A Journey to the Heart of the Amazon

The indigenous village of Satare Maue on the Rio Negro river is in the heart of Brazil's Amazon rain forest.There are violent and powerful forces in the area who are against environmental conservation-- in fact, over the past 20 years a number people have been murdered for their activism, so we cannot be specific about this exact location.

Here, Satare Maue boys link arms at a coming-of-age ritual during which a 13-year-old boy will be "inoculated" against disease-carrying mosquitoes. One of the boys blew a bamboo horn as part of the ceremony. The ritual involved exposure to swarms of highly poisonous Tocandira ants whose bites the Satare Maue believe to be a natural mosquito repellant.

(Harry Phillips)