Note to Instructors:

Because some material in this film is also included in the film Contact, several questions for Amazon Journal raise issues that may have been discussed in relation to that film. If students have seen both films, the instructor may wish to discuss the ways in which the filmmaker's ideas and representations of Indians evolved during the time that elapsed between the making of the two films. For example, are the depictions of Indians more idealized or romanticized in Contact? What may have caused the filmmaker to change his views? How does the filmmaker use some of the same material in new ways, specifically how does he consider images to reflect Western ideas, perhaps telling us more about ourselves than the subjects of the films?

Question 1 (Part A) and Question 2 (Parts A, B, and C) and are designed to be assigned before viewing the film. Students' answers to all parts of Questions 1 and 2 should be discussed after the film has been screened. In this discussion, instructors might also ask students to consider how they might wish to change their responses to the questions they answered before viewing the film.

1. Part A (Before viewing the film): List five adjectives that characterize indigenous people.
   Part B (After viewing the film): How did the film cause you to rethink the ways you characterize indigenous peoples?
2. Part A (Before viewing the film): Draw a picture or describe in writing a typical Indian, as you see her or him. What does the Indian look like? How is the hair worn? What types of body ornamentation are used? What type of clothing is worn, if any?
   Part B (Before viewing the film): In what part of the world does the Indian you have described live? If you have described or drawn a North American Indian, now provide an answer to Part A for an Amazonian Indian. If the Indian you have already described is Amazonian, do the same for a North American Indian.
   Part C (Before viewing the film): Thinking about the Indians you have drawn or described in Parts A and B, consider where your ideas about these Indians come from. What images or media have influenced your ideas? Do your ideas come from representations of Indians in books? T.V.? Movies? Which ones (be as specific as possible)?
   Part D (After viewing the film): Does having seen the film Amazon Journal make you think twice about the ideas you have about Indians? Do you think that those images have been, at least to some extent, constructed or fabricated by book authors, TV or film producers? Do you think that these images might change over time or according to historical circumstances? What kinds of circumstances might account for Westerners' having different ideas about Indians (give historical examples, if you can)?
3. As shown in the film, how do the miners see the Indians? How do they see themselves in relation to the Indians? Do they think they are influencing the Indians in positive or negative ways? Explain.
4. How do the missionaries view the Indians? How do they perceive their role in relation to the Indians? What kind of activities do missionaries typically engage in when they work in other cultures? What are their objectives? Do you think the ideas these missionaries have of Indians are typical of missionaries working with indigenous peoples in other parts of the world?
5. What sorts of Westerners were enthralled by the Indians at Altamira and the Carioca Conference in Rio? What did these Westerners find so appealing about the Indians at these events? Why did some Westerners want to paint themselves as Indians, to be photographed with Indians, or to engage in "indigenous-inspired" cultural performances? What can their ideas tell us about contemporary Western society?
6. How does Marchedon, the Yanomami Shaman, think about outsiders? Why does he consider them dangerous?
7. How is the Kayapó view of outsiders similar to or different from that of the Yanomami? In what ways are Kayapó goals in dealings with outsiders similar or different from those of the Yanomami? To what might you attribute the similarities and differences?
8. Why did the Kayapó encourage Western fascination with Indians as exotic people at Altamira?
9. To what do you attribute the widespread popular attention to Amazonian Indians of the late 1980s and early 1990s? Why do you think the images of Amazonian Indians that circulated in the media had such popular appeal? Do you think the Kayapó cause would have garnered much international attention without the support of celebrities such as Sting? How come this attention (and the West's fascination with the Amazon in general) was so short lived?
10. How does the Amazonian "Noble Savage" of the late 1980s and early 1990s fit within a tradition of ideas in Western history? What notions are embodied in the Noble Savage ideal? What can you identify as new or different about the recent incarnation of the Noble Savage ideal?
11. What did the Indians gain by representing themselves as "noble," "innocent" and "childlike protectors of the forest?" What did they sacrifice? What did Indians gain, and what did they lose because of Westerners' fascination with them?
12. Do you think backlashes, such as the media smear of Payakan, are inevitable in cross-cultural encounters? Do you think Payakan's exploitation of the press for Indian gains made the backlash inevitable? How might Payakan have avoided this situation?
13. Do you think Western audiences would have responded to more complex representations of Indians than those that circulated in the popular media? Were these stereotyped images necessary to get outsiders' attention? Do these images perpetuate misunderstandings? How could Indians, journalists and other cultural mediators have worked to avoid misunderstandings?