Indigenous Women Bring Amazon Tribe Back from Near Extinction

Indigenous Women Bring Amazon Tribe Back from Near Extinction

土著妇女帮助亚马逊部落从濒临灭绝中恢复过来

【听力音频】

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　　By Dan Friedell

　　15 December 2023

　　The Juma are native people of the Amazon rain forest area in Brazil. In the 1990s, there were only four people remaining in the tribe.

　　They were Aruká, the father, and his three daughters – Boreá, Mandeí and Maytá.

　　In 2021, Aruká died from COVID-19. The news appeared around the world. The New York Times newspaper wrote the "last man of his tribe" was gone and many people believed the tribe would go extinct.

　　The tribe, in the past, was built upon the idea that men had to be in charge. Once the last man died, the tribe would no longer exist.

　　But the daughters had a different idea. Before Aruká died, he and his daughters started thinking about a way to keep the tribe alive by choosing a female leader.

　　Mandeí said her sisters and father wanted her to take the position. So, Mandeí became the first woman chief in the area.

　　Earlier in their lives, the Juma sisters married men from other tribes to make sure their family line could continue.

　　Over many years, the number of Juma people has grown. In the area that is now Juma territory, there is a lot of activity. Children play in the river. People catch fish. Women work to make flour from the cassava root. Others hunt in the forest.

　　They also gather at a community building called a maloca, to eat, take care of animals, rest, and use their phones. The building has mobile phone signal equipment.

　　Aruká, the last Juma male leader, is buried under the maloca.

　　Mandeí recently retired as leader. Her older sister, Boreá, is chief now.

　　Mandeí said she found leadership difficult, at first. She said other people did not treat the Juma with respect because the tribe was so small. People also opposed her leadership because she is female, she said.

　　It hurt her but did not stop her. "I adapted to seek solutions for our people," she said.

　　The Juma territory needs a strong leader. It is about the size of a large city, similar to Las Vegas, Nevada. Old-growth forest covers the land. A Juma leader's main job is to protect the territory and its natural wealth from outsiders.

　　People come and cut down the trees. They then use the cleared land to plant grasses that are used to raise animals.

　　The changes are damaging to the traditional life of native people. Developers plan to build a road nearby. The Juma say that will bring more people and industry to the area. Mandeí says the environment is already changing.

　　"The river doesn't fill with water as it used to ... The water shouldn't dry up so much like this. It's much hotter, it wasn't like this before. Our concern is: Why is this happening? Because of deforestation," she said.

　　The Juma people work to protect their land – they move around the territory by boat and even use drones to view their land from above.

　　Mandeí's nephew, Puré, is one of the guards. He said he is proud to be a Juma and protect the land.

　　He said he broke the rules and followed his mother's lineage. "If I don't identify myself as Juma, who else will?"

　　Puré's mother married a man from another tribe. When he was born, he was registered as a member of his father's tribe. But at 15, he decided to add the Juma name, his mother's name, to his name. He had to visit Brazil's indigenous people's office to make the change.

　　Two of his cousins also added Juma to their names.

　　There were not many Juma people to begin with. Experts on Brazil's native people say before non-indigenous people made contact with the Juma, there were probably a few thousand. The Juma fought the invaders and suffered major losses in battle. A book by a German Christian clergyman says the last attack on the Juma came in 1964. Over 30 people were killed, including Aruká's father.

　　Later, when Mandeí became the leader, she asked for help in saving the Juma language. In 2019, she invited a language expert to visit and help create a dictionary for use with mobile phones. They also created digital records of the language with stories, speeches, and songs in the Juma language.

　　Wesley dos Santos went to Brazil to work on the project. He is a graduate student at the University of California – Berkeley. He said the language, Kawahiva, is endangered. It is only used by 560 people. One of its variations is Juma, and there are seven others.

　　Mandeí said she is concerned that the language and the people who speak it will disappear one day. There are only 24 people living in the Juma village. The three sisters are still trying to decide how to pass down the Juma traditions to the people who come after them.

　　"The largest responsibility I share with my sisters is not to lose Juma culture as taught by our father," Mandeí said.

　　I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Jill Robbins.

　　Dan Friedell adapted this story for Learning English based on a report by the Associated Press.

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　　作者：Dan Friedell

　　日期：2023年12月15日

　　朱马人是巴西亚马逊雨林地区的土著民族。到了20世纪90年代，这个部落只剩下四个人。

　　他们是父亲阿鲁卡，以及他的三个女儿——波雷亚、曼德伊和玛伊塔。

　　2021年，阿鲁卡死于COVID-19。这个消息在全世界范围内传播开来。《纽约时报》报道了这个"部落的最后一名男性"的去世，许多人认为这个部落将会灭绝。

　　过去，这个部落的建立是基于男性必须掌权的观念。一旦最后一名男性去世，部落就不复存在了。

　　但是，这三个女儿有不同的想法。在阿鲁卡去世之前，他和他的女儿们开始考虑通过选择一位女性领导人来保持部落的生存。

　　曼德伊说，她的姐妹和父亲希望她接任这个职位。因此，曼德伊成为了该地区的第一位女性酋长。

　　早些年，朱马姐妹们嫁给了其他部落的男子，以确保他们的家族血脉得以延续。

　　经过多年，朱马人的数量已经增长了。在现在被称为朱马领土的地区，活动非常多。孩子们在河里玩耍，人们捕鱼，妇女们从木薯根中制作面粉，其他人则在森林里狩猎。

　　他们还会聚集在一个叫做马洛卡的社区建筑中，吃饭、照顾动物、休息，以及使用他们的手机。这个建筑有移动电话信号设备。

　　最后一位朱马男性领导人阿鲁卡，就葬在马洛卡下面。

　　曼德伊最近退休了，她的姐姐波雷亚现在是酋长。

　　曼德伊说，她最初觉得领导很困难。她说，其他人因为部落太小而不尊重朱马人。她还说，人们也反对她因为她是女性而担任领导。

　　这让她受伤，但并没有阻止她。她说："我适应了，为我们的人民寻找解决方案。"

　　朱马领土需要一个强有力的领导者。它的面积大约相当于一个大城市，类似于内华达州的拉斯维加斯。原始森林覆盖了这片土地。朱马领导人的主要工作是保护领土和其自然财富免受外来者的侵犯。

　　人们来这里砍伐树木，然后利用清理出来的土地种植用于养殖动物的草。

　　这些变化对土著人的传统生活造成了破坏。开发商计划在附近修建一条道路。朱马人说，这将会带来更多的人和工业进入这个地区。曼德伊说，环境已经在发生变化。

　　"河水不再像以前那样充盈……水不应该像这样干涸。现在更热了，以前不是这样的。我们的担忧是：为什么会发生这种情况？因为森林砍伐，"她说。

　　朱马人努力保护他们的土地——他们乘船在领土上移动，甚至使用无人机从空中查看他们的土地。

　　曼德伊的侄子普雷是其中一名守卫。他说他为自己是朱马人并保护这片土地感到自豪。

　　他说他打破了规则，跟随了他母亲的血脉。"如果我不认同自己是朱马人，还有谁会呢？"

　　普雷的母亲嫁给了另一个部落的男人。当他出生时，他被登记为父亲部落的成员。但在15岁时，他决定将朱马这个名字，也就是他母亲的名字，加入到他的名字中。他必须去巴西的土著人民办公室进行更改。

　　他的两个表亲也将朱马加入到他们的名字中。

　　朱马人的数量本来就不多。研究巴西土著人的专家说，在非土著人与朱马人接触之前，可能只有几千人。朱马人与侵略者进行了战斗，并在战斗中遭受了重大损失。一本由德国基督教牧师写的书说，最后一次对朱马人的攻击发生在1964年。超过30人被杀，包括阿鲁卡的父亲。

　　后来，当曼德伊成为领导者时，她请求帮助保存朱马语。2019年，她邀请了一位语言专家来访，并帮助创建一个可以在手机上使用的字典。他们还用朱马语创建了包含故事、演讲和歌曲的语言的数字记录。

　　韦斯利·桑托斯去巴西参与了这个项目。他是加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的研究生。他说，卡瓦希瓦语是一种濒危语言，只有560人使用。它的一个变体是朱马语，还有其他七种。

　　曼德伊表示，她担心有一天这种语言和说这种语言的人会消失。朱马村只有24个人。三姐妹仍在努力决定如何将朱马的传统传承给后来的人。

　　"我和我的姐妹们共同承担的最大责任就是不让我们父亲教导的朱马文化失传，"曼德伊说。

　　我是丹·弗里德尔。我是吉尔·罗宾斯。

　　丹·弗里德尔根据美联社的报道为英语学习改编了这个故事。

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　　故事中的词汇

　　extinct –n. 灭绝的，不存在的

　　adapt –v. 根据新信息进行改变

　　drone–n. 通常带有摄像头的小型飞行机器人