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Although the Amazon River Basin is home to numerous tribes of indigenous cultures, the technology they possessed was fairly similar for all of them. Most of there tools and weapons were made from similar materials, but there are slight differences in varieties based on the location where they lived and the resources available to them there.

Amazon.” Alfred Russell Wallace wrote about a variety of nations and tribes with different languages and customs. Wallace’s described the indigenous Amazonian people as being short in stature overall, with copper to brown skin tones that varied in shade, jet black straight hair and very little facial hair. Strong cheekbones along with a wider, somewhat flattened face are present in both sexes and variance was only slight between differing tribes (Wallace 1895:332-333). For both sexes, nudity was nothing to be ashamed of and body image was not an issue, as described by Franz Keller-Leuzinger. He was traveling with his group along the Caldeirao do Inferno (Cauldron of Hell) when they came upon a trio of bark canoes containing two Caripuna men and a “very corpulent woman.” They were all naked (except a small apron on the woman) and did not feel uncomfortable being seen by the white men. They are also described as being medium in size, with dark long hair. He also depicts them as all wearing feathers in the noses, like red mustaches. Expecting barbaric behavior, the white men were surprised when the nude natives treated them with respect. Even more surprising to them, they seemed regal, gracious and dignified. They escorted the trio back to the tribe, comprised of about sixty warriors and an equal number of women and children. Keller-Leuzinger described the tribe’s chieftain as “a strongly-built, short man of about fifty, shouldering his long bow and two or three arrows” (Keller-Leuzinger 1875:142-147). He called the chief’s appearance “anything but lovely” however he clearly admired the man and his people. This account of tribal hierarchy implies that the Caripuna tribe was patriarchal and held respected warriors and elders in high regard. Some of the tribes, however, were less easy for women than others. Some of the Northwest Amazonian tribes provided a hard life for women. While men worked intermittenly, women had round the clock expectations; mother, keeper of the home and were responsible for the majority of the agricultural duties. In Thomas Wiffen's observations of the Northwest Amazons, he often noticed that men would relax in hammocks after they felt their work was done while their wives, baby on back, would continue to til and harvest. The people he saw had very clear sexual roles. Man equaled warrior and hunter. Woman was to help her man, and be responsible for all non-meat foods. While he said individual women appeared insubordinate, women as a whole were both respected and had great influence. Romantic love and sex was not well considered (Wiffen 1915:66-69).

Another Amazon tribe was the Ticuna. The first Ticunan reference was from the mid 1500’s to the early 1600’s in the book Novo Descobrimento do Rio Amazonas, (New Discovery of the Amazon River) penned by Cristobal de Acuña, published in 1639. It was later translated by C.R. Markham into English, titled “Expeditions into the Valley of The Amazons: 1539, 1540, 1639”. Acuña’s report was the earliest first-hand description of the Amazon to be printed. They were described as being constantly at war with their neighboring communities, one of which happened to be the Cambebans. In this report, Acuña (through the translation of Markham) insists that he has, in fact, heard many firsthand stories of the warrior women of the area, who lived by choice with limited company of men, and that these mysterious women “lived in villages, cultivating the land, and obtaining by the work of their hands all that was necessary for their support.” He notes that the stories he is told may seem ridicules however, “not credible that a lie could have been spread throughout so many languages, and so many nations, with such an appearance of truth” (Acuña/Markham 1859:121-123). Acuña talked with many women (and men) who all spoke of similar encounters with the warrior women. According to Markham’s footnotes, while Wallace was not a believer, Orellana had supporters in Acuña, MM de la Condamine (a French geographer), and Baron Alexander von Humboldt (a Prussian naturalist and explorer). Even with over 400 years of forcible Western contact, the Ticuna have managed to maintain their personal identity through their native language, religions, rituals, and art. They are a very artistic and creative tribe. Pottery and weaving are mostly female tasks, although men are involved in ceramics as well. Masks and ritual objects (musical instruments, reclusion shelters, dance sticks, etc) are the men’s primary artistic specialties. Face painting is a big deal for everyone and all get involved from childhood on as painting themselves during festivals is a social responsibility. Masks are worn at funerals, shaped like animals the tribe hopes a deceased male shall hunt in the afterlife (http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/ticuna/1349 2008).

Amazonian spear. http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/amazon/news/wwf_success_conservation_amazon/?63140/New-forest-law-in-Brazil-helps-save-the-Amazon

It is hard to imagine a world without money. A world where a new clean and crisp one hundred dollar bill is worth only as much as the paper it is printed on. In some parts of the world this is true. And it was true hundreds of years ago. Hundreds of years ago in the Amazon, indigenous tribes carried on a way of life similar to how they live now. There was no form of exchange or currency. Richness was an unknown word to tribes. Power and fame held no economic status whatsoever. Historically speaking, little is known about ancient Amazonian tribes; however, because of written reports, and what we know of their culture today, we can piece together how Amazonian tribes used exchange in their everyday lives.

As you have probably figured out from class by now, our traditional view of marriage is not how every one sees it. For example, in the Mundurucu tribe it is simply sexual-reproductive rights and economic interdependence. They do not eat together or socialize together. For now we have to set aside our preconceived ideas about love and marriage and look through the eyes of our Amazonian friends.
In the Kalapalo tribe they view people in three different ways, “kinsmen” “spouse exchanger” or both. They have to decide who they would like to extend their family with. In their family they are interdependent, relying on each other for everything. No one outside their family can gain as much respect as the people in their family. They very rarely if ever get married to someone from a different family because it would be possibly breaking family ties. These family ties are how they survive because they are constantly supporting one another. Therefore it is important for them to keep their family going by taking spouses from within their extended family. Their marriage is (Kinsinger 84:37)” an alliance between sibling sets” Often brothers and sisters are exchanged for brothers and sisters. With this sibling exchange there is now a constant flow of material good between sibling sets. Because of these family exchanges the families end up extremely intertwined with relationships (Kinsinger 84:37).

When a man was ready to marry he first had to "qualify" to be a husband. He had to have proved to the prospective wife's family that he was able to hunt and to garden and therefore be a suitable husband. He also was responsible for a substantial bride price which was to be paid to the bride's family. This in turn promoted inter-family marriages so the wealth would stay in the family (Smole 76: 75).

Next we have to consider after the wedding how is the marriage run? In the Canela tribe it is not until a couple has their first child that they begin living in the same house. Before they would have their child they would be expected to very rarely cohabitate. These couples are not usually made up of people of the same age, they are usually “paired up” with someone older and “more experienced.” At a young age a girl is thrust into many different relationships with different men until she has her first child. Their “children” are involved in much more sexual activity then what we would see as acceptable. They also do not have much if any choice in the matter. The girls are trained to be very submissive to men be it their husbands or not. After the girl has her first child is when she is no longer in such a promiscuous lifestyle and is able to move in with her permanent husband. As you can tell, the girl has very little say in the relationship, she is just to do what she is told. Men were very free to do as they pleased while women were expected to raise the children and do much of the work (Kinsinger 84:79).

It was not uncommon for a man to have multiple wives, although they did primarily practice monogamy. If a man did have multiple wives they were usually sisters. Each wife would run her own separate household from the other wives. There is often some competition between the wives since the husband chooses who he is going to live with at the moment, solely on who is his favorite right then (Smole 76:75).

Couples usually did not have more than two children.There were occasions of induced abortions and infanticide for demographic stability. The women were definitely the most influential on the children because it was their responsibility to raise them. The father had very little to do with the actually raising of the children since it was the wife’s job. Children did not have a very long childhood compared to what we consider growing up years. By the age of 10 they were being put into relationships and the cycle started over again (Wilson 99:193).

e is defined as “a range of kin-ordered groups that are politically integrated by some unifying factor and whose members share a common ancestry, identity, culture, language, and territory (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, McBride 2005:310)” Also each tribe, “consists of one or more self-governing communities, and the political organization within is usually informal and temporary (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, McBride 2005:310)." This general definition of a tribe is similar to what I found when researching the Amazonian tribes. These tribes are under an uncentralized government, meaning they consist of small tribes with small territories to control, so they each are separated and are allowed to have their own political organization.

Before the influence of others, many tribes like the Matses relied on the elderly men of the tribe to make decisions as a group (Pantone 2010). But as outsiders began to come into the Amazon, more warfare started between tribes and with outsiders, which created the need to distinguish leaders within the tribes. The leaders show their superiority by both power and influence. In both the Yanomamo and Cashinahua tribe’s pow

er is determined strictly by kinship and marriage. In most tribes there is a “headman” and a “shaman.” The headman’s are the ones that make the decisions in the tribe, whether it is dealing with hunting expeditions, or where the tribe is going to move to next (Erikson, Granero 1988: 165-165). They also have an overall responsibility of keeping the tribe safe and under control. Headman’s gain their position through their kinship, as well as showing himself to be a successful hunter and military leader. In the Cashinahua tribe the headman then maintains his position by bringing happiness to the tribe through food under which he obtains through the hunting expeditions he leads, as well as the generosity he shows to the people in the tribe. The shamans are the religious leaders in the tribe. They work alongside the headman to create “the ritual ensurance of life” to help solve social problems, and create groups through magic and supernatural ideas. Shamans receive and maintain their position through their success in solving these social problems and doing so with ideas of “magic, rituals, and religion (Erikson, Granero 1988: 164-165).” In the book Valley of the Amazons, a priest on an expedition in 1639 describes his sighting of a tribal sorcerer. He described the sorcerers as, “held in great estimation by the people, and when they die the bones of the dead sorcerers are kept as if they are relics of saints…these men are their teachers, their preachers, their councilors, and their guides (Markham 1540: 85-86).” Although these two leadership roles are separate, and neither the shaman nor the headman need to have skills in the others responsibilities, their work together forms a symbolic relationship and is “essential to make successful decisions on production and reproduction in the tribe.” But in other tribes such as the Panoan

s, they believe that “warfare was the most essential to the production and reproduction to the tribe (Erikson,Granero 1988:164-165).” Overall political power is deeply embedded in the economic processes in all the Amazonian tribes.

When it comes to disputes and laws, the headman is usually the one that upholds them and makes the decisions. In many tribes he has “judicial enforcement over the tribe to settle disputes and can even punish people to death (Oberg 2009:484).” Usually large enough disputes are handled through either external or internal warfare. According to the textbook, “social mechanisms that mostly all tribes use for informal sanctions are things like gossip, criticism, and blaming people’s actions for sicknesses in the tribe or other misfortunes (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, McBride 2005:311).”

When it came to foreigners, all tribes were different on how they treated and reacted upon their arrival. One basic idea was either kill them or attempt to totally integrate them into the tribe. In the book, Valley of the Amazons, Francisco De Orellana described their encounters with Amazonian Tribes in 1540 A.D. “The captain ordered the soldier to take the quantity of provisions and was attacked by more than two thousand Indians…another body of Indians attacked the vessels from two sides…they were unable to get any rest, from the crowds of Indians who landed and attacked them (Markham 1540: 28-29).” In 1639, a quite different encounter was described, “When we arrived at a village of these Indians they received us not only peacefully but with dances and signs of great joy; they offered all they had (Markham 1639: 97).” All the tribes saw outsiders differently and probably didn’t agree on each other’s approaches to them.

The religion of the Amazonian tribes differs some from tribe to tribe, like many other aspects of life. However the main idea is the same all around. The tribe that is closest to all others is the Mundurucú.

The basis of their religion is Animist, which means that they believe that all things (especially non-human things) have a spirit. There are 3 principle categories to their religion: The Shaman, ceremonialism, and magic/supernatural being (Roth 1970:142).

The Shaman: His practices were used on one individual in particular at a time; not on groups (Steward and Faron 1959: 308).He controls spirits who are mainly used to cause/cure sickness and perform certain miracles To become a Shaman one must give a gift to a practicing Shaman and in return he will give a special drink called “natema”. It is a hallucinogenic drug similar to LSD that allows them to “see the spirits” (Gross 1973:348). After drinking the natema they must not engage in sexual activity for several month. It takes 3 months to obtain any power, if however, they go 5 months then they have the ability to kill/cure. If they go 1 year they will be a very powerful and successful Shaman. While they are inactive they collect objects that they will turn into “tsentsak”, meaning spirit helpers. Sickness is explained by a foreign object entering the body, which sometimes was the act of a bewitching Shaman (Gross 1973:347), or the soul leaving the body. To cause sickness the bewitching Shaman eats and regurgitates a tsentsak and then hides in the grounds f the victim, waits till he/she is in plain view and throws it at the victim. Depending on the intensity of the throw and location of the hit will determine how sick they will get and how fast the victim will die(Gross 1973:349-350), The curing Shaman can remove the foreign object and/or find and restore the lost soul(Roth 1970: 215)

The ceremonies: Unlike the Shamanistic performances, the ceremonies are for the purpose of a group or village as a whole. The initiation of boys becoming men is one of the most popular ceremonies among tribes. It takes place in a special hut with all the men and the initiates. They play sacred trumpets that represent the spirits of the ancestors. The women and children were not allowed to be there or touch any of the sacred paraphernalia because it was considered taboo for them.(Steward and Faron 1959: 339-342) Another important ceremony was the fertility ceremony to help increase fish and game. The women and children were not permitted to attend this ceremony either. The Shaman endeavored to propitiate the spitits concerned and made offerings to the skulls. (Steward and Faron 1959: 307)

They believed that the spirit of the bush and rivers had the greatest influence on human life. They were thought to be malignant and carefully avoided at all costs (Steward and Faron 1959:307).

Art within the Amazonian tribes is derived from one aspect, pottery. According to Betty Meggers, the earliest pottery forms appeared before 980 B.C. They were much simpler than you would find today. The first amazonian pots were in a simple round bowl or jar form and they had little or no decoration. Further into time, the pottery designs became more elaborate. The supplies used to decorate the pottery were usually perishable items that can't survive well in the climate.

The Marajo indians used their pottery a bit different. They built large mounds for burials, which reflected their social status. The plainest looking used no monotary goods and were meant for the lower class. The most complex have large painted urns that are presented along with tools, rattles, and other artifacts for the individual in the next world. Other than the Marajo indians, pottery is mainly produced to use for cooking, eating and drinking.(Meggers 1979:24)

Some tribes during a time in the world where humans and animals were not split into specific catagories used rituals such as song, drug-induced hallucinogines, and making pottery. (Hill 1993:61)

The ancient Marajo pot is traditional within the Marajo tribe. Many develop extrodinary skills in making pottery in the Marajo tribe. The tribe lived on Marajo Island. Sometime before 1300 CE the tribe vanished but left some of their culture and history. Some of the culture shown are beautiful pots painted with intricate designs.(Brooks 2009:9)

When making the pottery, the Amazonians can not just use pure clay, they must mix it with a substance so the clay won't shrink or crack during drying or baking. They mix the clay with the ash of the Caraipe tree. By using the Caraipe tree, the pottery will last longer and it will be able to withstand the fire when baking. There is also another substance that can be used to mix with the clay to prevent cracking, a species of a freshwater sponge, Cauxi.

After the clay is mixed with the Caraipe tree or Cauxi, it is then kneaded into a ball and then split into many different balls of clay. They roll out each ball of clay so they can begin building the coils of the pot. Once they form the bottom that is desired, they start building the coils up layer by layer. By using water and a shell or hands, they are able to smooth the clay coils. After forming of the pottery is complete, they decorate the pot with various designs and colors. They paint colors onto the pottery by using a brush made of the spine of a palm. Each color is derived from plant or fruit juices availible to them. The black color used is from the juice of a mandioca. Some of the potteries have engraved designs presented on them. These carvings are done by the tooth of a paca or some other rodent. (American Society of Naturalists 1879:84)
After the decoration is complete the pottery is baked or dried in the sun. When it is fully dry but still hot, a resin for shininess is put on. The resin used by the Amazonian tribes comes from the Futahy tree. The resin called jutahy-sica, from the Futahy tree, is then mixed with alcohol and then painted onto the pot.
Art is not just for visual or decoration, art has a meaning to them. The artistic value put into the pottery is learned and past on generation to generation. The use of geometric shapes on the pots is a very common trend. They are not just shapes for decoration though; they too have a meaning and can tell a story.
Within the Amazonian tribes, art is very personalized. By making the pottery and decorating it with the ideas from the spirits, reflects that individual.

Music
The Amazon is made up of many countries, tribes, and societies that have many unique musical traditions. Each tribe has its own interesting interpretation of music and songs and their meanings. A tribe I found had quite unique musical traits was the Suya tribe of Brazil. Their music is based mostly on voice. Flutes and rattles accompany the voices in songs sometimes but they aren’t a necessity (Seeger 1975: 215). This is similar to the general study of indigenous people of Brazil who use “flutes, clarinet-and oboe-like instruments, gourd shakers, shell rattles, wood drums with animal skin membranes, and other rhythmic instruments” (Crook 2005: 38). Each song usually goes with a particular ritual or ceremony. During some ceremony’s it’s normal to hear singing all day for days or for weeks at a time (Seeger 1987: 7). In the Suya tribe music is very important when it comes to rituals because music is often said “connection is being created or recreated between different domains of life, the universe, the human body and its spirits” (Seeger 1987: 7). The Suya tribe has a strong connection with each of these attributes. Often times when there is music or singing there will always be some sort of connection being made between domains. Suya rarely, if ever, use music as a leisure activity. To me it seems as something sacred that is highly specific when it comes to each ceremony. “The Suya sing no love songs, work songs, songs of protest, or lullabies. Instead there are ceremonial songs, individual shout songs, unison songs, curing songs, and many songs learned from members of other societies” (Seeger 1987: 8). Though their music isn’t like the music we are used to, it doesn’t mean it’s boring and serious all the time. The music of the Suya people can be “serious and funny, secular and sacred, good to think and good to eat, good to sing and important to listen to” (Seeger 1987: 8). The music of the Suya tribe is different but still full of life and experience.

There are two types of genres that the Suya people sing. The first are individual songs or akia, which are on I high pitch scale. Only men sing these songs during rituals, and each man has his own akia. The second genre is the unison songs or ngere. These songs are in a much lower key or scale (Seeger 1975: 215). Unison songs are often sung on the last night at the end of a ceremony, myth, plaza speech, and invocation (Seeger 1987: 6). Some of the songs the Suya sing are very specific as to who can sing them. Things like age, sex, time, place, and season come into play (Seeger 1987: 8).

Another importance of music is the human body and how it relates and portrays the music. The Suya people emphasize the importance of speech, hearing, and movement in music because “the performer learns the song, performs it with accompanying body movements, and an audience hears it” (Seeger 1987: 78). Each person plays a part in the creation of music. The Suya are unique and express an interesting form of music in the Amazon that is beautiful and intriguing.

Core Values

“Values refer to interests, pleasures, likes, preferences, duties, moral obligations, desires, wants, needs, aversions, and attractions, and many other modalities of selective orientation.” (Sponsel 1985: 93) My main focus of the Amazon tribes was the Yanomami and their core values. According to Sponsel, this Amazonian tribe has become very accustomed to life in the rainforest for the past two millennia, and little has changed during this time in terms of core values. The Yanomami places high value on maintaining their society, as they know it (1985: 94). This has been their way of life all along and they wish to continue this unique culture. Through these small sub values, which include warfare, infanticide, faunal prohibitions and land conservation, the Yanomami are able to keep this one central value.

Warfare is a constant part of life for the Yanomami. This rich environment is unable to support large tribes, so the men are constantly fighting to keep the population down by engaging physical fights with other tribes. Men are seen as “fierce people”, they are valued in the community because they are able to defend, protect if necessary and survive (Sponsel, 1985: 93). As a result of high preference for males in this society, infanticide has become a common practice among Yanomami women (Margolis, Carter 1979: 116). “The resulting reduction in the size of the adult female population, in turn, is an extremely effective means of limiting overall population growth” (Margolis, Carter 1979: 116).

Faunal prohibitions, which are the limitations on which animals can or cannot be killed is another value that reinforces the core value of preservation of society (Sponsel 1985: 93). General taboos are prohibitions that are followed by all members of society and specific taboos are limited to people of specific age groups, sex, social or physiological condition. This practice is enforced among the people of Yanomami to maintain and conserve wildlife (Sponsel 1985: 93).
Land conservation is the last sub value to maintaining society. The Amazon has maintained it’s rich environment for millions of years, without the inhabitants, this would not be possible (Meggers 1995: 18). In order for the Yanomami to continue this way of life, they treat the land with respect, and maintain the natural resources. The Amazon Valley consists of 4 million square kilometers, and each area is maintained by a different tribe (Moran 1993: 2).

All in all, the core values of the Yanomami can be described using the barrel model. The main value is maintaining the society. Socially, men are preferred because of their ability to defend in war, which gives them the power, and links back to the value of maintaining their society and way of life. The technologies used for warfare, hunting, gathering and maintaining the land link to the environment, which in turn links to the superstructure of maintaining the core value. The faunal prohibition helps preserve and maintain wildlife, which maintains the environment and in turn, maintains their way of life. Each of the sub values can be seen in the barrel model which are all interlinked.

History
Above is how Amazon tribes were like before 1450. It is now time to update where the Amazon tribes are in the present time from the year 1450. Starting with the moment that everything changed for the Amazonian tribes. On April 22, 1500, Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese armada. The men were amazed with the land and the people. Pero Vaz de Caminha, a man on the ship wrote in his journal “the people where amazing striding around in their natural nudity, laughing openly and candidly proposing dialogue.” The Amazon tribes welcomed the visitors. They were very curious of the people. The visitors also gave knives, mirrors, and colored glass beads which pleased the Indians. For the next fifty years after the first discovery many Europeans like the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and German made their way to South America. They came to fill their ships with items from the lands. The main good was Brazilwood. The Europeans used the Indians to work long hours and doing hard work to cut the Brazilwood for them. The Portuguese also started to enslave Indians to work on the ships (Gomes, 2000: 28-35). And from then on, life became a struggle for Amazon tribes.

Many attributes contributed to life struggles for Amazon tribes, one being war with the Europeans. In the 1550s and on, the Portuguese began to start to establish permanent colonies along the coast of Brazil. Meaning, more contact and disputes the Indians about land. For instance, Portuguese established a permanent colony Sao Vicente and established the first sugarcane plantation. Sao Vicente was near villages of the Tabajara tribe. The Portuguese and Tabajara fought for years killing many men of the Tabajara until finally the rest ran westward. The worst of the fighting was known as the War of the Barbarians. It was a prolonged war of extermination to clear land for colonization. The villages of Junadui, Jeico, Xavante, Camelas, and many other tribes were attacked, the adult men killed, while the women and young want to cattle ranches as slaves. It is estimated that the Portuguese wiped out four hundred villages and killed two million Indians from 1616 to 1656 (Gomes, 2000: 36-43).

Another factor that effected Amazon tribes was epidemic diseases brought over by the Europeans. The diseases did even more devastation than the war. Europeans brought smallpox, measles, chicken pox, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and the flu. Amazon people had evolved in a way where their bodies did not need to fight these illnesses or have any resistance making the epidemics devastating for the Amazon people. For example, in 1949 the Ka’apor Indians had a measles epidemic. Of 600 in the tribe, 180 died. Also, in the mid seventies, outsiders came into the lands near the Yanomami and other tribes where a tuberculosis epidemic broke out killing hundreds (Ramos, 1998: 200-206). Europeans even used this to their advantage. At the end of the nineteenth century, new settlers were trying to establish land. So the settlers would give the Indians blankets infested with measles and smallpox at trading post as gifts. A few months later after many Indians died from the diseases the settlers would take their land (Gomes, 2000: 47).