The indigenous people of the Amazon have adapted their lifestyles around the use of the environment. They eat, drink, live and work from what the rainforest has provided them. The Indians live from hunting, fishing, agriculture and gathering. Fish is the most popular food within these tribes. They have many bizarre but effective ways of catching fish. One way used involves crushing the poisonous plant roots and by washing out the fish from oxygen, resulting in the fish coming above the water to get some air.
Having the River Amazon is a great advantage for the indigenous people living in the Amazon. When the fish come above, they are caught. The indigenous people also plant manioc, corn, cotton, tobacco and various fruits. In all the communities, there are the medicine men or shamans that pass their knowledge about medicinal plants and rites verbally to their successors. The Indians generally don’t have the same thought of possession as the “civilized” people. There isn’t an immense system of ownership, but they share their resources.
The weather in the rainforests is always warm, despite the amount of rain. The average daytime temperature in the Amazon is around 25 degrees and at nights, it’s around 15 degrees. The Amazon has a very low range of temperature throughout the year so the inhabitants don’t have to worry too much about changes in temperature.
A major difference in their lifestyle compared to the rest of the world is something they call “roca”. This is shifting cultivation, which is the process where a forested area is cleared, burnt, and cultivated, then left abandoned to allow natural regrowth before beginning to use it again for many different purposes. This is also known as Slash-and-Burn. Slash-and-burn is practised in many tropical forest areas and in the Amazon region, yams, cassava, and sweet potatoes can be grown. This system works well while population levels are low, but where there is overpopulation, the old land will be reused before soil fertility has been restored. After a particular plant has taken up all the nutrients from a plant, it can take several years for the minerals to reappear.
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