Perspectives

In the Region of Ranchi, State of Bihar, India, there is a tribe that reveres stream and waterfalls. They hold family and tribal ceremonies by waterfalls. Waterfalls are so important to them.

I think this is so interesting. The picture from Salgado's book that I was looking at was a picture of two people sitting by a waterfall. They are in a forest. Normally when we see pictures of people sitting by waterfalls in our society, we think of vacations, of tropical adventures. But for these people, the forest and the waterfall are home. It’s not just a beautiful site to visit, it’s where they live.

 I really love thinking about that, realizing how there are so many people around the world who live so differently from me. That’s one of things that I like about Salgado’s book. Not only does he raise awareness for the issues that we often don’t know about, he also brings new perspectives by showing us how other people in the world live and how it works for them.

However, as the forests are lost, rainfall is dropping which means that there is less and less water. In my sociology class, we were discussing what happens when a group of people has a fundamental part of their culture taken away from them. The example we discussed was a tribe in Canada who's culture was largely based around the caribou. Their stories often had caribou in them, they hunted caribou and ate their meat and used their fur for various things. When these people were moved onto a reserve, they lost that fundamental part of their culture and they experienced a sort of culture shock. Alcoholism and other things became huge problems on the reserve. It's very sad to think that if this tribe who reveres waterfalls loses them, they could lose a fundamental part of their culture.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 337 Print.

Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. (Pamphlet) New York: Aperture, 2000. 25 Print