Effect of Globalization on the Awa

            For many indigenous groups, globalization is a helpful implementation into their daily lives being that it can make life easier through new and different technologies. Since the 1950s globalization has had a profound effect on the people of the Awa tribe. At that time, ranchers and loggers began to actively move through their land with no regard for what was in their paths and have not stopped since. For this reason, many consider the Awa to be "the most threatened tribe". Often times, a whole tribe of Awa will be massacred by the imposing loggers merely so that they can strip their land of all of its resources. The Awa faced another threat when iron ore was found in nearby Carajás. Expansion began on this land causing the Awa to continue to spread out and move more than they already had, in fact many of members of the tribe died during the development of their land. Around the mid 1980’s, human rights organizations such as FUNAI began to see the effect that this had on the Awa tribe and began to call for justice. This justice did not take place until 2005 when the area occupied by the tribe was demarcated.  Though the area occupied by the Awa has been officially demarcated, their still land faces threats by illegal loggers and ranchers as it has been estimated that the intruders still outnumber the tribe by 10 to 1. As a matter of fact, in 2010, about one-third of the area that the Awa tribe occupies had already been destroyed by loggers, ranchers, and settlers.

IB Times Staff Reporter 2012, World’s Most Threatened Awá Tribe Outnumbered 10:1 by Invaders. Electronic Document. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/342567/20120518/world-threatened-aw-tribe-outnumbered-10-1.htm, accessed November 5, 2013.