The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. The basin -- roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States -- covers some 40% of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France.
The Amazon is made up of mosaic ecosystems composed of rainforests, seasonal forests, decidous forests, flooded forests and savannas. The Amazon river, is known as the world's largest river in terms of discharge and second longest river in the world after Niles. Its river system is the lifeline of the forest. It is also the most voluminous river on earth eleven times the volume of the Mississippi and drains an area in size to the United States.
The people in this place has a very long history of human settlement. Prior to the arrival of colonialists from Europe and first contact in sixteenth century, the Amazon River Basin had a population estimated at having up to a five million people and perhaps more than a five thousand Amazon tribes. However afterwards, the Amazonia experienced 500 years of violence, exploitation, and disease, that wiped out most of the original Amazon tribes. Presently, only about 500,000 Amazon Indians survive, which are distributed among an estimated 500 Amazon tribes, including about 75 uncontacted Amazon tribes living in voluntary isolation.
There are still over 200 indigenous groups in the Amazon Rainforest , talking 180 different languages and each with their own cultural heritage. If you narrow your view to language families you will still find 30 different language families in the Amazon rainforest. This shows that like the flora and fauna , the cultural diversity in the region is also very high, making it an even more interesting and rich place.
The Amazon tribes of the Amazon River Basin live in many different environments and they have adapted their culture to the various ecosystems. While most Amazon tribes and Amazonian Indians live in the lush, tropical rainforests, some of the Amazon tribes exist in the grasslands and pampas (prairies), and some even live in semi-desert areas. Because of the varied environments in which they live, their material culture of Amazon tribes, which allows them to adapt and survive, varies greatly. Another interesting piece of information about these Amazon Indians is that, depending on the area in which they live and the particular Amazon tribe they belong to, they have had various influences by outside cultures. This would be expected in that the Amazon Rainforest area itself is divided among nine different countries (Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname).
However, unlike most current cultivation techniques, these Amazonians were attuned to the ecological realities of their environment from five millennia of experimentation and accumulation of knowledge, with a strong understanding of how to manage the rainforest to meet their requirements within a sustainable capacity. They saw the importance of maintaining biodiversity through a careful balance of natural forest, open fields and sections of forest managed so as to be dominated by species of special interest and greatest use to humans.
By Kriezyl Paguntalan
The Amazon is made up of mosaic ecosystems composed of rainforests, seasonal forests, decidous forests, flooded forests and savannas. The Amazon river, is known as the world's largest river in terms of discharge and second longest river in the world after Niles. Its river system is the lifeline of the forest. It is also the most voluminous river on earth eleven times the volume of the Mississippi and drains an area in size to the United States.
The people in this place has a very long history of human settlement. Prior to the arrival of colonialists from Europe and first contact in sixteenth century, the Amazon River Basin had a population estimated at having up to a five million people and perhaps more than a five thousand Amazon tribes. However afterwards, the Amazonia experienced 500 years of violence, exploitation, and disease, that wiped out most of the original Amazon tribes. Presently, only about 500,000 Amazon Indians survive, which are distributed among an estimated 500 Amazon tribes, including about 75 uncontacted Amazon tribes living in voluntary isolation.
There are still over 200 indigenous groups in the Amazon Rainforest , talking 180 different languages and each with their own cultural heritage. If you narrow your view to language families you will still find 30 different language families in the Amazon rainforest. This shows that like the flora and fauna , the cultural diversity in the region is also very high, making it an even more interesting and rich place.
The Amazon tribes of the Amazon River Basin live in many different environments and they have adapted their culture to the various ecosystems. While most Amazon tribes and Amazonian Indians live in the lush, tropical rainforests, some of the Amazon tribes exist in the grasslands and pampas (prairies), and some even live in semi-desert areas. Because of the varied environments in which they live, their material culture of Amazon tribes, which allows them to adapt and survive, varies greatly. Another interesting piece of information about these Amazon Indians is that, depending on the area in which they live and the particular Amazon tribe they belong to, they have had various influences by outside cultures. This would be expected in that the Amazon Rainforest area itself is divided among nine different countries (Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname).
However, unlike most current cultivation techniques, these Amazonians were attuned to the ecological realities of their environment from five millennia of experimentation and accumulation of knowledge, with a strong understanding of how to manage the rainforest to meet their requirements within a sustainable capacity. They saw the importance of maintaining biodiversity through a careful balance of natural forest, open fields and sections of forest managed so as to be dominated by species of special interest and greatest use to humans.
By Kriezyl Paguntalan