What are the indigenous peoples of the Amazon

The Amazon is the name of the largest river in South America and that gives its name to all the jungle that grows around it: the Amazon jungle . However, when talking about the Amazon jungle, what is actually being referred to is an immense geographical region that spans different countries, and which is called Amazonia, in reference to both the river and the jungle.

The Amazon is a region that extends throughout some areas of countries such as Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana. It is a region of incalculable ecological wealth, since the Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, which has earned it the nickname “the lung of the planet.”

To speak of indigenous peoples is to speak of the peoples who have inhabited a certain territory since almost immemorial times. In some cases, these peoples are also called isolated peoples , referring to the fact that both their people and their cultures have remained without contact with modern civilization from its beginnings to the present, or that, at least, contact has been minimal. .

This constitutes a fundamental element, since it allows that the intangible wealth of the cultural tradition of the isolated and indigenous peoples of their original lands has been preserved unaltered to this day, which, in addition to having a great value as intangible wealth, also it constitutes a study opportunity for anthropologists.

The isolated and indigenous peoples that still exist today are located both in the region of India, Oceania and, above all, in the region of Amazonia. To this has contributed, how could it be otherwise, the jungle itself, which constitutes a natural barrier between the tribes of the Amazon and modern civilization .

Many of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest differ little from one another. In this way, anthropologists have grouped the Amazon Indians into various groups made up of several tribes that, although they have differences between them, the similarities are important enough to consider them in the same group (for example the language). This is a list of indigenous peoples of the Amazon , you will see some of those that have been most studied:

Uncontacted Indians in Peru

• Nahua
• Cashibo-cacataibo
• Masco-piros
• Nanti
• Matsigenkas

Uncontacted Indians in Brazil

• Piripkura
• Kawahiva
• Korubos
• Kuikuro
• Kalapalos
• Yanomanis
• Piripkuras

Uncontacted Indians in Colombia

• Yuri
• Nukak

Currently, it is not known for sure how many of these indigenous peoples live in the interior of the Amazon rainforest. Despite this, it is estimated that the number of isolated villages in the Amazon could be around 400 villages , of which at least more than 80 have been studied and described by anthropologists . Of all the countries in which we find indigenous peoples, Brazil is by far the largest number of them, reaching more than 100 different peoples, followed by Peru with 25 peoples.

These groups of humans living in the Amazon rainforest have maintained their customs and lifestyles unaltered for thousands of years. In fact, they constitute a benchmark without comparison when it comes to understanding how the first lifestyles of man could have been during the Paleolithic (before the invention of agriculture).

In this way, we are faced with peoples that are hunters and gatherers in most cases, whose groups do not usually exceed twenty people, and who live in harmony with the nature that surrounds them, which they identify in the majority of the cases as a kind of “mother nature”, in a form of religion proper to each people and which, according to anthropologists, approaches a belief that combines pantheism and animism at the same time.

In this other AgroCorrn article we will tell you more about How the Amazon tribes live .

However, despite the fact that these peoples have survived in the Amazon ecosystem for thousands of years, the reality is that modern civilization is posing a real danger to their survival. One of the most pressing problems they face is the survival of the forest itself, which, due to deforestation caused by the logging industry, agriculture and livestock, each year loses more and more square kilometers of area. In fact, between the 70s of the 20th century and 2014, 19% of the surface of the Amazon has been cut down, which represents a very serious and unprecedented environmental damage on this scale. In this other article you can learn more about the Deforestation of the Amazon: causes and consequences And, in addition, in the video below you can learn more about this topic.

On the other hand, beyond the destruction of the environment, indigenous peoples have to face situations of violence that pose another threat to their survival. In this sense, the violence carried out by agents such as some local governments, companies with economic interests in the area, or the scourge of drug trafficking, constitute a real burden when it comes to guaranteeing their survival.

However, actions from some governments that are aware of the problem posed by the survival of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon , as well as actions promoted by some NGOs, are helping to stop the destruction of both the Amazon and the peoples that they still inhabit it. In this sense, some initiatives such as declaring protected areas, giving indigenous peoples rights and fighting corruption and drug trafficking, constitute an invaluable help in ensuring that these indigenous peoples, and the Amazon jungle itself, have a future.

If you liked discovering what the indigenous people of the Amazon are and various aspects about them, you may want to learn more about them and other indigenous people with these other AgroCorrn articles:

• American Indians: names of tribes and their customs .
• 16 African tribes: names, meanings and customs .
• Australian aborigines: names of peoples and their customs .