Coronavirus poses cultural threat to Brazil's Amazon people

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AMAJARI, BRAZIL (AFP) - In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the advance of Covid-19 presents indigenous people with a cruel cultural dilemma - remain in their villages with little medical help, or seek safety in the city and risk being deprived of their ancestral funeral rites.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

AMAJARI, BRAZIL - In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the advance of Covid-19 presents indigenous people with a cruel cultural dilemma - remain in their villages with little medical help, or seek safety in the city and risk being deprived of their ancestral funeral rites.

As part of the Yanomami's funerary rites, the remains are displayed in the forest before they are cremated. The ashes are collected in an urn to be buried in a new ceremony much later. "I went straight to the hospital with my son... The last word I received is that he died. I never saw him again," she said in a soft, rhythmic voice.

But her son's body remains in an unmarked grave in a Boa Vista cemetery, until the authorities decide if she can bring him home to grieve with her relatives.Mr Mauricio Yekuana said such situations are the result of health policies that disregard the indigenous perspective. In the meantime, the villagers are trying as best they can to respect social distancing measures and wear protective masks.On Wednesday, he watered down a law that would force the government to provide indigenous people with access to healthcare and clean drinking water.

"We are afraid," said Paulo, a community leader who wears a mask, a T-shirt and shorts and uses an arrow as a cane. He says that many went into the jungle to escape the virus.

 

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