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ArticleLife among the monkey hunters: The Amazon tribe that has evolved flat feet after years of catching primates to eat by climbing trees and shooting them with blowpipes
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There
are no fast food restaurants or grocery stores in the rainforests of
eastern Ecuador, so if the Huaorani people want to eat they go out with a
blowpipe and shoot a monkey.
They
are experts at shinning up trees and lying in wait for the primates,
which they kill with poisoned darts fired from blowpipes.
There
are less than 4,000 people in the Huaorani tribe and the small gene
pool, along with the constant tree-climbing has led to them developing
very flat feet, many of which have six toes. Some also have six
fingers.
Monkey
meat is a staple of their diet, which also includes peccary pigs and
toucans aswell as plants and herbs foraged in the forest by the women.
Scroll down for video
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A Huaorani hunter shins up a tree and shoots a blowpipe dart at a monkey
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A
good day's work: To Western eyes it might seem cruel but for the
Huaorani hunting monkeys (left) is really no different to British people
hunting pheasants or rabbits. Their diet consists of monkeys, toucans
and peccaries (right), a type of wild pig which are widespread in Latin
America
The Huaorani live not far from the Rio Napo, which eventually flows into the mighty Amazon in neighbouring Peru.
British
photographer Pete Oxford, who took these images, said: 'The Huaorani
Indians are a forest people highly in tune with their environment.
'Today
they face radical change to their culture to the proximity of oil
exploration within their territory and the Yasuni National Park and
Biosphere Reserve, they are vastly changed.
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Bringing
home the bacon: A hunter is welcomed by the women and children of the
village as brings back a peccary pig, which will be roasted over an open
fire
'They still largely hunt with blow pipes and spears eating a lot of monkeys and peccaries.'
The
Huaorani, who are sometimes referred to as Waorani or Waos, are a
native Amerindian tribe whose language bears no relation to any other
tongue, not even Quechua, which is widely spoken in Ecuador.
Mr
Oxford said: 'In my lifetime, the world has witnessed a massive
shrinking in world cultures and indigenous knowledge. We are all
homogenising to the same thing. To me that is distressing.
'One
of my greatest joys is spending time with people unlike myself. I am
very conscious that when I visit a "foreign" tribe it is I, not them who
are foreign.'
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Everyone
knows each other: There are only 4,000 people in the tribe which
inevitably leads to some inbreeding. The tribe is also divided into
traditional gender roles with the men (left) doing the hunting and the
women (right) raising the children
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Ecuador is home to 300 species of monkey, none of which are endangered. The monkeys eat the forest's vegetation
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Call
the chiropodist: The Huaorani spend so much time climbing up trees
their feet have evolved and most have very flat feet. Because of the
small gene pool many also have six toes on each feet
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The Huaorani also hunt and eat toucans (pictured, left) but this parrot has become a pet, rather than dinner (right)
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Pete
Oxford (pictured) said: 'I was accepted and everything that was theirs
was mine to share. Unfortunately, I could not reciprocate and stayed in a
small tent on which I had to put a small padlock. For a Huaorani, my
computer cables were excellent tethers to tie up a dead peccary but for
me represented being able to work or not'
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Children watch from a hammock as a Huaorani woman cooks a peccary. Peccaries are found throughout Latin America
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A man constructs a necklace out of bird's feathers. The tribe make some money by selling handicrafts to tourists
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Like
many South American tribes the Huaorani are in the habit of stretching
their earlobes and then wearing ear-rings made of bone or wood. The
fashion is popular with men and women
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Pete
Oxford said: 'We are all homogenising to the same thing. To me that is
distressing and I aim to record as many ancient cultures as possible for
the sake of posterity'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4135698/The-Amazon-tribe-kills-eats-monkeys.html
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