Costa Rica, meaning “rich coast” in Spanish, was given its name for the wealth of gold found when it was first discovered in 1502 (Costa Rica, 1892). What the Spaniards may not have realized, is that indigenous communities even richer in culture had been occupying the land for thousands of years. To this day, Costa Rica is the home of eight separate indigenous groups, whose people make up 1,7 % of the country's population (Sévenier, 2003). The Bribri, the second largest tribe and the focus of this paper, have a reserve population of about 11,500. However, due to often isolated villages which make calculations difficult, some estimate their true numbers are closer to 35,000 (Bribri, n.d.). This paper will begin by exploring the traditional beliefs, …show more content…
Perhaps, in considering projects from the past, we can find promising solutions for the future.
The authenticity of Bribri culture has been maintained thanks to their isolation in the Costa Rican jungle and the reserves, where they are largely uninfluenced by modern society (Sévenier, 2003). Though some of their beliefs and traditions have been lost, others remain, passed down orally from generation to generation. The Bribri believe that the universe resides in the house of the creator named Sibo/Sibú. According to them, “the roof is pierced by millions of little holes, through which the light goes and forms constellations...when dawn comes, the sun falls off the earth to turn around and come behind the roof, giving light to the stars” (Sévenier, 2003). The Bribri also believe that humans originally came from seeds, which were given to the lesser benevolent gods by the creator (Skinner, 1920). The evil gods continually tried to steal these seeds, creating many important adventures and stories. The Bribri also have complex rituals and ceremonies surrounding death. For instance, when a Bribri is near death, they are removed from their house and brought to a small hut away
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Napoleon Chagnon has spent about 60 months since 1964 studying the ‘foot people’ of the Amazon Basin known as the Yanomamo. In his ethnography, Yanomamo, he describes all of the events of his stay in the Venezuelan jungle. He describes the “hideous” appearance of the Yanomamo men when first meeting them, and their never-ending demands for Chagnon’s foreign goods, including his food. There are many issues that arise when considering Chagnon’s Yanomamo study. The withholding of genealogical information by the tribesmen, and how Chagnon was able to obtain his information is an interesting and significant aspect of this study. Why did Chagnon feel that this genealogical information was important? And was Chagnon’s choice to study the Yanomamo, despite their hesitancy to cooperate, a wise and ethical one?
Nomads of the Rainforest is a film which focuses on a tribe in Ecuador called the Waorani. The purpose of this documentary is to discover how this culture has maintained their cultural identity amidst Western culture and remained an enigma. The Waorani were known as savages and likely to attack any outside influence indiscriminately. These people were a mystery due to the fact that their savagery was brushed against the landscape of an egalitarian society in which all people were equal and must contribute to their society. The message of the film is to describe the Waorani lifestyle and how the rainforest is critical to their maintaining their nomadic lifestyle that has been a part of their culture for centuries.
My name is Eric Dunning and this is my proposal to go and study the Yanomamo tribe in the rain forests of Brazil. I have compiled a historical outline of the Yanomamo tribe and some of their religion and culture, ranging from marital status to the type of food they eat. I have chosen this tribe because according to many anthropologists the Yanomamo are perhaps the last culture to have come in contact with the modern world.
Dominicans’ ethnicity consists of Taino, Spanish and African. The native people on the island were the Taino. The Taino were hunter and gatherers who lived off the land. Led by Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquered the island in 1492. The Spanish overtook the Taino forcing them to be their slaves while killing many in the process. The Africans were then later brought to the island as slaves. Certain traits of these ethnic groups are still present in the Dominican culture, such as the food, language, religion and personality of the people (Goodwin, 116).
Throughout history in North America, the indigenous peoples culture, tradition and religion have always differed from the western way of life. In this essay, I will explore two things. First, I will talk about the indigenous people’s view of the conservation of resources which can also be termed as the traditional ecological knowledge and the economist view of natural resources. Second, I will argue in this essay that by thinking of resources from the traditional ecological point of view, we can better understand why conserving our natural resources is important. I believe that we understanding why conservation of our natural resources is important will go a long way in helping us understand why our individual action affects our ecosystem.
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
Spreading along seventy thousand square miles in the Amazon forest, the Yanomami tribe resides and maintains their culture without intrusion. Their culture has evolved just like that of a modern society, but their way of life is very different. The tribe chooses to live in communal housing; large round dwellings called shaponos. The shaponos are made out of wood and are completely built by the tribe’s people (1). Fam...
During his research Barker utilizes a series of methods in his quest to understand these indigenous people, from this he was able to capture his readers and make them understand issues that surround not only people form third worlds; but how these people and their struggles are related to us. By using ethnographic methods, such as: interviews,participant observation, key consultants/informants,detailed note-taking/ census, and controlled historical comparisons. In these practices Barker came to understand the people and their culture, of which two things became a big subject in his book. The first being Tapa, “a type of fiber made from bark that the Maisin people use as a stable for cloths and other cloth related uses. Defining both gender roles and history; proving income and also a symbol of identity to the people” (Barker 5-6). And the other being their forest, of which logging firms the Maisin and Non Government Organizations (NGO’s), had various views, wants and uses for the land. Logging firms wished to clear the area to plant cash crops such as oil palms, while the NGO’s wanted the land to remain safe; all the while the Maisin people were caught in the middle by the want to preserve their ancestors lands and the desperate need to acquire cash. With these two topics highlighted throughout Barkers ethnography the reader begins is journey into understanding and obtaining questions surrounding globalization and undeveloped
In this article written by Miner, he describes the tribe of the Nacirema vividly and descriptively. The Nacirema are a tribe known for only twenty years. When they were discovered there was almost no information on them. They are a North American tribe that exists between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles (Miner). This area, with further investigation, is the area of the United States of America. The location alone causes the reader to be alert for Miner’s motives.
Early on, there was clear recognition that traditional foods are a pillar of native life, and not only feed the bodies of indigenous people but their culture as well. Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas have developed distinct harvesting strategies and accumulated ecological knowledge over thousands of years to match the local abundance of traditional foods in their territories. Only recently has the global movement toward indigenous rights begun to understand this process, and the intimacy between food independence and community
During my service learning trip to Ecuador I was lucky enough to be able to learn about a completely different culture. Without an open mind, I would have never noticed all of the different and intriguing aspects of Ecuador’s culture. There was one portion of the trip that really stood out to me. On the first day we were able to visit the Yunguilla Community in the Cloudy Forest. This was only the start of learning about a culture utterly different from our own. In this community, an average of 50 families work together to preserve this area of the Cloudy Forest. Cheeses, jams, and handicrafts are all made on the land that the community owns. It was captivating to see these
The history of Belize dates back thousands of years. Several major archeological sites such as Cahal Pech, Caracol, Lamanai, Lubaantun, Altun Ha, and Xunantunich reflect the advanced civilization and much denser population of that period. The first recorded European settlement was established by shipwrecked English seamen in 1638. Over the next 150...
Last summer, I spent one month in Quito, Ecuador and one week on the island Anaconda in the Amazonian Forest. This was my first experience in Latin America and I have been able to see two very different part of the Ecuadorian culture. In Quito, people speak Spanish, live in the capital and are from mixed descent (Spanish- Indian) while Anaconda?s population is mainly Indian, speaks ...
Barbados is located in the Lesser Antilles, and is the easternmost of the Caribbean SIDS. It is highly urbanized and has a population of around 300,000 and a landmass of 432 km2. (Rawlins, 2003); (World Health Organization , 2013; Henshall, 1966). The Caribbean is mostly comprised of SIDS and is the island group that is most predisposed to natural disasters and extreme weather events (Pelling & Uitto, 2001). The metamorphosis of the land development in Barbados is closely related to the islands socio-cultural history. On account of their colonial legacy, the Barbados was a rural landscape. The dominance of sugar as a mono crop, therefore, favoured the development of the interior agricultural land. It is only recently that the locus of development has shifted outwards to the coast in order to respond to the tourism demands (Scruggs & Bassett, 2013).