An Amazon rainforest rite of passage in threatened territory

By LUCAS DUMPHREYS and DAVID BILLER
Associated Press

ALTO RIO GUAMA INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil (AP) — The Indigenous adolescents danced in a circle under the thatched-roof hut from nearly dawn to dusk while parents looked on from the perimeter. Some of the adults smoked tobacco mixed with the wood from a local tree in Brazil’s Amazon. The seemingly endless loop of the procession, taking place over six long days, was leaving some Tembé Tenehara youngsters with swollen feet. In the Alto Rio Guama territory, it is all part of this vital rite of passage, known as “Wyra’whaw.” Upon the final day, the girls and boys would be viewed by the Teko-Haw village as women and men, and assume their roles leading the community.