Venezuela

Located on the north coast of South America, Venezuela is a country of stunning scenery and extreme cultural diversity, including the forest-dwelling Yanomamo and modern Caracas with its economy fueled by petroleum. The climate is generally tropical, but diverse habitats from Amazon rain forest to tall, cold mountains support high biological diversity, including at least 21,000 species of higher plants and 323 mammals. With more than 40 living languages, Venezuela provides the stage for some of the most contentious debates in anthropology. Collaborative international research efforts have included Venezuelan,French, German, American, and other anthropologists.

Venezuela includes an area of 912,050 square kilometers—roughly the size of Texas and Oklahoma or France and Italy combined. The total population is 25 million, with an annual growth rate of 1.4%.Most people (85%) live in cities in the north, with more than four million in Caracas, the capital city. The [Page 2268]literacy rate is high (91%). Venezuelans are relatively healthy, having a73-year life expectancy at birth. Infant mortality is 26 per 1,000 live births. With a US $3490 gross national income per capita in 2003,Venezuela is one of the wealthier Latin American countries, although58% of income is concentrated among the wealthiest 20% of the population.

Sustained European contact began in 1499 when the Spaniard Alonso de Ojeda explored Venezuela's Caribbean coast. Caracas was established as a Spanish colonial center in 1567. The indigenous population was exploited for labor throughout the colonial era, and slaves were brought from Africa beginning in 1528. Simón Bolívar was born in Venezuela in 1783, and became the political and military leader of the regional struggle for independence from Spain. Venezuela declared independence in 1811, but the Spanish were not defeated until 1829. Bolívar abolished all slavery by decree in1812. He is idolized by Venezuelans, and his visage appears in nearly every public area.

The German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonpland studied nature and culture as they traveled throughout the Americas between 1799 and 1804. They collected the first botanical specimen of the rubber tree in Venezuela's Orinoco Basin. The rubber boom that began in Venezuela's southeastern tropical forests in the 1870s led to exploitation and territorial invasion of Ye'kuana, Yanomamo, and other indigenous groups by rubber barons. Prior to the 1920s, coffee cultivated in the coastal foothills remained the primary export product, and led to the early assimilation of indigenous populations. Foreign-owned companies began to develop Venezuela's vast oil resources in the 1920s. A founding member of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries),Venezuela nationalized its oil industry in 1975, resulting in rapid economic development but limited diversification. The petroleum industry currently accounts for one third of Venezuela's gross domestic product. Approximately 90% of Venezuela's crude oil exports go to the United States. This economic relationship produces a pronounced American influence on Venezuelan politics and culture, including entertainment and consumer commodities. Venezuelans take pride in a democratic two-party system that has existed since 1958. Steadily declining oil prices over the past 30 years have compromised the economy and political stability. Impacts of oil development on indigenous populations have been severe. Anthropologists Filadelfo Morales and Karl H. Schwerin have described a 40-year struggle between the oil industry and the Cariña people.

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