Destruction of the Yanomamo
From KstructIB
Pg 480- Destruction of the Yanomamo (Davus 1980)
The 8500 Yanomamo Indians of Amazonia, whose homeland is divided by the Brazil-Venzuela border, comprise one of the last strongholds of traditional subsistence economy and intact community organisation in Amazonia. They have fiercely defended their autonomy- while fighting one another.- for the centuries since Europeans invaded South America.
Now the Northern Perimeter Highway, part of Brazil’s new network of
highways through Amazonia, and massive mineral development, threaten to
destroy this autonomy, and the Yanomamo themselves.
Although the highway is still not completed, one section has been built
along the southern fridge of Yanomamo territory. Diseases carried by highway
workers have already destroyed 15 Yanomamo villages along with the first
100 kilometres of the new road. Indians were witnessed in a state
of misery, sickness and shock. They refused to speak their language, their
gardens had been uprooted by bulldozers, and they were wearing ragged clothing
given to them by highway workers and infested with influenza, tuberculosis,
measles and other germs.
The agency which supposedly protects Indian rights, FUNAI, which in
fact works closely with development interests, proposed creation
of 21 small Indian reserves for the Yanomamo of Brazil. But these enclaves
would leave out 2,900 living in 58 villages.
In response, a group of prominent Brazilians proposed to the government
the creation of a 16 million acre Yanomamo Indian Park, that would at least
give the Indians a chance of viable future life. The government countered
by appointing to the presidency of FUNAI a retired army officer with no
experience with Indian affairs, who previously had been chief of security
and information for the mineral corporaion that is seeking mining rights
in Yanomamo country.
The Yanomamo are under threat from ‘development’, which will:
- Disrupt their natural habitat
- Cause a loss of habitat- forced resettlement of the poor farmers along the highway margins
- It will increase the number of industries located there
- Urbanisation will occur
- Modernisation will start, causing a change in their way of life.
Societies such as the Yanomamo should be protected because:
- These people have a comprehensive knowledge of their environment.
- They make good use of what they have.
- They use sustainable development.
- They have slash and burn, and shifting/swidden cultivation.
