May 4, 2005
Vanishing Cultures In a Changing Forest.
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The last week of Project Peru has been different because we have spent a lot of our time in communities learning how people survive in the flooded forest. When we were in Chicago visiting schools in March, we told students we would have the chance to meet people from the Cocama Tribe, who speak a different language, called Cocama. This week we learned that the Cocama people in villages like Yarina and Veinte de Enero no longer speak Cocama. Often times when a culture looses its language--its means of description--traditions, customs, and local knowledge are inherently lost as well. Now local people speak Spanish and they have adopted some aspects of modern Peruvian culture, such as pop music, name-brand clothing, and prepackaged food. The change in traditions following a change in language happens slowly, maybe over the course of several generations. Right now, the Cocama who live in Pacaya Samiria seem to be in a state of cultural transformation. They still rely heavily on the flooded forest for their survival. The annual floods rejuvenate the soil in their gardens, men still travel the rivers and flooded forest in search of fish and game, and a variety of eatable fruits and other plants are gathered from the forest. However, some cultural changes are evident. People supplement medicinal plants gathered from the forest with modern drugs, and they cultivate significantly larger patches of bananas and other crops in order buy clothing, medicine and other goods their ancestors simply obtained from the forest. During Project Peru, we have put a great deal of emphasis on protecting the plants and animals of the rain forest. However, we have to remember that it is the delicate relationship between a local people's culture and their environment which hold the key to future preservation. Keep Exploring! Dave Please Join us for our last online chat from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM Thursday, May 5. The last few chats have gone very well, and we hope that many of you will be able to join us for this final chat of the adventure! High Temperature 81 |
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