These agroforesters have been able to do quite well for themselves. While they have maintained loose connection with the Western industrial Market - they buy goods to help them with their labor, and they sell good to earn some extra money on the side - they have still been able to maintain very much of their culture and traditions. This, in the world of today, is a shocker.
Because the Guarani are argoforesters who use several useful farming techniques, they are able to keep the forest in which they live alive and healthy. They don't use more than they need, and they live in coexistence with nature. Did I mention they make a surplus, and can have enough food to feed their families, with extra to share with other locals?
I read or heard once that indigenous hunter/gatherer societies worked less than Modern Western societies do, and they have more time for fun and games later. They get to spend more time with their families, and they usually have enough to get by.
Americans, I think, work more and enjoy less. Office Space is an example of art imitating life. Are we really happy with ourselves? I think it's an appropriate time for a Vanilla Ice quote:
"Stop Collaborate and Listen!"
Perhaps it's time we stop what we are doing as a society, collaborate with each other on sustainable means to solve our community's problems, and listen to one another for effective means to solve these problems. The Guarani provide one example that leads me to believe that the answers to the problems we face in our day-to-day lives may be in our back yard. Or someone else's backyard many many miles away in South America.
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