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Amazonian peoples, an introduction
Amazonia is a land of many rivers which eventually join to form the mainstream Amazon, carrying to the sea the rains and silt which feed the greatest forest in the world. Most of Amazonia is in Brazil, but an extensive network of tributaries flow into it from the neighbouring countries of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, all of which share the environment and culture of the South American tropical lowlands.
The vast reaches of the Amazonian rainforest have been lived in and shaped by human hands for thousands of years. Long before Europeans arrived in the Americas this deep history of human interaction with river and forest gave rise to enduring cultural traditions and sophisticated art styles. Today people's lives are closely intertwined with the plants and animals of the forest for their practical value as well as their symbolic significance.
Native Amazonians, or Amerindians, belong to a multitude of different ethnic groups with their own languages and cultures, but also sharing a common cultural tradition. Their story can be told in many ways through oral and written histories, objects and images. They often speak of the Amazon as a serpent, and the plan of the exhibition is based on this idea of a serpentine river which winds its way through the Amazonian past and present.
© Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
- How many different ethnic groups are there?(4 votes)
- please help us answer your question Chuck. Are you asking how many different ethnic groups there are in the entire world in 2015, or in the world at some other date, or in the Amazonia in 2015, or in the Amazonia at some other time? Giving a geographical limitation (or non-limitation) and a time-frame will help us figure out how to answer you.(3 votes)
- Is there any real danger of the Amazon Rain Forest being majorly deforested in the coming decades?(3 votes)
- How many different ethnic groups are there?(0 votes)