Then, hearing a rapid sucking noise, I realized they were actually breast-feeding baby monkeys. The women have small monkeys clinging to their bodies, with some perched on their heads like hats, their tails wrapped around the women's necks.Ī female reporter from London's Telegraph described the bizarre scene: "At first I thought some of the women had fur decorations on their nipples. The males go naked except for headbands of bright orange toucan plumage and armbands of yellow and red macaw feathers.Īnd the females immediately give away their proclivity for primates. A nearby mining project also threatens their habitat, as do the ever-encroaching settlers, ranchers and loggers.Īt first glance, the Awa don't appear to be much different from other tribes in the jungle. Many members of the tribe are seriously ill with malaria and tuberculosis.
Recently, a British journalist - who had to navigate a muddy track from the northern Brazil jungle town of Santa Ines, then make a boat excursion on the Pindare River, to visit the tribe - reported that the Awa Guaja are in dire straits. Baby monkeys eat and sleep with the women, are breast-fed to their heart's content and are raised alongside human children.īut this strange nomadic tribe may soon be wiped out. While many other Indian tribes eat monkeys, the Awa take baby monkeys from their mothers after birth, and provide the infant simians with all the maternal comforts of home. Monkeys are considered the most sacred of all creatures. If a woman's milk dries up, the tribe considers her to be cursed. Also, women are expected to breast-feed jungle animals from puberty. Whenever a tribal member dies, the Awa Guaja believe the person's spirit is taken by a jaguar. They communicate via a series of whooping sounds, and have never been studied by anthropologists.Īnd they are very definitely animal oriented. Until recently, no outsider had ever been in contact with them. In a remote village, shaded by giant trees, the breasts of female humans also feed the urgent lips of hungry baby monkeys.įor centuries, this monkey-suckling tribe - called the Awa Guaja - has survived in an isolated area of the Amazon rain forest in northern Brazil. Providing nourishment to a young, helpless baby is one of the infinite joys of motherhood, and studies have shown that babies who are breast-fed are happier and more content.ĭeep in the Amazonian jungle, a rare Indian tribe extends this maternal instinct beyond its own species.
There is no human instinct as deeply rooted and personal as the desire to breast-feed an infant.
0 kommentar(er)
