Motivation

Photo: Kike Arnal

Indigenous peoples in the tropics have long lived as part of ecosystems which are recognized as the most biologically diverse regions on earth. Destroying some swath of the natural world is necessary to sustain human life, yet the presence of indigenous people has not lead to the cumulative destruction of their rain forest surroundings. Many tribes cut and burn, in tremendous conflagrations, patches of forest for crops, fish using chemicals extracted from plants which asphyxiate their prey on large stretches of river, and consume vast quantities of wood as cooking fuel. But these practices have never spun out of control for numerous reasons including small population sizes, shifting settlement patterns and many sustainable ways of harvesting materials which offset a few drastic methods. Vast expanses of tropical forest still stretch as green oceans where indigenous people have lived for thousands of years.

In contrast, cumulative destruction of ecosystems is the hallmark of industrial society. The industrial machine has crushed natural landscapes and redistributed the resulting fragments to radically new anthropogenic ecosystems. Such destruction of nature is intertwined with the rapid progression from simple technologies which barely tipped the odds in favor of basic human endeavors, to overblown contraptions that gulp natural resources to satisfy our whims. In industrial society the goals are comfort, convenience and minimal physical effort. Yet these goals are shared by human beings everywhere, including indigenous peoples in tropical rain forests. What has differentiated industrial from tropical indigenous societies thus far is principally the technological means of achieving these goals. Different technological means, in addition to their consequences for ecosystem destruction, have spawned different philosophies of nature.

If technology plays a central role in philosophies of nature, then the exchange of technology between the industrial world and tropical indigenous peoples will change indigenous thought more than indigenous beliefs will lead to rejection of industrial society. Indeed, among the indigenous groups of the Caura River in Southern Venezuela, the use of outboard motors instead of paddles, the introduction of cassette players blaring foreign music, the magic action of chain saws and other technological novelties have convinced many tribespeople that their culture is to be slowly abandoned. To be sure, these peoples have learned the political value of declaring their aboriginal rights, but they are also progressively dropping their language, mythology, natural history knowledge and traditional technical abilities.

The superior force and numbers of the industrial world embodied by a large party effortlessly roaring upriver in a sleek white craft impresses those who have also relied on force and numbers, their backs straining as they propel a dugout against the current. Modern technology presents clear solutions to some basic struggles for survival. However, while many traditional tools used by indigenous peoples of the Caura carry spiritual significance, modern technology initially has no non-monetary values assigned to it other than utilitarian function. That technology can cause irreparable cultural erosion is a concept of the industrial world which has not been exported to the rain forest. Yet there is no road back from outboard motors to paddles, attractive as such a romantic notion may seem. The challenge, then, is to ensure that technological introductions serve to safeguard, rather than erode, the most fragile aspects of indigenous culture—language, knowledge, physical ability and health—and in doing so, help to maintain the equilibrium between indigenous people and the rain forests they inhabit.