>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
My name is Janet Chernela
and I've been working in the
Northwest Amazon of Brazil
since 1978.
Before that, I worked in the
Museum of Natural History
in New York with the curator
of South American Ethnology,
which is how I became interested
in doing a PhD in anthropology.
>> Natali Palacios:
Oh yeah, that's really cool.
And I was curious, like,
is your background like--
Do you have any
indigenous descent?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
No, not at all.
>> Natali Palacios: Okay.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Purely European.
>> Natali Palacios: Yeah.
So how did you like sort of
get introduced or
get interested in,
like doing work with
indigenous groups
specifically like in Brazil.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Well, that's exactly
what I was getting at.
When I worked at the
Museum of Natural History,
Bob Carneiro, who was
then the curator of
South American Peoples, was
planning an exhibit on
South American
indigenous peoples.
And my job was to read
everything on the subject that I
could in order to discuss
the issue of design with him.
Museum design.
And I just got hooked.
I got hooked reading the stuff.
I also went down at one
point to Venezuela to make a
collection. And that too
got me very excited.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, it's really cool.
And did you first start with
studying at UMD or was that
solely teaching?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Oh, no.
I studied at Columbia University
for my PhD, and then
I went to Brazil,
and after doing
fieldwork, I worked in
Brazil at an institute for
Amazonian research for a number
of years. Then I came
back to the United States.
>> Natali Palacios:
Okay. Got you.
And did you solely work with
the Kotiria or other groups
within the Tucanoan
language group?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Yes.
I work with the formerly known
Wanano, now known as Kotiria.
I worked with them right
away, oddly enough, again,
there was a
coincidence behind it.
I had been bitten by wild dogs
while in the rainforest, and
the mission center sent me back
to Manaus for rabies treatment.
I did that 35 days
of rabies shots.
And when I came back to the
area, I was of great interest to
the people of the area.
And one of these people
invited me to his village, and
that's how I got started. Among
the Kotiria at his invitation.
>> Natali Palacios:
That's definitely a story.
And I was wondering, how
did you like sort of--
I don't know if you would
call it like, field study.
That's what sort of pops into
my head when I think of
anthropology. How did you
sort of get started with that?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Well,
you make numerous mistakes.
I mean, you just sort of
tumble your way into it.
The example of being bitten by
the dogs is just one case in
point, because I wasn't aware
when I first went up there of
the schedule in a village.
And it just so happens that
about 6:00 in the morning when I
was going out to their village,
everybody is going to the
gardens. The only beings left
in the village are hunting dogs,
and the very eldest people.
Even babies are gone because
their mothers carry them.
So, wandering
toward this village,
the dogs warned me not to
come any closer, and I just kept
walking, and that's how.
But that's only one mistake.
You continually make mistakes.
I mean, you really don't
know what you're doing.
You get confused about who
you are, and that's all the good
of it, because that's the way
anthropologists work.
They work through something
called participant observation,
in which they embed themselves
with a particular group of
people and begin to learn about
that way of life through living
with them, through
participating with them.
And so a reality
shift often occurs.
>> Natali Palacios: Definitely.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: But
the process of getting there
is one of series of mistakes.
>> Natali Palacios:
Oh wow.
Okay. Yeah. I didn't
think about it before.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: I'll
give you another example.
I took classes to the Kayapo
area which is in central Brazil.
And the Kayapo
are quite different.
They have a very
organized social life.
When they're welcoming
a newcomer, for example,
when I arrived or a visitor,
they arranged themselves
in a circle with the
chiefs in the center.
And these are all male.
Those sitting around,
observing are all males.
The chiefs are all
malesin this case.
Things have changed recently.
But I brought a class there
and one of my students said
in order for me to translate
for him to the person, to
the Kayapo person said, do you
think your society is a male
chauvinist society?
That's an outsider
question, isn't it?
>> Natali Palacios: Yeah.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
So my job was to translate.
I turned to the Kayapo
colleague and I said, how do you
all feel when Barbara, my
colleague, when Barbara and I
walk into this men's house and
talk to the Chiefs and he said,
we laugh about it all year long.
So you're making mistakes, and
you're also making a fool of
yourself because you don't
know the proper expectations.
So you're constantly breaking
rules without even being aware
of it. And that was one example.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, that makes sense.
So I know because you said,
firstly in terms of the
Kotiria group, they
invited you, right?
So I wanted to know, like
in that case where they sort of
like more open and like sharing
their daily life with you.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Yes, absolutely.
Well, they hadn't had
any anthropologists.
One of the things that I was
greeted with was a kind of
wail in which the person
said, we don't have any
anthropologists here, we
don't have any medicines.
We don't have etc, etc, etc.
And he was talking about
the utility of a connection
to the outside.
And the anthropologist
can supply that.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, definitely.
And yeah, I
was sort of curious.
Like the more experience you
got interacting with the group,
did you like how
would it work out?
Like how did you learn the
language or did they speak like
Portuguese or like a language
you already knew beforehand?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Well, I
was I was rushed up to the field
because this is another story.
I was rushed up to
the field because
I had a Fulbright and my
intention was to go to Colombia.
And then in that year, the
Columbia government insisted
upon an equal amount of money
to the government to match any
grants that
researchers received.
So the granting agencies
refused to participate, and
Fulbright sent me to Brazil
at the very last minute.
I did speak Spanish, but
I didn't speak Portuguese.
I had never spoken Portuguese.
And there I was,
arriving in Brasilia.
Then the Brazilian
government, not Fulbright.
The Brazilian government told
me that foreigners would not be
allowed on the border, and the
area where I was working was the
Colombian Brazilian border.
So finally they said, we'll
send you with a Brazilian.
I suppose the idea being that
you can't trust foreigners
on a border, so you ought to
send them with a Brazilian.
And I was accompanied by
Berta Hibedu, a very well known
Brazilian anthropologist.
I was fortunate that way.
But she, you know, scooped me
up and we rushed off to the
field. I went directly from
Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia
to the rainforest.
>> Natali Palacios: Oh,
yeah, I'm noticing that, like,
everything is more of,
like a learning process.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Yes. Exactly. Yes.
Yeah but you can't underestimate
the extent to which it is.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, definitely.
So I was wondering, like
through interacting with the
Kotiria, I guess, how much
does the group mean to you or
what does Kotiria mean to you?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
You mean the word or sentiment?
>> Natali Palacios: I guess like
the group of people and also
the word, because I know
you said that it was formerly
known as Wannano. The group.
First of all, the word.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Okay,
I'll try to tie together these
two very different issues.
In the literature, that is
to say, the missionaries who had
been there since 1925 visited
the villages and kept records of
them. They called that
group the Wannano.
This is not a Kotiria word.
It's not even a tucanoan.
The language family word.
It's from Tupi-guarani, a
different indigenous language,
one that the Jesuits in the
1500s established as a
lingua franca in Brazil
among indigenous peoples.
They intended it to be
the national language.
By the way, it is the national
language, one of the national
languages in Paraguay.
Perhaps for the same reason.
In any case, when I got there,
I discovered that the so-called
Wanano don't consider
themselves to be Wanano, and
their own word is Kotiria.
So I began to write about the
Wanano, and then I changed to
the Kotiria, which I think is
just one example of how I saw
myself as a kind of translator,
or a kind of interpreter of
Kotiria life to
the reading public,
to the international community.
>> Natali Palacios: Gotcha. And
I guess I was wondering, like,
how would you say
maybe your role
is in relation to the Kotiria?
Would it be like a friend?
I know you said translator.
Anthropologist? How do you,
like, see yourself?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
It has really changed over time.
When I first went there, I was
very close to a woman who was
about my age, who had two small
children, and therefore that was
almost an individual
relationship within the
collective relationship.
So it was very special.
But again, let's go
back to the mistakes
that one can make.
So there were certain
individuals that I felt closer
to than others, and I had been
constantly asked for certain
things that I had,
like a hair clip.
Or a Swiss Army knife.
And so after six months, when
I was going to go to the city
for R and R and then return to
the area I decided to give those
things before my departure to
specific individuals, those who
had helped me. You can see
Western values in this,
can't you? Rewarding
people who had helped me.
The gift as a reward.
And then I witnessed these
items go from person to person
to person to person.
I also noticed that some of
them were lost very soon.
This brings me to the point
that these people are
relatively egalitarian.
Certainly when it comes
to material goods, nobody has
more than anyone else.
And should they happen to come
to receive something that would
make them stand out?
It's very embarrassing.
It's very tense.
And so goods tend to either
be shared or disappear.
In any case, I began with that
kind of individual relationship
because of my own
needs, I suppose.
And then once, having lived
there and coming out, I began to
write about them.
That's a different kind of
relationship, because it's one
of abstraction.
On the other hand, I kept my
contact with people from that
village over all this time.
In 2006, about two thirds of
the villagers all moved
downstream to a town on the
edge of the reserve.
That's because the president,
then, Lula Ignacio da Silva,
instituted a cash transfer
program whereby anyone could
receive cash per month if they
were below the poverty level,
and so people moved to the city
so that they would have access
to those resources.
That enabled me, after the
fieldwork that I did in the 70s
and 80s, it enabled me to keep
in touch with people over the
long Terme as they as they
moved, as the parents whom I
knew as age mates, then
parents then became elderly and
their children became parents,
and then their children became
parents, as I was able to
accompany them through that.
And I still do.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, that's really nice.
so I was wondering, I guess
in that sense has working
alongside the cashier made,
like, a big impact in your life?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: I would
say it entirely changed my life.
As I say, in the process of
participant observation, one
begins to loosen one's
convictions about assumptions.
One begins to question certain
assumptions.
One begins to realize that our
assumptions are, in a certain
sense, arbitrary, that is, that
they're not natural.
They would appear to be natural
or they would appear to be
biological sometimes.
Right? Natural.
Living with.
Others living with those who
see the world and experience the
world and act in the world
differently is a kind of
personal revolution in which
you.
Loosen your ties to your own
teachings.
You don't forget them.
You just loosen them so that
you can witness them.
You can see them with a little
more distance.
You're no longer inside those,
imperatives.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah for sure.
This is just something I'm
curious about, I guess.
maybe. What sort of views
did the cheetah have that kind
of like, maybe not views or
practices that maybe, like, sort
of shifted how you view things.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Oh, yes. Well let's see.
how to begin this very
big question. Yeah.
Let me just give you one
out of a zillion experiences.
I remember coming back to the
United States and going to a
department store, and I arrived
on a floor in the department
store, and there was nothing
but handbags as far as the eye
could see. Handbag after
handbag after handbag after
handbag. Very similar to one
another having certain
commonalities a zipper, a
clasp, a handle, a strap, a
shoulder strap or a hand
handle.
I began to see these things as
I had never seen them before.
Prior to my experience, I might
have just entered that
environment and it would
have been backgrounded for me.
But now, seeing it as I did, I
was able to wonder why we lived
that way when so many other
people live with practically
nothing like the criteria, they
would be amazed to see the
duplication, the excess.
Um. The sense of need for these
things.
The the following of fashion.
The way in which identity plays
into these material objects.
>> Natali Palacios: Yeah,
definitely Western world's.
I guess I don't know.
I know you said their side's
more sharing or not wanting to
stand out. I think,
like you said,
we try like our best
to be unique, I think.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Yes,
that's right. We do try to be.
Exactly. That's a
major difference.
We try to be unique.
We try to stand out and they
try to avoid standing out.
Of course, we're not aware of
just how we conform to other
people as well.
That part we don't take in so,
so clearly we're aware of the
differences among us rather
than the commonalities among us.
>> Natali Palacios:
That's very true.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
But they quite consciously
don't want to be different.
It is frightening for
them to be different.
>> Natali Palacios:
Okay. Got ya.
And then I know you said
before, correct me if I'm
misquoting, but I think you
said they were looking for or
they needed anthropologists
because they didn't have
access to one I think was more
like access to resources.
Right.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Well, when I arrived,
I was the first anthropologist
among the Kotiria.
But I was not the
first anthropologist in the
vicinity, because a seven mile
walk over to a different river
basin had as a visitor
Robin Wright, another American
anthropologist. And they all
knew what Robin Wright had done,
because word carried and
everyone was quite interested.
And Robin Wright collected
shaman chants.
So when I arrived, that was the
assumption of what
anthropologists did.
They already having that notion
of offered me all sorts of,
you know, performances and
so on, because of Robin.
Really?
>> Natali Palacios:
Very interesting.
So I was wondering, I guess
more so in your point of view,
how can an resource
like Cosmo Visions--
What impact can it
have on our community?
As in like educators, students,
the general public?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Well, I think that one has to
learn about a life with others.
One has to even question the
notion of others.
You know, each of us is other
to someone else.
So learning the Cosmo visions
of a peoples as one does
vicariously through reading or
through video is a form of
education because it places you
in the world, you, the viewer,
you, the reader, in a world of
others and other nesses in which
you can see yourself not as the
dominant notion of what
civilization is, but one of
many different ways of life.
And I think this is crucial,
especially now, as the world
mixes even further and further.
>> Natali Palacios: Is there
anything else you would like us
to know in terms of your
work with the community?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: You
see my work with community has
endured throughout
my life since,
as I say, I first
went there in 1970s.
That is over 50 years and it
has changed over time.
Now I am actively engaged with
the grandchildren of the people
I first worked with, and the
great grandchildren of the
people I first worked with.
I just accompanied a young
woman to university in the south
of Brazil, in the city of
Campinas where she is
entering a bachelor's degree
program, and her family is very
proud. That kind of thing is
what's happening nowadays.
We have we have zoom.
We can see one another.
People have cell phones.
We can talk all the
time if we wish to.
We can stay in touch.
And I have been in touch.
I've introduced my students
in class using zoom to
indigenous communities,
including the area.
And so it so one maintains
a relationship on several
different levels.
One is the emotional personal
level, which I guess I felt when
I took Carol to her
university for the first time.
The other is an abstraction
which has to occur in the
process of writing.
And finally, there is the
advocacy aspect in which you try
to, at times provide a
kind of linkage to the rest of
society, to policymakers,
to authorities.
You lend your endorsement,
your authority to requests
and decisions
and sometimes lawsuits.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah, I'm gonna admit, I'm not
very educated on
indigenous groups
and the Brazilian government.
But is there, like, a big
conflict between them right now?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Well, there was a big conflict
when I went in the early 1970s.
None of the indigenous
lands had been demarcated,
demarcation being the terms for
guaranteed to them delineated
and guaranteed to them.
During the time that I've been
going to the Amazon, indigenous
lands were demarcated.
There was a brand new
constitution in 1988, which also
ensured indigenous peoples the
rights to their own land on the
basis of being original to them.
At the same time as that's
going on, you have numerous
forces that work against it.
Some of them come from
economic interests.
Gold miners,
loggers who are after
the so-called natural resources
within the indigenous reserve.
But indigenous peoples have
been living on those resources.
They've also maintained them
in a sustainable way, whereas
obviously a logger simply
removes the rainforest.
And as we know, the
consequences are worldwide.
So there are economic
interests that are constantly
eating away at
indigenous rights.
And then there are also
sometimes governments
that do it, the presidency
in Brazil has made a very big
difference in terms of the
extent to which indigenous
peoples can carry out the
guarantees of their own land.
The ownership of land in
Brazil is just like
in the United
States. The surface,
the subsurface
belongs to the Union,
to the federal government.
Different presidents have
tried to break down the
rights to these lands,
have tried to change.
Even Bolsonaro recently tried
to change the Constitution,
even. And Congress can try,
because Congress, of course, is
susceptible to interests and
the agricultural interests,
especially the large
agribusinesses such as the
soy company are constantly
impinging on indigenous lands
and constantly negotiating
for more and more land.
Cattle is another danger
because cattle always needs
new land. So a great
deal of the Amazon forest
has been lost to these forces.
And insofar as the remaining
indigenous peoples for the
most part, are in the Amazon
and they continue to
lead their lives because
they've been so remote.
But that remoteness
is now disappearing and
they're now being encroached
upon more and more by
the businesses from the south.
The south being the
industrial part of Brazil,
Rio and Sao Paulo
and other cities.
>> Natali Palacios:
Got you. And in that case
is that-- would like moving
to city be a good option
for indigenous groups?
Or is it more like
they want to stay
where their home is?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: The
family that I'm working with
had to come down river when the
son needed medical attention.
Now, medical
attention is one reason
to live in a city,
isn't it? Right.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: If you
want that kind of attention.
And in his case, he had cancer
of the brain and had to go
through a series of
chemotherapy treatments.
Those treatments continued to
the extent that the family
eventually moved to Manaus,
where he could be monitored and
receive his treatments.
So the whole family came from
the upper river into Manaus.
And there as a friend and
anthropologist, I observed
advantages and disadvantages.
It's the daughter in that
family that's now going to
university. But I've also seen
the temptation to get involved
in vices that are
rampant in that city,
like drug use and so on.
So yes, they are faced
with the same challenges and
living with cities and living
in cities as everybody else is.
You know, in the rainforest,
the family is
extremely important.
One might even say that
the family is all there is
that's important.
Everyone in the village is
related and considered family,
and one's own family
is obviously very dear.
Children are constantly in
contact with their mother and
father. Small children up to
the ages of 3 or 4 are held,
carried by their parents,
even to the gardens to work.
So, to move to a city and
encounter these dangers is a
very great risk for the
indigenous peoples.
They want their children to be
educated, but they don't want
them to get involved in
activities that are not
helpful to them.
>> Natali Palacios: Definitely.
Yeah, that must be
a tough decision.
Especially since--
Everyone's like,
interconnected. You said.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah. I was wondering, like...
Because I think you said,
what's her name? Carol.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Carol.
>> Natali Palacios: Carol.
Does she often go back
to visit her family?
Well, they now live in Manaus.
So it's quite easy,
remember?
She can fly.
Of course, the first trip was
very difficult because
she'd never been
in a plane before.
And she landed in Sao Paulo,
one of the largest cities in the
world. But that aside, her
brother who was the person
who underwent the
treatments, is still alive.
And now he writes poetry
and he posts it on YouTube.
So times have changed
dramatically and the kinds of
expressions have
changed dramatically.
Their life is now an
urban indigenous life.
In fact, they now live in lands
that were claimed to be
indigenous, and everyone in
that community is indigenous.
We were able to
help in that way.
For example that
community settled
opportunistically as they
say in lands without owning
them. But these
lands were available.
And they argued that the
first people that did live in
them and own them were
indigenous, and that the
indigenous residents are
simply, you know,
carrying on that tradition.
They then argued to dedicate
that land just to indigenous
peoples. At first, the
government of Manaus declined,
saying that they were not
really indigenous because they
spoke Portuguese
and wore clothing.
So we, that is to say,
linguists from,
Brazilian linguists and a class
of mine in culture and language
participated in a collection of
languages and observations of
languages, indigenous languages
spoken in the community.
And we found 31 different
indigenous languages.
That went into the dossier, and
eventually the case was won on
behalf of the
indigenous peoples.
They now have streets running
water, electricity in this same
region that began with nothing.
And it is indigenous and
the streets are named after
indigenous peoples.
>> Natali Palacios:
That's a big win.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: They have
a couple of bilingual schools.
One of them is funded
by the government.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yes. Do you see more advocacy
going on in that case?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
In that case?
>> Natali Palacios: Yeah. With
that case one, has there been--
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: That
case received a lot of publicity
in Manaus. And so lots of
people, newspaper reporters
in particular, gave it a
great deal of attention.
And spoke, you know,
on behalf of the
indigenous peoples.
Also University students.
Academics of all kinds.
When the Covid epidemic hit,
that community was
of course, isolated.
But a nurse from the municipal
center set up a medical tent
in the community.
To give tests and, decide
whether a person needed
to be hospitalized or not.
>> Natali Palacios:
Okay. That's good.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: But as
I say, as technology changes
and as the world changes,
the new technology is altering
the lives and the power of
indigenous peoples within
the Brazilian state.
Nowadays, the internet
allows indigenous peoples to
communicate widely so that
whereas up to now Brazil
never had a unified indigenous
organization the way other
countries do. Now it does, but
it's a virtual community, and
this is the first time it's
been able to have anything like
that with ongoing communication
between peoples
and collective decision making.
Life in the city is
easier for the elderly.
Life in the city is easier
because in the village you have
to get yourself out
into the gardens.
The gardens are sometimes
over an hour away.
You have to put a basket on
your head. When you come back,
it's full of manioc.
It weighs 40 kilos.
You also have to
carry back firewood.
In the city, you
don't have to do that.
But in the city you also
don't have fresh fish.
Every night in the village,
the men fished.
And every morning everybody
had a very large fish meal.
Now, in the city, you
cannot get fresh fish.
You can get frozen fish.
Because it's it's collected
in these large freezer
ships and you
have to pay for it.
So you must have money
in the city in order to
even eat, to subsist.
And then you are not eating as
healthy foods as you were
in the village. People are
living on canned foods.
Sometimes. People have access
to soda and other sources of
processed sugar products.
So I would say it's in some
ways a less healthy life.
>> Natali Palacios: I see.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: The diet
in the village was extremely
healthy. Fresh fish
all the time.
And then fruits of, you
know, many, many, many kinds of
fruits. The fruits were
collected by everyone, including
the children. You always
had available fruits.
>> Natali Palacios:
So in that case would--
I think you said they
live near river or lake.
They have access
to water, right?
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Yes.
The Tucanoan people always
live along the river.
Right at the river edge.
Villages face the river.
Life is directed
toward the river.
As I say, men go fishing.
They get up at 4:00 in the
morning and go out fishing in
the river. Women very often
later, when they get up,
take their canoes
to the gardens.
The only forms of
transportation are river and
path. So they either depends
upon where their garden is.
They either run along a path or
canoe paddle along the river
to get to these,
to get to their gardens.
The gardens are constantly
moved so they're further and
further out.
Coming back from the garden,
you have, as I say, you carry
tremendous weight with you.
But overall the food
is very nutritious.
And you're also getting
constant exercise here in
urbanized Maryland,
we carry out exercise in a
very artificial
manner, don't we?
Whereas they're expending
calories at very quick rates
when they go to the gardens.
Very heavy work.
>> Natali Palacios:
Definitely. Yeah.
Here's like...
The gyms.
Pretty much.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: People
even have walking machines.
>> Natali Palacios:
Yeah. That's true.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela:
Stay in place and walk on.
>> Natali Palacios: And
then I was sort of wondering
has there been like, concerns
in terms of like climate change?
Because I know--
I think like,
rising water levels
has been a concern
for the community.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: Yes.
The attention of the community
when it comes to weather, when
it comes to climate hasn't been
temperature because they're at
the equator and the temperature
doesn't change radically.
That which is their major
concern is the rise and fall of
the river. As it occurs
as a result of rains.
So their attention is on the
rains and very recently
they had extreme drying.
The rivers are extremely low,
so low that fish are piling up.
Dead fish are
being washed ashore.
They can't eat them.
They're not edible.
>> Natali Palacios:
I see. Yeah, it's not good.
>> Dr. Janet Chernela: People
don't know what to expect.
So I think it might be useful
to tie in climate change with
knowledge when it comes to
weather changes, because the way
in which the calendar year is
envisioned by the Kotiria is by
stars crossing the sky.
Each star is a kind of spirit
figure, an animal spirit figure
that brings the rains with
it as it crosses the sky.
Those rains then affect the
level in the river, and that
in turn affects the kind
of tools used in fishing.
So in some seasons,
high water or low water,
one can use a spear to fish.
In other seasons you can use
a fish trap, but not in others.
And in the driest season
of all, you can poison fish.
So the sensitivity to
environmental changes is
directly related to daily life
and to one's cosmovision
one's existence, one's being,
one's food, one's livelihood.