March 31, 2006
Update 3: Riberno Culture and Lifestyle
| The people that live along the rivers
in the Amazon rainforest are called riberenos. Ribereno is Spanish
for "shore dweller." Riberenos depend on the plants and animals in
the rainforest to survive. They use the water from the flooded forest for
cooking, drinking, bathing, fishing, and transportation. Because there are
no roads in the flooded forest, the riberenos use home-made dugout canoes
as their primary mode of transportation. They use their canoes to go to
school, the market, and to visit friends along the river. Children learn
to canoe when they are only four or five years old!
Most of the riberenos get their food by fishing with spears, lines, or nets, hunting, farming, and foraging. The rainforest already has a plethora of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and fish, so farming isn't always a necessity. Most riberenos eat yucca every day. Yucca is a root much like a potato that grows in the rainforest. It makes up the majority of the riberenos' diet. Another food they eat is the banana fruit. It is not uncommon for a family in the rainforest to eat bananas with every meal. Children that live in the rainforest go to school. The schools are different
than the ones we might be used to. They learn math, science, and reading,
but schools in the rainforest don't have computers and libraries to research
specific subjects. Most people that live in the rainforest of Peru don't
go to school past the elementary level. Instead, the rainforest is their
library and their education. At a young age, children learn how to hunt,
fish, cook, and harvest vegetables and fruit for dinner. May the forest be with you,
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