Editing Amazon rainforest (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of South America#Amazon|Amazon River#History}}
[[File:Naturalist on the River Amazons figure 4.png|thumb|[[Henry Walter Bates|Bates]]'s 1863 ''[[The Naturalist on the River Amazons]]'']]
[[File:Skyline Parcial de Manaus.jpg|thumb|[[Manaus]], with 2.2&nbsp;million inhabitants, is the largest city in the Amazon basin]]
[[File:Inneres eines Schabono 4.jpg|thumb|The [[Yanomami]] are a group of approximately 32,000 indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest.<ref>{{cite news |title=Yanomami |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yanomami |work=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=June 20, 2020 |archive-date=July 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725074020/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yanomami |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
[[File:Índios isolados no Acre 5.jpg|thumb|right|Members of an [[uncontacted tribe]] encountered in the Brazilian state of [[Acre (state)|Acre]] in 2009]]
[[File:Ribeirinhos.JPG|thumb|Ribeirinhos dwellings. Ribeirinhos are a traditional rural non-indigenous{{Efn|Many are ''[[caboclos]]'' or ''[[mestiço]]'' (mixed-race), also called ''[[pardo]]s'', descendants of Amazonian indigenous people and white Portuguese colonizers. Despite their indigenous ancestry, they no longer identify with any indigenous ethnicity.}} population in the Amazon rainforest, who live near rivers]]
Based on [[Archaeology|archaeological]] evidence from an excavation at [[Caverna da Pedra Pintada]], human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last1=Roosevelt | first1=A.C.
 | last2=da Costa |first2=M. Lima |last3=Machado |first3=C. Lopes |last4=Michab |first4=M. |last5=Mercier |first5=N. |last6=Valladas |first6=H. |last7=Feathers |first7=J. |last8=Barnett |first8=W. |last9=da Silveira |first9=M. Imazio |last10=Henderson |first10=A. |last11=Sliva |first11=J. |last12=Chernoff |first12=B.|last13=Reese |first13=D.S. |last14=Holman |first14=J.A. |last15=Toth |first15=N. |last16=Schick |first16=K.
 | title=Paleoindian Cave Dwellers in the Amazon: The Peopling of the Americas
 | journal=Science | date=April 19, 1996 | volume=272
 | issue=5260 | pages=373–384
 | doi=10.1126/science.272.5260.373 |bibcode = 1996Sci...272..373R| s2cid=129231783
 }}</ref> Subsequent development led to late-prehistoric settlements along the periphery of the forest by AD 1250, which induced alterations in the [[forest cover]].<ref>{{cite journal
 | last=Heckenberger | first=Michael J.
 | author2=Kuikuro, Afukaka|author3=Kuikuro, Urissapá Tabata|author4=Russell, J. Christian|author5=Schmidt, Morgan|author6=Fausto, Carlos|author7= Franchetto, Bruna
 | s2cid=7962308
 | title=Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?
 | journal=Science | date=September 19, 2003 | volume=301
 | issue=5640 | pages=1710–1714
 | doi=10.1126/science.1086112
 | pmid=14500979 |bibcode = 2003Sci...301.1710H}}</ref>

For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon rainforest was never more than sparsely populated, as it was impossible to sustain a large population through [[agriculture]] given the poor soil. Archeologist [[Betty Meggers]] was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book ''Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise''. She claimed that a population density of {{convert|0.2|PD/km2}} is the maximum that can be sustained in the rainforest through hunting, with agriculture needed to host a larger population.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last=Meggers | first=Betty J.
 | title=Revisiting Amazonia Circa 1492
 | journal=Science | date=December 19, 2003 | volume=302
 | issue=5653 | pages=2067–2070
 | doi=10.1126/science.302.5653.2067b
 | pmid=14684803| s2cid=5316715
 }}</ref> However, recent [[Anthropology|anthropological]] findings have suggested that the region was actually densely populated.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Margolis |first=Mac |date=2025-02-06 |title=Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/06/ancient-garden-cities-amazon-indigenous-technologies-archaeology-lost-civilisations-environment-terra-preta |access-date=2025-03-01 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The [[Upano Valley sites]] in present-day eastern Ecuador predate all known complex Amazonian societies.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Yuhas |first1=Alan |last2=Jiménez |first2=Jesus |date=2024-01-23 |title=Remnants of Sprawling Ancient Cities Are Found in the Amazon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/23/science/ecuador-amazon-cities-discovery.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=[[The New York Times]] |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in AD 1500, divided between dense coastal settlements, such as that at [[Marajoara culture|Marajó]], and inland dwellers.<ref name="park">{{cite book|title=Tropical Rainforests|author=Chris C. Park|page=108|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4WQf6RZAiKcC&pg=PA108|isbn=978-0-415-06239-8|access-date=August 24, 2017|archive-date=January 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110100622/https://books.google.com/books?id=4WQf6RZAiKcC&pg=PA108|url-status=live}}</ref> Based on projections of food production, one estimate suggests over 8 million people living in the Amazon in 1492.<ref name="Clement Denevan Heckenberger Junqueira 2015 p. 20150813">{{cite journal | last1=Clement | first1=Charles R. | last2=Denevan | first2=William M. | last3=Heckenberger | first3=Michael J. | last4=Junqueira | first4=André Braga | last5=Neves | first5=Eduardo G. | last6=Teixeira | first6=Wenceslau G. | last7=Woods | first7=William I. | title=The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest | journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume=282 | issue=1812 | date=August 7, 2015 | issn=0962-8452 | pmid=26202998 | pmc=4528512 | doi=10.1098/rspb.2015.0813 | page=20150813}}</ref> By 1900, the native indigenous population had fallen to 1 million and by the early 1980s it was less than 200,000.<ref name="park" />

The first European to travel the length of the [[Amazon River]] was [[Francisco de Orellana]] in 1542.<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=A|title=Explorers of the Amazon|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|year=1994|isbn=978-0-226-76337-8|url=https://archive.org/details/explorersofamazo00smit}}</ref> The BBC's ''[[Unnatural Histories (TV series)|Unnatural Histories]]'' presents evidence that Orellana, rather than exaggerating his claims as previously thought, was correct in his observations that a complex civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. The [[Pre-Columbian agriculture in the Amazon Basin]] was sufficiently advanced to support prosperous and populous societies. It is believed that civilization was later devastated by the spread of diseases from Europe, such as [[smallpox]].<ref name=bbc /> This civilization was investigated by the British explorer [[Percy Fawcett]] in the early twentieth century.  The results of his expeditions were inconclusive, and he disappeared mysteriously on his last trip.  His name for this lost civilization was the [[City of Z]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Since the 1970s, numerous [[geoglyph]]s have been discovered on deforested land dating between AD 1–1250, furthering claims about [[Pre-Columbian era|Pre-Columbian]] civilizations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html?_r=1|title=Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon's Lost World|author=Simon Romero|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 14, 2012|access-date=February 26, 2017|archive-date=December 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191226131006/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/world/americas/land-carvings-attest-to-amazons-lost-world.html?_r=1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=Antiquity |year=2009 |volume=83 |issue=322 |pages=1084–1095 |title=Pre-Columbian geometric earthworks in the upper Purús: a complex society in western Amazonia  |author1=Martti Pärssinen |author2=Denise Schaan |author3=Alceu Ranzi |s2cid=55741813 |doi= 10.1017/s0003598x00099373}}</ref> Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977, and Alceu Ranzi is credited with furthering their discovery after flying over [[Acre (state)|Acre]].<ref name=bbc>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0122njp|title=Unnatural Histories – Amazon|publisher=BBC Four|access-date=May 9, 2012|archive-date=January 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108041821/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0122njp|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Junior |first=Gonçalo |date=October 2008 |title=Amazonia lost and found |url=http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/2009/10/20/amazonia-lost-and-found-2/ |journal=Pesquisa (Ed.220) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812211320/http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/2009/10/20/amazonia-lost-and-found-2/ |archive-date=August 12, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The BBC's ''Unnatural Histories'' presented evidence that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being a pristine [[wilderness]], has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as [[forest gardening]] and ''[[terra preta]]''.<ref name=bbc /> Terra preta is found over large areas in the Amazon forest; and is now widely accepted as a product of indigenous [[soil management]]. The development of this fertile soil allowed agriculture and [[silviculture]] in the previously hostile environment; meaning that large portions of the Amazon rainforest are probably the result of centuries of human management, rather than naturally occurring as has previously been supposed.<ref>The influence of human alteration has been generally underestimated, reports Darna L. Dufour: "Much of what has been considered natural forest in Amazonia is probably the result of hundreds of years of human use and management." "Use of Tropical Rainforests by Native Amazonians," ''BioScience'' 40, no. 9 (October 1990):658. For an example of how such peoples integrated planting into their nomadic lifestyles, see {{cite journal | last1 = Rival | first1 = Laura | year = 1993 | title = The Growth of Family Trees: Understanding Huaorani Perceptions of the Forest | journal = Man | volume = 28 | issue = 4| pages = 635–652 | doi=10.2307/2803990| jstor = 2803990 }}</ref> In the region of the [[Xingu peoples|Xingu]] tribe, remains of some of these large settlements in the middle of the Amazon forest were found in 2003 by Michael Heckenberger and colleagues of the [[University of Florida]]. Among those were evidence of roads, bridges and large plazas.<ref>{{Citation
|last1=Heckenberger
|first1=M.J.
|publication-date=2003
|date=September 19, 2003
|title= Amazonia 1492: Pristine Forest or Cultural Parkland?
|periodical=Science
|volume=301
|issue=5640
|pages=1710–14
|doi=10.1126/science.1086112
|pmid=14500979
|last2=Kuikuro
|first2=A
|last3=Kuikuro
|first3=UT
|last4=Russell
|first4=JC
|last5=Schmidt
|first5=M
|last6=Fausto
|first6=C
|last7=Franchetto
|first7=B
|s2cid=7962308
|bibcode = 2003Sci...301.1710H}}</ref>

In the Amazonas, there has been fighting and wars between the neighboring tribes of the [[Jivaroan peoples|Jivaro]]. Several tribes of the Jivaroan group, including the [[Shuar people|Shuar]], practised [[headhunting]] for trophies and [[Shrunken head|headshrinking]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Amazon's head hunters and body shrinkers |url=https://theweek.com/articles/478804/amazons-head-hunters-body-shrinkers |work=The Week |date=January 20, 2012 |access-date=September 12, 2019 |archive-date=October 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013200316/http://theweek.com/articles/478804/amazons-head-hunters-body-shrinkers |url-status=live }}</ref> The accounts of missionaries to the area in the borderlands between Brazil and Venezuela have recounted constant infighting in the [[Yanomami]] tribes. More than a third of the Yanomamo males, on average, died from warfare.<ref>Chagnon, Napoleon A. (1992). ''Yanomamo''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.</ref>{{when|date=July 2023}}

The [[Munduruku]] were a [[Warrior|warlike]] tribe that expanded along the [[Tapajós]] river and its tributaries and were feared by neighboring tribes. In the early 19th century, the Munduruku were pacified and subjugated by the Brazilians.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Munduruku |title=Mundurukú people |website=britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica }}</ref> It is documented that large war parties of the [[Bororo]], [[Kayapo]], Munduruku, [[Guaraní people|Guaraní]], and [[Tupi people]] carried out long-distance [[Raid (military)|raids]]. Most Bororo groups were continually at war with their neighbors. In contrast, the [[Xingu peoples|Xingu]] have been described by ethnographers as a "peaceful" society, resorting to violence only in defense against their warlike neighbors.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heckenberger |first1=Michael |title=The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place, and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, A.D. 1000-2000 |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415945998 |pages=139-141 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Ecology_of_Power/hAKratAxR18C?hl}}</ref> In the early 20th century, thirty indigenous tribes in the Amazon basin were listed as "peaceful" and eighty-three were specifically described as "warlike".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davie |first1=Maurice R. |title=The Evolution of War: A Study of Its Role in Early Societies |date=1929 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780486162218 |page=251 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/lUPTc-JImcUC?hl=&gbpv=1}}</ref> 

During the [[Amazon rubber boom]] it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as [[typhus]] and [[malaria]], killed 40,000 native Amazonians.<ref>La Republica Oligarchic. Editorial Lexus 2000 p. 925.</ref>

In the 1950s, Brazilian explorer and defender of indigenous people, [[Cândido Rondon]], supported the [[Villas-Bôas brothers]]' campaign, which faced strong opposition from the government and the ranchers of [[Mato Grosso]] and led to the establishment of the [[Xingu National Park|first Brazilian National Park]] for indigenous people along the [[Xingu River]] in 1961.<ref>[http://pib.socioambiental.org/en/povo/xingu/1541 From the first expedition to the creation of the Park], pib.socioambiental.org</ref>

In 1961, British explorer [[Richard Mason (explorer)|Richard Mason]] was killed by an uncontacted Amazon [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|tribe]] known as the [[Panará people|Panará]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WYVAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vKMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2532%2C1101451 |title=Rain delays rescue of explorers |newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]] |location=[[Glasgow]], [[Scotland]] |date=September 8, 1961 |page=8 |via=Google News}}</ref>

The [[Matsés]] made their first permanent contact with the outside world in 1969. Before that date, they were effectively at-war with the Peruvian government.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Snell |first1=Ron |title=Jungle Calls |date=February 2, 2006 |publisher=Hannibal Books |location=Garland, Texas |isbn=0-929292-86-3|edition=Kindle |url=https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Calls-Ron-Snell-ebook/dp/B0051J7VO8/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=9780929292861&linkCode=qs&qid=1590512018&s=books&sr=1-1 |access-date=May 27, 2020}}</ref>