AMNH Hall of South American Peoples: Amazonia
CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMAZONIAN INDIANS
During thousands of years of cultural development, the Indians of Amazonia made a number of inventions and discoveries later adopted worldwide. Foremost among them were several cultivated plants. Manioc, first domesticated in Amazonia, became a staple crop in much of tropical Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Tapioca, the fine flour derived from manioc, is now well known the world over. Other food plants probably first domesticated in Amazonia include sweet potatoes, capsicum peppers, peanuts, papayas and pineapples.
Tobacco and its principal forms of use- cigarettes, cigars, pipes and snuff-also originated in Amazonia. Other plants whose medicinal or narcotic effects were first discovered by Amazonian Indians include coca and curare, the well-known blowgun poison. Because of its muscle-relaxing properties, curarine, the active agent in curare, is today widely used in surgery to prevent muscle spasms.
The comfortable and convenient hammock, all but universal in Amazonia, was soon copied by the outside world; even the British Navy adopted it. The barbecue, first seen by Europeans in the West Indies, has become a popular backyard fixture. Rubber, first used in Amazonia, provided the raw material for such Amazonian inventions as the rubber ball and the enema syringe. Silk cotton (kapok), which the Indians used to wrap the butt ends of blowgun darts, was used by Europeans to fill life preservers because of its light weight and water resistance.
AMNH Hall of South American Peoples: Amazonia
CONTRIBUTIONS OF AMAZONIAN INDIANS
During thousands of years of cultural development, the Indians of Amazonia made a number of inventions and discoveries later adopted worldwide. Foremost among them were several cultivated plants. Manioc, first domesticated in Amazonia, became a staple crop in much of tropical Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Tapioca, the fine flour derived from manioc, is now well known the world over. Other food plants probably first domesticated in Amazonia include sweet potatoes, capsicum peppers, peanuts, papayas and pineapples.
Tobacco and its principal forms of use- cigarettes, cigars, pipes and snuff-also originated in Amazonia. Other plants whose medicinal or narcotic effects were first discovered by Amazonian Indians include coca and curare, the well-known blowgun poison. Because of its muscle-relaxing properties, curarine, the active agent in curare, is today widely used in surgery to prevent muscle spasms.
The comfortable and convenient hammock, all but universal in Amazonia, was soon copied by the outside world; even the British Navy adopted it. The barbecue, first seen by Europeans in the West Indies, has become a popular backyard fixture. Rubber, first used in Amazonia, provided the raw material for such Amazonian inventions as the rubber ball and the enema syringe. Silk cotton (kapok), which the Indians used to wrap the butt ends of blowgun darts, was used by Europeans to fill life preservers because of its light weight and water resistance.