when a person does not respect the tribes and their rights to the plants.  Tribes in the Amazon rainforest are taking on a United States pharmaceutical company that got a patent in the U.S. on a plant that has been used for many years for religious ceremonies and medicinal purposes.  We want to have the patent revoked.  We think this will keep others from stealing our plants and trying to market them (Knight 1).  This goes to show that not all drug companies have respect for what the indigenous peoples have to offer to the medical industry.  The betrayal of this drug company makes many of the tribes not trust people coming to us and asking us about our treatments.

 

There is a predominantly negative relationship between the indigenous peoples and the transnational corporations and also the timber companies.  An example of a negative relationship with the timber industry has already been shown with the RAN requesting a ban on the mahogany that is being stolen from my people.  Another example of a negative relationship can be shown by the treatment of the indigenous people by transnational corporations.  In the recent past, the treatment of the indigenous tribes has improved thanks to help of human activist.  One such case has happened to a tribe in Columbia: A5,000 Uwa Amerindians are resisting the use of their sacred lands by Occidental Petroleum.  After threatening mass suicide, they have attracted so many supporters that Shell has said it will pull out of its partnership with Occidental in the area@ (Boukhari 10).  The rising knowledge of the negative relationship between these groups and the indigenous groups is working in the favor of the indigenous tribes.  The activists are an example of the positive relationship between the indigenous tribes and environmental and human rights groups.

 

Much of the culture and spirituality of the indigenous groups lies in the rain forest.  One such example is the belief mapinguary in the western Amazon.  The tribes that believe in it all believe in its legend.  Many believe that it is an old Indian who wonders the forest:

 

Mapinguary is an old Indian who leaves his village to live along in the

forest.  Eventually, he turns into a long--hair beast with stubby legs, no

feet, and only one eye in the center of its forehead.  The piercing shriek

of mapinguary can be heard over large distances, and the creature relishes        

the brains of humans (Smith 54).

 

The Mundurucu Indians believe that the pink dolphins are extremely sexual.  They believe that the pink dolphins take human form to seduce humans.  This is how many Indians explain many preganancies (89).  These are just a couple of examples of legends of the rainforest that the indigenous tribes center our lives around.

 

With the destruction of the rainforest, the indigenous peoples= homelands are disappearing.  Along with the land, many of the indigenous people are also disappearing.  The deforestation in the Amazon is making the medical plants of the indigenous peoples disappear.  This is causing us to have no medical defense.  The spread of new disease is also attributing to the decrease in the number of indigenous peoples: ANapoleon Chagnon=s study of blood samples from the Brazilian Yanomamo showed the natives having no previous contact with the measles@ (Mitten 550).  The people are increasingly committing suicide.  Many have also been killed by mercury released into the water by miners (550).  Gold miners have also maliciously killed others in order to make the rest of the people fear them (550).  These senseless deaths show rational reason why deforestation is negative on indigenous people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                    Works Cited

 

 

AA rare Species.@  Economist 28 Jan. 1995: 76.

 

Boukhari, Sophie.  AIndigenous peoples take on big business.@  UNESCO Courier April 1999: 10-11

 

Knight, Danielle.  AIndigenous groups challenge U.S. drug company.@  NACLA Report on the Americas May 1998: 1.

 

Mitten, Lauren.  AThe human cost of deforestation.@  Peace Review Dec. 1997: 549-553.

 

ARAN calls for mahogany ban.@  Environmental Action Spring 1996: 7.

 

Reed, Susan.  ASorcerers= apprentice.@  People Weekly 6 Dec. 1993: 143-146.

 

Smith, Nigel J.H.  The Enchanted Amazon Rain Forest.  Gainsville: University Press of Florida.  1996.