Adaptation And The Guarani Indians

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environment making sure never to over exploit any part of it. They do this by only producing what they need to survive, by rotating their way of producing food for their survival and by producing capital to survive in the world. They have learned to use their environment well in ways such as, using abundant cash crops that naturally grow in the forest around them. These cash crops mainly include yerba mate (a caffeinated tea and oil extract from wild orange trees (used for flavorings and perfumes). They use these products as their means of obtaining capital to buy goods that are much easier to buy then to make such as matches and soap, they also use their environment well by substituting items they use to survive if one is running low. If the animal population is running low they may gather more food instead or relying on hunting, or if the vegetation around them seems to becoming scarce they will rely more on other means to produce their food such as fishing or horticulture.
Another way the Guarani interact will with their environment making sure not to exhaust it is by clearing an area of land just large enough to grow the needed crops about every three years. They clear their farmlands using a slash and burn method, which helps to provide missing nutrients to the soil that are needed to grow crops. Their slash and burn method worked successfully without exhausting or destroying the land because they developed a shifting or rotating schedule of their fields. As they are cultivating an area they are letting past areas regenerate, so in about ten to fifteen years they can reuse parts of the land again. Reuse of the land also helps to minimize the amount of land they affect by cultivation. Helping to preserve there environment by working with it in these ways provides comfort to the Guarani Indians in knowing they will always have enough food to survive year after year.
The tropical environment the Guarani culture lives in has allowe...