Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
estirão,
pl.
estirões.
Bayou.
estrada.
Rubber tapping trail.
feitoria.
Processing warehouse, factory.
flagelados.
Literally “scourged ones”—used in reference to refugees from the Northeast.
furo.
Side channel.
garimpo.
Placer gold mine.
Heliconias.
Widespread tropical genus related to bananas, best known for the bird of paradise flower.
igapó.
Flooded forest.
infieles.
“Wild” Indians, called infidels because they hadn't converted to Christianity.
itaúba.
Heavy wood highly resistant to water damage and insect attack, widely used for large canoes in
Amazonia.
jagunços.
Fighters of the Northeastern outback.
juquiri.
Semiaquatic plant of the floodplains.
latifundia.
Large estate.
mameluco.
Brazilian racial category: a person born to a white father and an Indian mother.
manchal.
Dense stand of a given tree species, here
caucho
trees.
mateiro.
Skilled backwoodsman.
mita.
Tribute of eight years' labor supplied by native villages.
montaña.
Forest.
montária.
Small canoe, the “horse” or mount of the Amazon, because it was so necessary for getting
around.
muchachos.
Arana's child warriors—the “boys.”
palenque.
Spanish term for
quilombo
, or runaway slave community.
papiri.
Palm-thatched hut or lean-to.
paramo.
Vegetation formation between 3000 and about 5000 m altitude. Largely formed by glacier re-
treat, with a mix of lakes, peat bogs, and wet grasslands intermingled with shrublands and forest
patches.
puno.
High-altitude grassland vegetation of the Andes.
selva.
Tropical forest.
seringa.
Hevea
rubber (we get our English term
syringe
from this Portuguese word).
seringal.
Rubber estate.
seringalista.
Owner of a rubber estate.
seringueiro.
Rubber tapper.
sernambi.
Low-quality latex scrapings.
sesmaria.
Royal land grant.
tambo.
Lean-to or hut of latex workers.
tapuyas.
“Tame” Indians.
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