The Yanomami and the Impact of Agriculture



An Internet resource studying the effect of agriculture and other outside influences on the Yanomami of the Amazon rain forest! Provided by Lauren E. Worth, Mrs. Dahmen's 4th grade class, Norfolk, VA
 

         The Yanomami, a group of Indians that live in the rainforests of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela, are few in numbers. Only about 10,000 individuals live in the scattered villages in vine and leaf  thatched huts; practice slash-and -burn agriculture; grow many different kinds of crops; and hunt certain animals.
        Why? These Yanomami tribes are slowly vanishing because of the many settlers, miners, loggers, and ranchers moving into their territory. They have brought many diseases into the rainforest, such as malaria, tuberculosis, and malnutrition. The Yanomami are not used to these diseases, so they can get sick and die very easily (for more information go to this page).
        The Yanomami are not the only people that suffer from the rainforest's destruction. Many other indigenous groups do, too.
They all know that more than six million indigenous tribes inhabited the rainforest 500 years ago, but because of the large amount of rainforest destruction every year- 5.4 million acres- only about 200,000 remain.

c. Victor Engelbert 1980/survival international, Wearne, Philip.  Return of the Indian.  Philadelphia  Temple University Press, 1996.
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