Peruvian Amazon

In this paper, I examine my interviewee Iris’s motive to visit her traditional Chinese doctor (zhongyi) and her preference for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to unravel her explanatory model, which centers around the concept of tiaoli, that is, a notion of health and well-being. It stands in contradistinction to biomedical scientific notions of health, since it does not perceive the body as a condition that needs to be cured and restored. Rather, tiaoli frames the body as a garden and the…

In the Peruvian Amazon, slash-and-burn methods are utilized to provide nutrients to the soils from the woods’ biomass (Weber et al., 2001, p. 425). The nutrients that accumulate in the soil from this process provide roughly “one to three years of cropping before fields…

healing” In The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner tells his story of his experiences while he searches to understand the philosophy of shamanism. His story is presented in his book in which he shares his interactions with indigenous people from the upper Amazon forest of South America as well as to western North America and Mexico. Harner takes the reader along on his shamanic journey of enlightenment. This section contains a summary of The way of the Shaman. Harner begins his book with an…

Today, drugs are one of the most negatively profiled items in the world. One of the biggest exporters in the world is Colombia. Their influence in the drug trade reaches all the way back to the 1980's when brutal cartels were dominant. Today, Colombia's trade still exists and is as strong as ever. Drug trafficking has an influence on Colombia and the world because of the role it plays in destroying the environment, causing civil unrest, and affecting the economy. While many drugs are produced…

Mendes, he was gunned down by powerful ranchers in the Amazon Rain Forest on December 22, 1988. He rebelled against his employers, he was aware that workers like him were being exploited all over the country so he decided to take a stand and attempted to unionize his compatriots for better wages and conditions. While he was trying to do this, he also took a stand for the environment, all he was trying to do was save the natural habitat of the Amazon Forest and trying to stop the land ranchers…

Humans are incapable of living without oxygen, so why does it seem logical to cut down our main source of life? Not only are we reducing the oxygen entering the air while cutting down trees, many other negative effects occur worldwide. Deforestation is a permanent destruction of forests to make room for other uses. With it comes many negative effects that hurt not only us but the animal population and the atmosphere. It has been estimated that about half of the world’s forests have been cleared,…

In the novel "Things Fall Apart", Achebe expresses how the new colonizing community effectively suppressed the indigenous tribes in Africa through merciless and uncompromising methods. The oppression of the Ibo tribes did not consist of an immediate takeover, but was instead implemented through a subtle reworking of Ibo values. The colonizers began by introducing a counterculture and refusing to acknowledge Ibo beliefs. While initially creating a façade of peaceful missionary work, the…

Peru: Land of Resiliency The country of Peru is located in the western part of South America. As the third largest country in South America, it has many different landscapes and climates that span the country from coastline, mountains, and dense forest. It borders many countries to include Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia and Ecuador with its western border consisting of the Pacific Ocean. The origins, people, legends of hidden cities, diverse landscape, and government make Peru one of the…

He observed how the powerful Amazon River divided this Peruvian society so that the healthy people lived on the north side of the river and the people with leprosy were sequestered on the south side. As their time volunteering at the leper colony was nearing an end, Ernesto attended a birthday celebration…

Families typically raise a couple of chickens and ducks. They are allowed to forage around the house during the day, feeding on insects considered pests like ants and sometimes are given maize. At night they are kept in chicken coops tended to by the children.(Johnson) As a people, the Matsigenka are very adaptive and catch all kinds of fish in many different ways. The Matsigenka do not participate in the market economy. Attempts to get them to raise cash crops and begin to participate have…