Geography, Cartography and Ethnology in Upper Amazonas. Contrasts between XVIIth and XXIst centuries

Abstract

The discovery of the Amazon River occurred in 1542. Francisco de Orellana was glory of the event and Gaspar de Carvajal wrote the Memory of the facts. The Amazon basin is understood as a place to exploit and this detail has not changed up to now. The tropical forest and societies living there for thousands of years have suffered, from the beginning, the negative impacts of civilized man. The Jesuit Samuel Fritz made the first reliable map of the Amazon basin and placed there the most important rivers and the ethnic groups that were residing in that vast territory. He also located the diverse aboriginal societies after the establishment of the Maynas’ Indian Reductions.