The People of the Rainforest Aim: To find out how the people of the rainforest live sustainably. Key words Shifting Cultivation Indigenous People

Shifting cultivation usually starts with cutting trees and a fire which clears a spot for crop production.

The Indians build huge houses from wood and foliage. They cut down trees to extend the clearing and feed their fires. The ash provides nutrients for the soil. Then the women plant the crops (manioc, yams, beans and pumpkins). They do not just farm, they also fish and hunt. After four to five harvests, it is time to move on again. Shifting cultivation usually starts with cutting trees and a fire which clears a spot for crop production.

However, the increasing use of the Amazon by big business has reduced the size of land available for the Indians to farm. They therefore have to return to a previously used piece of land before it has fully recovered (which takes about 50 years). Indians are also in danger from Western diseases, against which they have no immunity.

They left out the candirú, the Amazons most notorious fish, and the only known vertebrate to parasitize humans. Its a fish that has no enemies, and is more feared than the piranha. Particularly by men who are foolhardy enough to urinate in the river while skinny dipping. Attracted to the smell, Vandellia cirrhosa will follow the urines path, swim into the penis, and, with its umbrella-like spines, lodge itself inside the urethra. Removal is grim. I first heard about this critter and its needle-like teeth in Redmond OHanlons 1989 book, In Trouble Again: A Journey Between the Orinoco and the Amazon, when he described an anti-candiru device he had fashioned before embarking on his journey, essentially a jockstrap with a tea strainer dangling from its end. Once the the litte fish enters, OHanlon wrote, Nothing can be done. The pain, apparently, is spectacular. You must get to a hospital before your bladder bursts; you must ask a surgeon to cut off your penis.Nothing can be done. The pain, apparently, is spectacular. You must get to a hospital before your bladder bursts; you must ask a surgeon to cut off your penis. The thing is also relentless. relentless The candiru has a voracious appetite for blood and will parasitize fish, mammals, and humans. One scientist, while holding a candiru, accidently let it enter a small cut on his hand. It could be seen writhing under the skin towards the vein. Not for the men………………………….