Where Men See White, Women See Ecru

Neuroscientists prove what we always suspected: the two sexes see the world differently
If youve ever found yourself at a paint store with a member of the opposite sex trying to decide between, say, laguna blue and blue macaw, chances are youve disagreed over which hue is lighter or looks more tur uoise! "ake comfort in the fact that the real blame lies with physiology: Neuroscientists have discovered that women are better at distinguishing among subtle distinctions in color, while men appear more sensitive to ob#ects moving across their field of vision! $cientists have long main% tained that the sexes see colors differently! &ut much of the evidence has been indirect, such as the linguistic research showing that women possess a larger vocabulary than men for describing colors! 'xperimental evidence for the vision thing has been rare! "hats why Israel (bramov, a psychologist and behavioral neuroscientist at )*N+s &rooklyn )ollege, gave a group of men and women a battery of visual tests! (bramov has spent ,- years studying human vision.how our eyes and brain translate light into a representation of the world! /es curious about the neural mechanisms that determine how we perceive colors! In one study, (bramov and his research team showed sub#ects light and dark bars of different widths and degrees of contrast flickering on a computer screen! "he effect was akin to how we might view a car moving in the distance! 0en were better than women at seeing the bars, and their advantage increased as the bars became narrower and less distinct! &ut when the researchers tested color vision in one of two ways.by pro#ecting colors onto frosted glass or beaming them into their sub#ects eyes. women proved slightly better at discriminating among subtle gradations in the middle of the color spectrum, where yellow and green reside! "hey detected tiny differences between yellows that looked the same to

men! "he researchers also found that men re uire a slightly longer wavelength to see the same hue as women1 an ob#ect that women experience as orange will look slightly more yellowish to men, while green will look more blue%green to men! "his last part doesnt confer an advantage on either sex, but it does demonstrate, (bramov says, that the nervous system that deals with color cannot be wired in the exact same way in males as in females! /e believes the answer lies in testosterone and other androgens! 'vidence from animal studies suggests that male sex hormones can alter development in the visual cortex! 2hile (bramov has an explanation for how the sexes see differently, hes less certain about why! 3ne possibility.which he cautions is highly speculative.is that its an evolutionary adaptation that benefited hunter%gatherer societies: 0ales needed to see distant, moving ob#ects, like bison, while females had to be better #udges of color when scouring for edible plants! $omeday, further studies could reveal whether these traits could have implications for how men and women perform in fields such as the arts or athletics! (t the very least, (bramov says, women probably have an edge nabbing the ripest banana on the shelf!

The Lost Tribes of the Amazon

3ften described as uncontacted, isolated groups living deep in the $outh (merican forest resist the ways of the modern world.at least for now
3n a cloudless afternoon in the foothills of the (ndes, 'liana 0art4ne5 took off for the (ma5on #ungle in a single%engine )essna 6789 from an airstrip near )olombias capital, &ogot:! $ uee5ed with her in the tiny four%seat compartment were ;oberto <ranco, a )olombian expert on (ma5on Indians1 )rist=bal von ;othkirch, a )olombian photographer1 and a veteran pilot! 0art4ne5 and <ranco carried a large topographical map of ;4o >ur? National >ark, 8!@7 million acres of dense #ungle intersected by muddy rivers and creeks and inhabited by #aguars and wild peccaries.and, they believed, several isolated groups of Indians! 2e didnt have a lot of expectation that wed find anything,

0art4ne5, @@, told me, as thunder rumbled from the #ungle! ( deluge began to pound the tin roof of the head uarters of (macayacu National >ark, beside the (ma5on ;iver, where she now serves as administrator! It was like searching for the needle in the haystack! 0art4ne5 and <ranco had embarked that day on a rescue mission! <or decades, adventurers and hunters had provided tantali5ing reports that an uncontacted tribe was hidden in the rainforest between the )a uet: and >utumayo rivers in the heart of )olombias (ma5on! )olombia had set up ;4o >ur? National >ark in 8--8 partly as a means of safeguarding these Indians, but because their exact whereabouts were unknown, the protection that the government could offer was strictly theoretical! Aold miners, loggers, settlers, narcotics traffickers and 0arxist guerrillas had been invading the territory with impunity, putting anyone dwelling in the #ungle at risk! Now, after two years preparation, 0art4ne5 and <ranco were venturing into the skies to confirm the tribes existence.and pinpoint its exact location! +ou cant protect their territory if you dont know where they are, said 0art4ne5, an intense woman with fine lines around her eyes and long black hair pulled into a ponytail! Bescending from the (ndes, the team reached the parks western perimeter after four hours and flew low over primary rainforest! "hey ticked off a series of A>$ points marking likely Indian habitation 5ones! 0ost of them were located at the headwaters for tributaries of the )a uet: and the >utumayo, flowing to the north and south, respectively, of the park! It was #ust green, green, green! +ou didnt see any clearing, she recalled! "hey had covered 6C points without success, when, near a creek called the ;4o &ernardo, <ranco shouted a single word: 0alocaD 0art4ne5 leaned over <ranco! EDonde? Donde?.2hereF 2hereF she yelled excitedly! Birectly below, <ranco pointed out a traditional longhouse, constructed of palm leaves and open at one end, standing in a clearing deep in the #ungle! $urrounding the house were plots of plantains and peach palms, a thin%trunked tree that produces a nutritious fruit! "he vast wilderness seemed to press in on this island of human habitation, emphasi5ing its solitude! "he pilot dipped the )essna to #ust several hundred feet above the maloca in the hope of spotting its occupants! &ut nobody was visible! 2e made two circles around, and

then took off so as not to disturb them, says 0art4ne5! 2e came back to earth very content! &ack in &ogot:, the team employed advanced digital technology to enhance photos of the maloca! It was then that they got incontrovertible evidence of what they had been looking for! $tanding near the maloca, looking up at the plane, was an Indian woman wearing a breechcloth, her face and upper body smeared with paint! <ranco and 0art4ne5 believe that the maloca they spotted, along with four more they discovered the next day, belong to two indigenous groups, the +uri and the >ass?.perhaps the last isolated tribes in the )olombian (ma5on! 3ften described, misleadingly, as uncontacted Indians, these groups, in fact, retreated from ma#or rivers and ventured deeper into the #ungle at the height of the $outh (merican rubber boom a century ago! "hey were on the run from massacres, enslavement and infections against which their bodies had no defenses! <or the past century, they have lived with an awareness.and fear .of the outside world, anthropologists say, and have made the choice to avoid contact! Gestiges of the $tone (ge in the 86st century, these people serve as a living reminder of the resilience.and fragility.of ancient cultures in the face of a developmental onslaught! HHH <or decades, the governments of (ma5on nations showed little interest in protecting these groups1 they often viewed them as unwanted remnants of backwardness! In the 6IJ-s and 7-s &ra5il tried, unsuccessfully, to assimilate, pacify and relocate Indians who stood in the way of commercial exploitation of the (ma5on! <inally, in 6IK7, it set up the Bepartment of Isolated Indians inside <*N(I L<undaMNo Nacional do OndioP, &ra5ils Indian agency! "he departments visionary director, $ydney >ossuelo, secured the creation of a 0aine%si5e tract of (ma5onian rainforest called the Qavari Galley Indigenous Rand, which would be sealed off to outsiders in perpetuity! In 8--8, >ossuelo led a three%month expedition by dugout canoe and on foot to verify the presence in the reserve of the <lecheiros, or (rrow >eople, known to repel intruders with a shower of curare%tipped arrows! "he *!$! #ournalist $cott 2allace chronicled the expedition in his 8-66 book, The Unconquered, which drew international attention to >ossuelos efforts! "oday, the Qavari reserve, says

<*N(Is regional coordinator <abricio (morim, is home to the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the (ma5on and the world! 3ther (ma5on nations, too, have taken measures to protect their indigenous peoples! >erus 0anS National >ark contains some of the greatest biodiversity of any nature reserve in the world1 permanent human habitation is restricted to several tribes! )olombia has turned almost K8 million acres of (ma5on #ungle, nearly half its (ma5on region, into 6@!K million acres of national parks, where all development is prohibited, and resguardos, JJ!7 million acres of private reserves owned by indigenous peoples! In 8-66 )olombian >resident Quan 0anuel $antos signed legislation that guaranteed the rights of uncontacted indigenous peoples!!!to remain in that condition and live freely according to their cultures on their ancestral lands! "he reality, however, has fallen short of the promises! )onservation groups have critici5ed >eru for winking at ecotourism companies that take visitors to gape at isolated Indians! Rast year, timber companies working illegally inside 0anS National >ark drove a group of isolated 0ashco%>iro Indians from their forest sanctuary! )olombia, beset by cocaine traffickers and the hemispheres longest 0arxist%Reninist insurgency, hasnt always succeeded in policing its rainforests effectively either! $everal groups of Indians have been forcibly assimilated and dispersed in recent years! "oday, however, )olombia continues to move into the vanguard of protecting indigenous peoples and their land! In Becember, the government announced a bold new plan to double the si5e of remote )hiribi uete >ark, currently C!8 million acres in southern )olombia1 the biodiversity sanctuary is home to two isolated tribes! <ranco believes that governments must increase efforts to preserve indigenous cultures! "he Indians represent a special culture, and resistance to the world, argues the historian, who has spent three decades researching isolated tribes in )olombia! 0art4ne5 says that the Indians have a uni ue view of the cosmos, stressing the unity of human beings with nature, the interconnectedness of all things! It is a philosophy that makes them natural environmentalists, since damage to the forest or to members of one tribe, the Indians believe, can reverberate across society and history with lasting conse uences! "hey are protecting the #ungle by chasing off gold miners and whoever else goes in there, <ranco says! /e adds: 2e must respect their decision not to be our friends.even to hate us!

HHH 'specially since the alternatives to isolation are often so bleak! "his became clear to me one Qune morning, when I traveled up the (ma5on ;iver from the )olombian border town of Reticia! I climbed into a motorboat at the ramshackle harbor of this lively port city, founded by >eru in 6KJ7 and ceded to )olombia following a border war in 6I88! Qoining me were <ranco, Baniel 0atapi.an activist from )olombias 0atapi and +ukuna tribes. and 0ark >lotkin, director of the (ma5on )onservation "eam, the Girginia%based nonprofit that sponsored <rancos overflight! 2e chugged down a muddy channel and emerged into the mile%wide river! "he sun beat down ferociously as we passed thick #ungle hugging both banks! >ink dolphins followed in our wake, leaping from the water in perfect arcs! (fter two hours, we docked at a pier at the 0aloca &arS, a traditional longhouse belonging to the C-,---%strong "icuna tribe, whose acculturation into the modern world has been fraught with difficulties! ( do5en tourists sat on benches, while three elderly Indian women in traditional costume put on a desultory dance! +ou have to sell yourself, make an exhibition of yourself! Its not good, 0atapi muttered! "icuna vendors beckoned us to tables covered with necklaces and other trinkets! In the 6IJ-s, )olombia began luring the "icuna from the #ungle with schools and health clinics thrown up along the (ma5on! &ut the population proved too large to sustain its subsistence agriculture%based economy, and it was inevitable that they turned to tourism, <ranco said! Not all "icunas have embraced this way of life! In the nearby riverside settlement of Na5areth, the "icuna voted in 8-66 to ban tourism! Readers cited the garbage left behind, the indignity of having cameras shoved in their faces, the prying uestions of outsiders into the most secret aspects of Indian culture and heritage, and the uneven distribution of profits! 2hat we earn here is very little, one "icuna leader in Na5areth told the (gence <rance%>resse! "ourists come here, they buy a few things, a few artisanal goods, and they go! It is the travel agencies that make the good money! <oreigners can visit Na5areth on an invitation%only basis1 guards armed with sticks chase away everyone else! HHH

In contrast to the "icuna, the +uri and >ass? tribes have been running from civili5ation since the first 'uropeans set foot in $outh (merica half a millennium ago! <ranco theori5es that they originated near the (ma5on ;iver during pre%)olumbian times! $panish explorers in pursuit of 'l Borado, such as <rancisco de 3rellana, recorded their encounters .sometimes hostile.with +uri and >ass? who dwelled in longhouses along the river! Rater, most migrated 6,- miles north to the >utumayo.the only fully navigable waterway in )olombias (ma5on region.to escape $panish and >ortuguese slave traders! "hen, around 6I--, came the rubber boom! &ased in the port of I uitos, a >eruvian company, )asa (rana, controlled much of what is now the )olombian (ma5on region! )ompany representatives operating along the >utumayo press%ganged tens of thousands of Indians to gather rubber, or caucho, and flogged, starved and murdered those who resisted! &efore the trade died out completely in the 6IC-s, the *itoto tribes population fell from @-,--- to 6-,---1 the (ndoke Indians dropped from 6-,--- to C--! 3ther groups simply ceased to exist! "hat was the time when most of the now%isolated groups opted for isolation, says <ranco! "he +uri Tand the >ass?U moved a great distance to get away from the caucheros! In 6I-,, "heodor 9och%ArVnberg, a Aerman ethnologist, traveled between the )a uet: and >utumayo rivers1 he noted ominously the abandoned houses of >ass? and +uri along the >ur?, a tributary of the >utumayo, evidence of a flight deeper into the rainforest to escape the depredations! "he >ass? and +uri peoples vanished, and many experts believed they had been driven into extinction! "hen, in Qanuary 6IJI, a #aguar hunter and fur trader, Qulian Ail, and his guide, (lberto 0iraWa, disappeared near the ;4o &ernardo, a tributary of the )a uet:! "wo months later, the )olombian Navy organi5ed a search party! <ifteen troops and 6, civilians traveled by canoes down the )a uet:, then hiked into the rainforest to the area where Ail and 0iraWa had last been seen! $aul >olania was 67 when he participated in the search! (s we ate river fish and drank aMa4 berry #uice at an outdoor caf? in Reticia, the gri55led former soldier recalled stumbling upon a huge longhouse in a clearing! I had never seen anything like it before! It was like a dream, he told me! $oon, 6-- Indian women and children emerged from the forest! "hey were covered in body paint, like 5ebras, >olania says!

"he group spoke a language unknown to the search partys Indian guides! $everal Indian women wore buttons from Ails #acket on their necklaces1 the hunters ax was found buried beneath a bed of leaves! 3nce the Indians saw that, they began to cry, because they knew that they would be accused of killing him, >olania told me! LNo one knows the fate of Ail and 0iraWa! "hey may have been murdered by the Indians, although their bodies were never recovered!P (fraid that the search party would be ambushed on its way back, the commander sei5ed an Indian man and woman and four children as hostages and brought them back to the settlement of Ra >edrera! "he New York Times reported the discovery of a lost tribe in )olombia, and ;obert )arneiro of the (merican 0useum of Natural /istory in New +ork stated that based on a cursory study of the language spoken by the five hostages, the Indians could well be survivors of the +uri, a tribe thought to have become extinct for more than half a century! "he Indians were eventually escorted back home, and the tribe vanished into the mists of the forest.until ;oberto <ranco drew upon the memories of >olania in the months before his flyover in the #ungle!

( couple of days after my boat #ourney, Im hiking through the rainforest outside Reticia! Im bound for a maloca belonging to the *itoto tribe, one of many groups of Indians forced to abandon their territories in the )olombian (ma5on during the rubber atrocities early in the past century! *nlike the +uri and the >ass?, however, who fled deeper into the forest, the *itotos relocated to the (ma5on ;iver! /ere, despite enormous pressure to give up their traditional ways or sell themselves as tourist attractions, a handful have managed, against the odds, to keep their ancient culture alive! "hey offer a glimpse of what life must look like deeper in the #ungle, the domain of the isolated +uri! /alf an hour from the main road, we reach a clearing! In front of us stands a handsome longhouse built of woven palm leaves! <our slender pillars in the center of the interior and a network of crossbeams support the (%frame roof! "he house is empty, except for a middle%aged woman, peeling the fruits of the peach palm, and an elderly man wearing a soiled white shirt, ancient khaki pants and tattered )onverse sneakers without shoelaces!

Qitoma $afiama, 7-, is a shaman and chief of a small subtribe of *itotos, descendants of those who were chased by the rubber barons from their original lands around 6I8,! "oday, he and his wife eke out a living cultivating small plots of manioc, coca leaf and peach palms1 $afiama also performs traditional healing ceremonies on locals who visit from Reticia! In the evenings, the family gathers inside the longhouse, with other *itotos who live nearby, to chew coca and tell stories about the past! "he aim is to con#ure up a glorious time before the caucheros came, when @-,--- members of the tribe lived deep in the )olombian rainforest and the *itotos believed that they dwelled at the center of the world! (fter the big flooding of the world, the Indians who saved themselves built a maloca #ust like this one, says $afiama! "he maloca symboli5es the warmth of the mother! /ere we teach, we learn and we transmit our traditions! $afiama claims that one isolated group of *itotos remains in the forest near the former rubber outpost of 'l 'ncanto, on the )araparan: ;iver, a tributary of the >utumayo! If an outsider sees them, the shaman insists, he will die! ( torrential rain begins to fall, drumming on the roof and soaking the fields! 3ur guide from Reticia has e uipped us with knee%high rubber boots, and >lotkin, 0atapi and I embark on a hike deeper into the forest! 2e tread along the soggy path, balancing on splintered logs, sometimes slipping and plunging to our thighs in the muck! >lotkin and 0atapi point out natural pharmaceuticals such as the golobi, a white fungus used to treat ear infections1 er%re%ku%ku, a treelike herb that is the source of a snake%bite treatment1 and a purple flower whose roots.soaked in water and drunk as a tea.induce powerful hallucinations! (gua#e palms sway above a second maloca tucked in a clearing about @, minutes from the first one! 0atapi says that the tree bark of the agua#e contains a female hormone to help certain males go over to the other side! "he longhouse is deserted except for two napping children and a pair of scrawny dogs! 2e head back to the main road, trying to beat the advancing night, as vampire bats circle above our heads! HHH In the months before his reconnaissance mission over ;4o >ur? National >ark, ;oberto <ranco consulted diaries, indigenous oral histories, maps drawn by 'uropean adventurers from the 6Jth through 6Ith centuries, remote sensors, satellite photos, eyewitness accounts of threatening encounters with Indians, even a guerrilla from the ;evolutionary (rmed <orces of )olombia who had seen the Indians while on a #ungle patrol! "he overflights, says

<ranco, engendered mixed emotions! I felt happy and I also felt sad, maybe because of the lonely existence these Indians had, he told me on our last morning in Reticia! "he feelings were complicated! <rancos next step is to use the photographs and A>$ coordinates gathered on his flights to lobby the )olombian government to strengthen protection around the national park! /e envisions round%the%clock surveillance by both semi%assimilated Indians who live on the park perimeter and rangers within the park boundaries, and an early warning system to keep out intruders! 2e are #ust at the beginning of the process, he says! <ranco cites the tragic recent history of the Nukak tribe, 6,8-- isolated Indians who inhabited the forests northwest of ;4o >ur? National >ark! In 6IK6, a *!$! evangelical group, New "ribes 0ission, penetrated their territory without permission and, with gifts of machetes and axes, lured some Nukak families to their #ungle camp! "his contact drove other Nukak to seek similar gifts from settlers at the edge of their territory! "he Indians emergence from decades of isolation set in motion a downward spiral leading to the deaths of hundreds of Nukak from respiratory infections, violent clashes with land grabbers and narco%traffickers, and dispersal of the survivors! /undreds were forcibly displaced to Tthe town ofU $an Qos? del Auaviare, where they are living.and dying.in terrible conditions, says ;odrigo &otero Aarc4a, technical coordinator of the (ndean (ma5on >ro#ect, a program established by )olombias national parks department to protect indigenous peoples! "hey get fed, receive government money, but theyre living in s ualor! L"he government has said it wants to repatriate the Nukak to a reserve created for them to the east of $an Qos? del Auaviare! (nd in Becember, )olombias National /eritage )ouncil approved an urgent plan, with input from the Nukak, to safeguard their culture and language!P "he +uri and >ass? live in far more remote areas of the rainforest, but they are vulnerable, <ranco says! $ome anthropologists, conservationists and Indian leaders argue that there is a middle way between the $tone (ge isolation of the +uri and the ab#ect assimilation of the "icuna! "he members of Baniel 0atapis +ukuna tribe continue to live in malocas in the rainforest.Chours by motorboat from Reticia.while integrating somewhat with the modern world! "he +ukuna, who number fewer than 8,---, have access to health care facilities, trade with nearby settlers, and send their kids to missionary and government schools in the vicinity!

+ukuna elders, says 0atapi, who left the forest at age 7 but returns home often, want the children to have more chances to study, to have a better life! +et the +ukuna still pass down oral traditions, hunt, fish and live closely attuned to their rainforest environment! <or far too many (ma5on Indians, however, assimilation has brought only poverty, alcoholism, unemployment or utter dependence on tourism! It is a fate, <ranco suspects, that the +uri and >ass? are desperate to avoid! 3n the second day of his aerial reconnaissance, <ranco and his team took off from Ra >edrera, near the eastern edge of ;4o >ur? National >ark! "hick drifting clouds made it impossible to get a prolonged view of the rainforest floor! "hough the team spotted four malocas within an area of about five s uare miles, the dwellings never stayed visible long enough to photograph them! 2e would see a maloca, and then the clouds would close in uickly, 'liana 0art4ne5 says! "he cloud cover, and a storm that sprang up out of nowhere and buffeted the tiny plane, left the team with one conclusion: "he tribe had called upon its shamans to send the intruders a message! 2e thought, X"hey are making us pay for this, <ranco says!