How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Of all the Amazon's tricks, this was perhaps the most diabolical. As Fawcett put it, "Starvation sounds almost unbelievable in forest country, and yet it is only too likely to happen." (10.15)
In here is the secret to survival in the Amazon: knowing how to find food. There's no Whole Foods on the banks of the Amazon, but hey, there sure are plenty of organic piranha to fish for. Mind the teeth.
Quote #5
A polar explorer has to endure temperatures of nearly a hundred degrees below zero, and the same terrors over and over: frostbite, crevices in the ice, and scurvy. […] In contrast, an Amazon explorer, immersed in a cauldron of heat, has his senses constantly assaulted. (12.25)
Earth has many different environments. You need different survival skills to survive in the Antarctic from those you need to survive in the Amazon.
Quote #6
"As to missing various phases of civilized life, one has no time to miss anything save food or sleep or rest. In short one becomes little more than a rational animal." (12.38)
A biologist writes this, and it's a good way of explaining why the tribes in the Amazon seem so "primitive." Modern people have the luxury of leisure time and entertainment, but people in the Amazon must spend 99.9% of their time on survival. Some anthropologists have challenged this idea—some tribes only really work a few hours a day, and they do just fine—but we get the point.