In this essay I will be explaining the life
of the Waorani tribe, of the Amazon rainforest,
It
will tell you how they survive life in the rainforest
and
what they use to survive. It will also tell you many other aspects of their
living.
The family life of the Waorani
tribe is very different to ours. They live in the heart of the rain- forest.
They survive with what is around them. There house is made of tree trunks,
sticks, twigs and straw which is wound with the inside of the trees. Each house
can normally fit up to 18 people at a time; everything in the house comes from
the forest- clothes, food, tools,
Hammocks etc.
This is a picture of the tribe
leader Caempaede. He is the one, who looks after the family by going out to
hunt for food. He does this by going into the rainforest, looks for the target
and shoots it with a poisoned dart out of a blowpipe. He makes all of the darts
himself with the of some of the men and boys of the tribe. They are made out of
the Curare vine which has a poisonous bark. He also makes the blowpipes, it can
take up to 9 weeks to make a 9 feet long blow pipe. It is made in two halves of
tree trunk. Boys of the tribe learn from their fathers and grandfathers.
Boys start from a very early
age, they use other members of the tribe’s blowpipes and their elder brothers
and fathers teach them.
The women of the tribe are
the ones who stay at home during the day looking after the babies, cooking,
looking after the pets and make sure that everything is perfect for the men
when they come in from hunting, where they give the women the food that they
have caught.
One of the things they make
themselves is an alcoholic drink called Cabsava or Manioc. It is a type of
potato that is mashed up and fermented to make the drink when mixed with water.
The aldults drink a gallon day.
This is
a picture of what the Waorani tribe
do
when they leave to find a different place
to
settle. They burn the twigs so that when
Come
back next year they have a frame to
Make
another hut.
The Waorani tribe are nomadic. Every
so often they have to move on to another patch of forest where
there are more animals to hunt. The soil is not fertile enough for them to stay
in one place growing crops.
In the olden days orphans were buried
alive but nowadays, if their parents die and they have no one to look after
them, they are sent to another tribe where they make new friends and get use to
how to live their lives.
This is a picture of the rain-
forest when it is clearing. Only
small patches of forest are cut
down (felled) and eventually
they can grow back.
