PRACTICE 3

A TRIBE FACED WITH EXTINCTION: THE UNTOUCHED INDIANS

1 Aside from a few ignorable fears like death and terrorism, life in the developed world is a pretty enjoyable frolic.
We have clean water, mostly clean air, relatively stable economies, quick access to all the luxuries and
amenities that come with being a card-carrying member of civilization. Yet outside our beautiful landscapes,
which are full of endless opportunities, rests a world of primitive tribes, primitive lifestyles and traditions that are
rapidly decaying in the stifling air of the civilized world. In another hundred years, there may not even be a
single Bushman left in the world. The evolution of humanity is an overwhelming force pushing everybody
towards change, including those whose lifestyles stand firmly against it. Although many of us may not live to
see it, our children may one day only see people in black and white suits instead of the colorful eccentricities of
today's world.

2 One of the groups facing the threat from the modern world is the untouched Indians living in the Amazon.
South America's Amazon River Basin stretches across two million square miles and contains the world's
largest tropical rainforest. In addition to its amazing biodiversity, the Amazon is vast and remote enough to
support a group of indigenous people, uncontacted Indians, who are living exactly as their ancestors did for
thousands of years. Experts believe that these people reject contact with civilization in order to survive. They
are referred to as "uncontacted Indians." Others believe the term "voluntarily isolated" may be more accurate.
These people have a modest lifestyle. They are believed to be migratory groups who survive by collecting
seasonal resources, such as turtle eggs from exposed riverbanks in the dry season and Brazil nuts from trees
in the forest in the rainy season,

3 Because they have little resistance to the illnesses of the outside world, indigenous communities in South
America have been plagued by disease and death since contact with Europeans began in the 1500s.
Additionally, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rubber barons enslaved Amazonian Indians and
slaughtered entire tribes that resisted capture. Some of those who survived contact abandoned their villages
and fled into the forest, where their descendants lived up to this day. These people still have little resistance to
the illnesses carried by outsiders. They need vast areas of forest to move freely in, obtain food from, and
remain buffered from the outside world.

4 Today, indigenous rights advocates in Peru and across the Amazon are providing a voice for those in
isolation. These activists and others helped convince the government of Peru to establish a three-thousand-
square-mile reserve for their protection in April 2002 in the southeastern province of Madre de Dios. In theory,
the reserve allows the uncontacted Indians to live as they have for thousands of years. While the government
of Peru believes it has a responsibility to protect and promote the well-being of these ancestral communities in
the Peruvian Amazon, setting aside such a large area of land for them has met resistance from other
Peruvian people who make a livelihood from the country's natural resources.

5 The problem in the Madre de Dios region, where the territorial reserve was established, is that the
good intention to protect these people's living in isolation is not in tune with the social and economic
reality of the region. No matter how much the government tries to enact laws and create a reserve,
the local populations find a way to extract the resources from the forest. Indigenous rights groups
say that the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, an agreement enacted by the United
Nations, gives indigenous peoples the right to control their own development and have their cultural
and social values protected. In the case of isolated peoples, clearly they choose to remain in
isolation and follow their own path of development; however, the energy and timber industries seek
to establish contact in order to integrate the indigenous peoples with modern society, thus freeing
up the resources currently in the reserve for extraction and sale in the international market.
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6 Currently, the greatest pressure on the people in the territorial reserve in Madre de Dios comes from loggers
extracting tropical hardwoods such as mahogany. Demand for this resource is causing loggers to penetrate
deep into the territorial reserve, which has resulted in violent confrontations. According to Antonio Iviche, the
former president of the Native Federation of the region, since 1980, there has been an increase in the number
of loggers due to the demand for wood products. They are spreading like a plague, which is causing social
unrest.

7 Indigenous rights activists fear that contact with the loggers could lead to the spread of devastating diseases,
such as influenza. Increased settlement in the area of the reserve also puts greater pressure on the reserve's
hunting and fishing resources, reducing food sources for the isolated peoples. The same impacts are likely to
be felt in the coming years as a result of exploration for fossil fuels. A consortium of oil companies has a license
to extract and transport natural gas from a tract of land in the Sacred Valley (Urubamba) river basin of the
remote Peruvian Amazon. The project, known as the Camisea Gas Project, is under construction. Development
plans for other parts of the Amazon are currently in the initial stages, and activists fear that this threat will
become a reality as new concessions are created and licensed to energy companies.

8 Indigenous rights activists also view missionaries as a threat to the uncontacted people. The missionaries feel it
is their responsibility to reach these peoples in isolation and convert them to Christianity, as well as improve
their living conditions. The mission is still active today, working to contact the people they say are living in
voluntary isolation, but certainly not uncontacted. They believe the isolated peoples are afraid of contact and
it's the role of the mission to allow them to communicate with humankind.

9 However, the contact between the missionaries and isolated indigenous peoples can be just as devastating as
the contact with loggers, oil and gas companies, or others planning to extract resources from the Amazon.
Antonio Ivicher warns that it may ruin this culture completely. His tribe was contacted when his father was a
boy. The missionaries lured his people by dropping machetes (a kind of knife) from an airplane, later coming by
boat and distributing clothing. At first, the indigenous people burned the clothing and accepted the machetes.
As time passed, missionaries started to travel to different indigenous settlements and talk with them using
people from Christian tribes to help them communicate. Eventually, the tribes were grouped into one mission.
After they were grouped, they began to wear clothes. The clothing was the cause of diseases, due to the
soaps and other things such as the iron, or the machete. Iviche says his ancestors survived in the mission for
only four or five years. After that, they disintegrated because the elders started dying. Like an epidemic, both
kids and older people were dying. The population of the villages went from 30,000 to 1,500.

I. In which paragraphs do you find the following information? Write the paragraph number(s) next to
each piece of information given below.

1. possible impacts of contact with them in the short and long run _____________

2. their food sources/life styles _______

the reasons for the decrease in their population in the past

the reasons why loggers try to enter the reserves

measures taken to protect them

the reasons why industries want to contact them

the habitat of uncontacted Indians

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II. Write what the following words refer to.
1. those (para. 1)

2. its (para. 2)

3. their (para. 2)
some of the
4. some of those (para.3)

5. their (para. 4)

6. they (para. 6)

7. it (para.9)
8. they (para.9 )

III. Answer the following questions using the information given in the text.
1. Why are some Peruvian people against the idea of giving some land to the uncontacted Indians?

2. What rights does the 'Tribal Peoples Convention' give to indigenous people?

3. How could the integration of the uncontacted Indians with modern society help the energy and timber
industries?

4. What is the cause of violent confrontations between the loggers and the uncontacted Indians?

5. What will be the possible consequences if settlement Increases in the area near the reserves given to the
uncontacted Indians?

6. Why do the activists view missionaries as a threat to the uncontacted Indians?

IV. VOCABULARY EXERCISES

A. What do the following words/ phrases mean? Choose the most suitable alternative.

1. remain buffered (para.3 ): a) be protected from / be safeguarded against

b) resist change

2. provide a voice ( para.4 ) : a) agree with

b) talk for

3. set aside ( para.4 ) : a) reserve for a special purpose

b) consume

4.be in tune with (para.5) : a) agree with / go along with

b) be equal to

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5. enact (para.5) : a) follow

b) enforce

6. extract (para.5) : a) remove

b) mix together

7. penetrate ( para.6) : a) enter into / make a way / pass

b) leave

8. disintegrate (para.9) : a) fall apart

b) rebel

B. What prepositions do the following words take?

integrate ___________ _________ construction penetrate

put pressure __________ extract _

C. Find the derivatives of the following words in the text and determine their word
class. The first one has been given as an example.

Paragraph 1

WORD DERIVATIVE WORD CLASS

ignore (v) ignorable adjective

access (v)

civilized (adj)

Paragraph 2
WORD DERIVATIVE WORD CLASS

threaten (v)
amaze (v)
survival (n)

Paragraph 7

WORD DERIVATIVE WORD CLASS

devastate (v)
settle (v)

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V. Mark the following statements TRUE (T) or FALSE (F) and support your answers by
referring to the information given in the text.

T F 1. The writer thinks that in the future, the world will become a more colorful and unusual place.

T F 2. The lifestyles of the uncontacted Indians in the Amazons haven't undergone any change since the
times of their ancestors.

T F 3. In order to survive, the untouched Indians have to live in isolation.

T F 4. Although the government of Peru allocated a big amount of land to the uncontacted Indians, these
people are still under threat from the outside world.

T F 5. Plague was one of the causes of the deaths among the uncontacted Indians in the 1980s.

T F 6. The only concern of the missionaries in this area is to better the living conditions of these Indians.

T F 7. Early missionaries used the Christian members of the tribe to communicate with the rest of the
members of the tribe.

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Word Part of Pattern + Definition + Collocations Context in which the word/phrase is used
Speech
stable adjective steady and not likely to move or We have clean water, mostly clean air,
change relatively stable economies...
Be careful, that ladder isn't stable.
a stable marriage
access noun [U ] the method or possibility of We have ... quick access to all the luxuries
approaching a place or person, or the and amenities that come with being a
right to use or look at something card-carrying member of civilization.

decay verb [I ] if traditional beliefs, morals, ...primitive lifestyles and traditions that
standards etc decay, people do not are rapidly decaying in the stifling air of
believe in them or support them any the civilized world.
more
a decay in educational standards
reject verb [T] to refuse to accept an offer, Experts believe that these people reject
suggestion, or request Sarah rejected her contact with civilization in order to
brother's offer of help. survive.

slaughter verb [T] to kill large numbers of people in a ...in the late 19th and early 20th
cruel or violent way centuries, rubber barons enslaved
Hundreds of innocent civilians were Amazonian Indians and slaughtered
slaughtered. entire tribes that resisted capture.
abandon verb [T] to go away from a place, vehicle etc, Some of those who survived contact
permanently, especially because the abandoned their villages and fled into ! the
situation makes it impossible for you forest...
to stay
Fearing further attacks, most of the
population had abandoned the city.
extract verb [T] to carefully remove a substance from ...the local populations find a way to extract
another substance which contains the resources from the forest.
it, using a machine, chemical
process etc extract sth from sth: The
nuts are crushed to extract the oil from
them.
integrate verb [I,T] to join in the life and customs of the group ...the energy and timber industries seek
or society that you live in so that you are to establish contact in order to integrate the
accepted by them, or to help someone do indigenous peoples with modern society...
this [+ into/with]: The child was only
adopted a year ago, but she has
completely integrated into the
family's life.

confrontation noun a situation in which there is a lot of angry Demand for this resource is causing loggers
[C, U + disagreement between two people or to penetrate deep into the territorial
with/between] groups with very different opinions reserve, which has resulted in violent
She had stayed in her room to avoid confrontations.
another confrontation.

devastating adjective destroying or badly damaging Indigenous rights activists fear that contact
something with the loggers could lead to the spread of
Acid rain has a devastating effect devastating diseases, such as influenza.
on the environment.
disintegrate verb [I,T] to become weaker or less united and After that, they disintegrated
be gradually destroyed a society because the elders started dying.
disintegrating under economic
pressures

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