Throughout the Amazon jungle it is possible to find quite a few different native tribes, such as the Machiguengas, the Huarayos, the Mashcos, the Huachiparis, the Shirenis, the aguarunas, the Amahuaca, and the Iñaparis, all of which have completely distinct cultures and traditions. Many of these indigenous groups are fighting to maintain their cultural identity while living in modern day society. Some try to make a stand living in and near cities; many of them have been converted to Christianity, and incorporated into the mainstream culture, but still retain many of their own traditional customs and ideas. They attempt to find a balance between completely different cultures. Others retreat well beyond the new frontiers of so-called civilization, in a desperate struggle to maintain their perspectives, their ways of life and their history. Two of the few uncontacted tribal communities in the Amazon are the Yaminahua and the Mashco Piro.

Aside from the few main villages populated by these tribes, there are hardly any sizeable settlements. There are between 35 and 62 indigenous tribes - the exact number depends on how you classify tribal identity - each with its own distinct language, customs and dress.

Most of these traditional or semi-traditional tribes lead a quasi-nomadic life, and therefore, have very few material possessions. Communities are scattered, with groups of between ten and two hundred people, and their sites shift every few years.

Contamination from outsiders affects the health of these jungle people. In some cases, as in the village of Nahua, this has caused strong epidemics that decimated the population. The eating habits of these indigenous villagers have also been altered and protein deficiency, especially in women and children, can be a problem.

A few examples of Amazon populations are:

The Amahuaca, which are a Stone Age agricultural society widely scattered throughout the southeastern Amazon Basin in Ucayali and Madre de Dios. Their largest community is in Puesto Varadero, which until 1953, could only be reached by canoe. It is near the Brazilian border and dates back to 1947. The town was built on top of the site of an old rubber camp, which was later occupied by a Peruvian army garrison. Today the houses of the Amahuaca, made of sticks and built on stilts or rafts to protect them from floods, cover the tiny island.

Until the end of the nineteenth century, the Amahuaca were very numerous (perhaps as many as 9,000), but their numbers have been reduced to less than 500 in Peru and not more than 250 in Brazil. They speak Ponoan, which is an official language similar to that of the neighboring Yaminahua. It varies from region to region and is believed to have separated from Conibo about 1,000 years ago.

Dugout canoes are widely used by the Amahuaca. Fish are by far the most abundant source of protein and are caught with harpoon arrows, spears, poison, and hooks, as well as with bows and ordinary arrows.

Until very recently they were quite removed from modern society; they participated in infanticide and endocannibalism and in cases of marriage, there was complete sexual freedom between a man's wife and all his brothers. They often used powerful hallucinogenics such as ayahuasca which is said to have the ability to transport people to realms where telepathy and clairvoyance are common. They had no name for themselves as a people other than hondi kuí (real people) or yora (human beings).

In recent years, their lives have been touched by the outside world, and are in the process of a transformation. Their language and ethnic group are disintegrating and they are losing their identity due to intermarriage with non-Amahuaca speakers and association with the modern day culture; harvest ceremonies have lapsed and ayahuasca is rarely used anymore. Some Christian concepts and practices have become dominant including simple burial. Traditional ornaments and art have been abandoned, and the Amahuaca now wear commercial clothes. Children, especially boys, attend school for a few years and bilingualism is common.

The Yahua is a large, widely distributed indigenous group who live mainly in the western Amazon and in eastern Ecuador. They are a vigorous people who remained independent from the modern world for centuries and who successfully resisted attempts at conquest by the Incas and attempts to covert them to Christianity by Spanish missionaries. The tribe, originally in the thousands, has diminished into the hundreds.

The Amazon jungle was named after the Yahuas. According to legend, when the Spaniards first came to the Amazon, they saw the Yahuas with their blowguns through the trees wearing "grass skirts" and thought they were women, which is why they named the Amazon River after the Greek myth of the Amazon women warriors.

The Yahua people live a simple but demanding lifestyle and are very skilled craftworkers. The men make wooden carvings of animal figures, decorative blowguns and bows and arrows.

The Yahua language is the only surviving language of the Peba-Yahua linguistic family. It is a unique language and linguists are fascinated by its distinctive morphology and syntax.

The inhabitants of their small villages wear western clothes, switching into traditional dress only on special occasions, though there are a few isolated villages where native dress is worn throughout the day.

Traditional Yahua dress consists of a "grass skirt", which is not really made from grass but from the fiber of the Aguaje palm (Mauritia flexuosa). They often use red dyes obtained from a type of fruit to color the fibers and paint their skin. Other articles include a feathered headdress and ankle and wristbands.

Nowadays, however, men wear pants and women are typically seen in red skirts made out of cotton cloth that they purchase.

Girls often have their first child at fourteen or fifteen years of age.

The Yahua culture functions as a large extended family, with each member accepting a role of responsibility for the welfare of the tribal group.

The Yahuas are famous for their use of pucunas (blowguns) and for their curare-tipped darts.

Although the Yahua blowguns are typically half the length of the Matis four-meter blowguns, they are highly effective hunting tools and are still commonly used. A genuine Yahua blowgun is truly a work of art. The barrel is initially made from two separate pieces of wood, and each half is carefully grooved by carving the piece of wood by hand. Later, the two halves are fitted together to form the barrel cylinder and held in place with the mouthpiece. Brea (a type of tar) is then used to seal the outer surface of the barrel.

The darts are made of palm-leaf midrib and tufted with kapok fiber and are carried in a quiver made from pleated palm leaves. The Yahua shamans are real masters when it comes to making curare. Curare is a fast-acting poison that paralyzes its victim; death is caused by suffocation when the victim's lungs are paralyzed. Yahua shamans have passed down the ancient knowledge of making the curare mixture from generation to generation.

This culture is slowly disappearing. As they adopt foreign traditions and culture they lose and forget their own. The Yahua community near Iquitos on the Mormon River, for example, is small (less than 30 people) and no bilingual education exists. Consequently, the younger Yahuas are loosing their ability to speak their native tongue.

Kuoda Tours brings travelers to the Amazon jungle, where they may learn more about jungle tribes, and, at times, meet with tribal peoples that are open, and will not be harmed by, such visits. Please visit us at http://www.inturkuoda.com