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National Geographic : 1970 Mar
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"We grow the bananas in bags to protect them from insects and from being scarred by wind-whipped leaves, and to ensure a better quality product," B. D. Walker, manager of this sprawling division of the United Fruit Company, explained. "Last year we produced enough to supply every person in the U. S. with three pounds." That night in Changuinola I did my bit for consumption by having a banana daiquiri and a slice of banana cream pie. Problem: How to Keep Tribal Ways The progress bringing changes to the banana-working Guaymis is being felt, too, at the opposite extreme of Panama's Carib bean coast. Here string the numerous San Blas Islands-"one for every day in the year," I was told. This is the land of the CunaIndians. Small, shy, and friendly, the Cunas work mainland plots and paddle back and forth daily to thatched homes on the breezy, al most insect-free islands. And they struggle to maintain tribal ways against the pressures of an encroaching modernity (pages 432-3). "It's a losing battle," I was told by barefooted John Mann. An ex-Iowan, he came to Panama 15 years ago, "liked the place, and decided to stay." Now he follows an easy existence as a sometimes-guide among the Cunas. "Do-gooders encourage a switch to hot tin roofs instead of cool thatch, and concrete floors instead of packed clean sand," he said. "Youngsters go off to Panama City to school, or to jobs, and when they come back they can't accept tribal ways that have worked for centuries. Why, some of the islands even have drum and bugle corps! In ten years the whole San Blas will be ruined." I went with John Mann to palm-studded islets whose multisyllabled Cuna names iden tified them as "Big Orange," "Little Orange," and "Wild Pig." I flew alone to bigger Aili gandi, whose 2,200 population is nearly a tenth of the San Blas total. And I noted that relatively few girl babies had nostrils pierced for gold rings like those their mothers wore. Not many teen-aged feminine noses were KODACHROME (BELOW)AND EKTACHROMES E 423 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
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