As such isolated groups do not have resistance to many diseases such as colds, such situations of contact frequently result in high rates of death for native people.

Yabashta-Yaminahua healer looking for medicinal plants in the rain forest. The Yabashta, a sub-group of the Yaminahua, were fierce warriors of the upper Manu, feared by the Machiguenga, by oil company workers and by local lumberjacks until they were forcefully contacted in 1984, soon after oil explorers and lumber companies entered their territory. This contact resulted in an epidemic of whooping cough and malaria that eliminated 30-50% of the Yabashta population. The word "Yabashta," which they now use to refer to themselves, means "the few who survived" this terrible epidemic.

Such cases call into question our notions of who exactly are the savages: the defenseless people who dropped what they have and headed for the woods in desperation, or the civilized suppliers of rubber for the international tire industry who inflicted such atrocities upon them.

NATIVE MYTHS AND RELIGION

Machiguenga's knowledge and appreciation of biological diversity goes beyond utilitarian facts. Myths concerning the origins of biodiversity are a source of both entertainment and philosophical speculation. Animal species are anthropomorphized, deified or demonized in folk tales, spiritual beliefs and personal anecdotes. Metaphors drawn from ecological processes are used to understand the human condition, while human intentions and emotions are projected into the ecological sphere.