Word: peruvians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Couched at the top of one of countless waterfalls that bathe the southeastern foothills of the Peruvian Andes, I enjoy the cool breath of the cascade, which takes the edge off the equatorial sun. From nearby promontories, an observer can look upward to the cloud forests that cling to the mountainous rim of the Amazon basin, or down into the steamy lowland rain forests that extend thousands of miles to the east. As far as the eye can see and beyond, there are no villages, roads or towns. Lying below is the Manu, a 7,000-sq.-mi. area...
...dollars to the more traditional Indian tribes of the region without disrupting their way of life. Some of the tribes will trade elaborate traditional cloaks called kushmas, which take three months to make, for a machete or an ax -- far below what tourists would pay for the same item. Peruvian biologist Ernesto Raez fears, however, that encouraging the Indians to reorganize themselves to serve even small numbers of tourists will require profound transformations in village life. "We should not ask conservation to do the work of social change," he says...
Take the Incas. Inca civilization, writes Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, was a "pyramidal and theocratic society" of "totalitarian structure" in which "the individual had no importance and virtually no existence." Its foundation? "A state religion that took away the individual's free will and crowned the authority's decision with the aura of a divine mandate turned the Tawantinsuyu ((Incan empire)) into a beehive...
...Javier Perez de Cuellar, 71, insists he is ready to retire. But is he really? In his first term, Perez de Cuellar often told colleagues that he wanted out, but was persuaded to remain five years more. France, a permanent member of the Security Council, is now pressing the Peruvian to stay on for a third term. The Soviets too have indicated they would like him to stay put. This endorsement of the status quo distresses reform-minded U.N. staff members and diplomats who believe the world body desperately needs stronger leadership and a complete overhaul. Says a Western ambassador...
That perception has started to change, thanks in large part to Evaristo Nugkuag, 41, a Peruvian who has emerged as the leading spokesman for the indigenous people of the Amazon. Born of the Aguaruna tribe and educated by missionaries, he watched firsthand the encroachment of loggers, miners and now drug traffickers on traditional Indian lands. Today, as president of a group representing 229 tribes, he argues persuasively that the best way to save the rain forest is to make the Indians its caretakers...