Living in the Forest

When I think of the Amazon forests, I think of lots of trees. I think of animals. I think of insects. I think of different kinds of plants. What I don't think of are people.

The people of the Marubo Maronal village walk freely through the forest. It's actually quite a busy place. There are paths that link streams and villages. There is a lot of contact between different communities, be it through trade, marriage or ritual. There is a very tight cultural network. Even though from an aerial view the Amazon would seem calm, it’s teaming with human life.

I think this is so interesting. A lot of the time in America we don't even think about people who live differently from us. But there are so many different ways people are living. People live in the forest, they have villages that we would probably find very difficult to live in. There are people living as refugees who don't have a home and sometimes go days without food. We get so occupied with our lives here and with ourselves that a lot of the time we forget the rest of the world. There are probably times that I have gone days without thinking if things outside of my life, my home, where I’m from. I think it’s important to remember the other ways of life there are and that ours isn’t the only way to live. Even if we aren’t doing anything to actively help others by thinking that way, we can at least have a broader perspective of the world and maybe be more open in our ways of thinking.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 256/257 Print.

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (Pamphlet) New York: Aperture, 2000. 18 Print