Clement believed that “the Amazon’s first inhabitants laboriously cleared small plots with their stone axes. But rather than simply planting manioc and other annual crops in their gardens until the forest took them over” (Mann, p.341). Peach palms are the example that he uses for further proof of his theory. The wood from peach palms is very sturdy; the fruit is “soaked with oil and rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C, and, surprisingly, protein. When dried, the white or pink pulp makes flour for thin, tortilla-like cakes; when boiled and smoked, it becomes hors d’oeuvres; when cooked and fermented, it makes beer” (Mann, p341). The natives had ingenious methods for working the land so that it would provide, and have many uses; the peach palm is just one example of how the natives made the rainforest ‘work for them’. According to The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, the natives did not raise livestock or plow fields; they ate “inhame, which is very plentiful here, and those seeds and fruits that the earth and the trees give of themselves” (Early Brazil, p.6). Is it possible that Pero Vaz de Caminha was referring to the peach …show more content…
One thing that researchers and scientists are discovering is that the original theory that the natives were living a primitive, insubstantial existence is false. Researcher Michael Heckenberger found remains of a “grid-like pattern of 150-acre towns and smaller villages, connected by complex road networks and arranged around large plazas where public rituals would take place”