People Who Live In The Jungle

       It is hard to believe that there are people living today who have never bought a loaf of bread in a grocery store, have never driven down a highway, have never used a cell phone, and have never slept in a bed with a mattress made from foam. But some Amazon jungle natives of northwest South America have never heard of such things. When bread is needed, they make their own of cassava. They transport themselves by walking or by paddling a dugout canoe, they send messages on drums, and they sleep in hammocks.

       These resourceful natives are one of the few groups of people living today who are little affected by modern ways of life. We call them primitive people. But do not make fun of them, for just consider how you would make out‚ in fact, how long you would live‚ in a land like theirs? In a jungle with its strange and harmful plants and animals, its suffocating tangle of vegetation, and its unusual climate, the indigenous people must learn a great deal about nature in order to live successfully in such a place. 

A Yanomami sleeping in a hammock.

       Because of his peculiar environment, the jungle native differs from us in so many ways. First of all, he never lives in one house for a very long time. Instead of repairing it, he moves on, for he feels that his food crops need more fertile land anyway and there is plenty to be had. And by now the pathways he has made from the river to his house are well worn and he thinks that they are too easily seen by his enemies. Instead of having his own house for his family, the jungle man lives with his whole tribe in one big house and the entire group works and plays together, sharing food and many possessions.

       Also in this climate it is not necessary to wear much clothing. For this reason decorations and ornaments are more important here than clothes. Tight fiber bands are worn around the legs or the arms. Ornaments include brightly colored feather headdresses, necklaces of jaguar teeth or toucan bills, bracelets of iguana tails or monkey teeth, and earrings of beetle wings. Hats are never worn. For protection against the daily rain, the jungle native puts a palm leaf over his head like an umbrella. He never wears shoes, and so his toes remain flexible. After some practice he can pick up something with his toes just as easily as he can with his fingers. His body is flexible and athletic.

       The daily food is not so varied and plentiful as ours. Even the experienced hunter comes home empty-handed once and awhile, and then the supper must come from the few crops grown in the fields by the women. The girls help their mothers in the daily work and consider it a sort of play. The boys must learn how to fish and hunt. Fathers, instead of giving their sons bats and balls to play with, give them little javelins and blowguns.

       So you can see that the lives of these indigenous people depend upon adapting to the jungle. However, if you saw one of the natives doing something that you could not explain as being a result of his environment and you asked him why he does this, he would say that it is "our custom."

       Custom is the law and decides how everything shall be done to ensure the survival of the people's tribe. For example, when a child does some harm or mischief to another, he is not punished the way children often are in our country. Instead, his parents must repay in some manner, if he has destroyed another's property. This kind of action is taken because it is the necessary custom of those who dwell in the jungle.  Buchwald.

Read more about the jungle:

• The Jungle
• Jungle Animals
• The Jungle "Maloca"
• The Jungle Hunt
• Jungle Farming and Foods 
• Jungle Medicine Past and Future 
• The Jungle Dance 
• Jungle Crafts

Visit more online websites to learn facts:

• Povos Indigenas no Brasil
• The Good Project