General Information
There are 900,000 people living in indigenous tribes in Brazil, roughly 0.4% of their population. The government has recognized 690 territories for its indigenous population, covering about 13% of Brazil’s land mass. Nearly all of this reserved land (98.5%) lies in the Amazon. a hope about the indigenous population is that their numbers are increasing. This means that, after 5 centuries being destroyed, they are actually being able to live and grow in their demarcated lands. This is hope for their cultures and way of life.
Some groups are nomads and they don’t settle in a place for long periods, exchanging locations every now and then. There are others that settle in a tribe and live in the same place for centuries. The size of the groups are also very different, you can find groups with as few individuals as 200 and other with 30000.
Since there are different kinds of indigenous, there are also different forms of organization. Some tribes have a hierarchy that you are born into and that determines your “job” for the rest of your life. This can range from being a housekeeper to being a hunter or a gatherer. Other tribes There is many diversities in the tribes example being, in northwest of the Amazon rainforest there are 22 different ethnic groups in an area that is located in Brazil , Colombia and Venezuela . These 22 different indigenous groups (Baniwa, Kuripako, Dow, Hupda, Nadöb, Yuh Ude, Baré, Warekena, Arapaso, Bará, Barasana, Desana, Karapanã, Kubeo, Makuna, Mirity-tapuya, Pira-tapuya, Siriano, Tariana, Tukano, Tuyuca, Wanana, Tatuyo, Taiwano, Yuruti, Kakwa and Nukak) each speak their own language, which comes from 3 different language families. Although the languages differ, they all interact with each other in a large net of marriages, festivities, rituals and commerce. The total population of these groups reaches 65,000 individuals.
Guarani People
The largest tribe today is the Guarani, numbering 51,000, but they have very little land left. During the past 100 years almost all their land has been stolen from them and turned into vast, dry networks of cattle ranches, soya fields and sugarcane plantations.
Many communities are crammed into overcrowded reserves, and others live under tarpaulins by the side of highways. The Guarani people are divided into three groups: Kaiowá, Ñandeva and M’byá, the largest section is kaiowa which translated means “forest people”. The Guarani people are very religious. Most villages have a prayer house, and a religious leader who is picked by prestige rather than formal power.
Farmers Affecting The people
31 percent of the forest in indigenous reserves has already been illegally logged. Also, as they come in contact with outsiders, they are highly susceptible to diseases, like the flu, to which they have developed no resistance and that could prove fatal in contracted.
As large amounts of forests are cleared away, allowing exposed earth to whither and die and the habitats of innumerable species to be destroyed, the indigenous tribes who depend on them to sustain their way of life are also irreparably damaged.
Food
Some members of the tribe report of food shortages because of the loss of their habitat and home, bringing with it hunger and malnutrition. Loggers and ranchers continuing to inpinge upon their territory, creating situations that occasionally result in violence and sometimes even war. Some reports even suggest that petulant plantation owners have offered money to those who kill an Indian. The Kamayurá people thrive in the middle of the Xingu National Park which was once far back in the Amazon but is now enclosed by ranches and plantations, and live by hunting, fishing and some agriculture. They have done this for multiple years. Changes in rainfall in the region brought about by a mix of deforestation and warmer temperatures are making things a lot more difficult to follow their first traditional ways. Chief Kotok, one of the Kamayurá people said that men can now fish all night without one bite in streams where fish used to be abundant; they safely swim in lakes previously thriving with piranhas. To live without fish, Kamayurá children are eating ants on their traditional spongy flatbread, made from tropical cassava flour. "There aren't as many around because the kids have eaten them," Chief Kotok said of the ants. Sometimes members of the tribe kill monkeys for their meat, but, the chief said, "You have to eat 30 monkeys to fill your stomach."