Amazon Myths

Myths create a reality people believe in and act on. While we may view these myths as simply stories, they shape people’s view of reality. Stories are real to the people who believe them. Aguirre would not have desperately searched for El Dorado if he did not believe it existed. Many signed on to jungle expeditions ill informed and lusting after adventure (Balkan, 31), after hearing rumors of a king who washed off a fresh coat of gold dust everyday (Balkan, 21). People’s belief in myths can change others behavior and perpetuate the tales. Indian Chief Delicola told the Spaniards what they wanted to hear, that there was a “gleaming villages of gold to the east” because he heard that they were stretching and torturing Indians “until they told ‘the truth’ about El Dorado” (Balkan, 49-50). A woman Slater writes about said that foreigners think the Amazon is full of parrots and Indians in feathers. The locals use synthetic feathers in festivals to save the few parrots in the area that was never home to many, so tourists continue to believe there are many because it makes them care about nature (Slater, 17-18). …show more content…
Roosevelt’s account of his Amazon adventure banished doubt and minimized the tolls on his heath, making it a surprise when he died five years later (Slater, 48). As a former U.S. president, the purpose of his tale was to support the “United States intent upon asserting its control over both nature and other nations within the Americas” (Slater, 48). Roosevelt’s assertion of the Amazons as “the last great wilderness on Earth,” an example of ‘untrammeled nature’ (Slater, 45) awaiting exploration and colonization, ignores the centuries of ingenious peoples manipulating nature to serve