When one pronounces the word Amazon, an image immediately arises: an immense, untamed river, at the heart of the world's largest rainforest. This name seems so obvious, so ancient, that it appears to have always existed. And yet, the Amazon River has not always borne this name.
Before being thus christened by Europeans, this river bore other names, deeply rooted in the languages, territories, and worldviews of the peoples who had lived on its banks for millennia. Understanding the origin of the name "Amazon" means delving into a history of encounters, cultural misunderstandings, reinterpreted narratives... and symbolic power.
Before the Amazon: The River with No Single Name
Before the arrival of Europeans, the river we now call the Amazon was not a single entity designated by one name.
It traversed immense territories, inhabited by a great diversity of indigenous peoples, each with their own language, their own relationship with the river, and thus their own way of naming it.
Indigenous peoples did not see the river as a single block, but as a multitude of immense interconnected rivers. These appellations functioned more as a living description of the river: its size, its power, its nourishing role.
Among the names most cited in historical sources:
• "Paraná-tinga" or "Paraná-guaçu" in Tupi-Guarani languages (Paraná = "great river", tinga = white, guaçu = great);
• "Curicho", "Paranaguazu", "Purús",... depending on the areas and ethnic groups encountered.
For Amazonian peoples, the river was not a border or a simple thoroughfare. It was:
• a source of food,
• a means of communication,
• a space of spirituality,
• and a structuring element of social life.
The river was not "owned" or "named" in a logic of domination. It was inhabited, respected, and integrated into a global ecosystem.
A Radically Different View of the River from that of Europeans
This difference in perception is essential for understanding what follows.
When Europeans arrived in South America in the 16th century, they brought with them a very different worldview:
• a need to map,
• to name,
• to classify,
• and to symbolically appropriate territories.
To give a name, in this logic, is to assert a form of control and to inscribe a place within a European narrative.
The immense river they discovered overwhelmed them. Its width, its length, its flow, the human and plant density surrounding it: everything was extraordinary compared to what they knew. They therefore needed a name commensurate with this immensity.
During the first known European exploration (1500), the Spaniard Vicente Yáñez Pinzón named the river "Rio Santa María de la Mar Dulce" (later known as Mar Dulce).
After 1502, some Europeans called it "Río Grande" because of its spectacular size.
From 1513, the river was referred to as "El Río Marañón," a term of Amerindian origin or derived from the Spanish word maraña ("tangle"), especially its upper part (in present-day Peru). A major tributary of this name is still found today.
Francisco de Orellana and the Birth of a Narrative
Francisco de Orellana (1490–1545) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador, lieutenant in Gonzalo Pizarro's expedition from Quito (Ecuador) in search of the legendary El Dorado.
In 1541-1542, the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana undertook an expedition to the Atlantic Ocean that would leave a lasting mark on the river's history.
The main historical source on Orellana's voyage is not a private letter, but a chronicle written by the Dominican Gaspar de Carvajal, who accompanied the expedition. (Chronicle of the New Discovery of the Famous Great River Discovered by Francisco de Orellana).
It describes in detail the descent of the river, encounters with indigenous populations, navigational difficulties, clashes with indigenous groups, etc. It was published long after the events (1894), thanks to the work of editors like José Toribio Medina, who gathered the original documents.
Carvajal reports that, during the descent of the river, the Spaniards were attacked by local tribes, led by women armed with bows and arrows. Orellana, seeing these female warriors, referred to the "Amazons" of Greek myths.
These accounts immediately struck European minds.
Why?
Because they echoed a very strong cultural reference: the Amazons of Greek mythology, those warrior women living without men, known for their bravery and independence.
For European chroniclers, the comparison was almost immediate. What they did not fully understand in indigenous societies, they interpreted through their own imagination.
Thus, the river gradually became associated with these warrior women, real or perceived as such.
From Comparison to Christening: the "River of the Amazons"
Initially, it was not yet an official name, but a descriptive expression:
"río de las Amazonas", "the river of the Amazons".
This appellation spread in narratives, maps, and correspondence. It fascinated Europe, eager for exoticism, heroic tales, and mysterious territories.
Gradually, the expression simplified.
The "river of the Amazons" became the Amazon.
This linguistic shift is far from insignificant. It marks the transition from a river with multiple local names to a single entity defined by a European imagination.
A Name that Erases, but Also Tells a Story
Naming the river "Amazon" has had lasting consequences.
On the one hand, this name contributed to erasing part of the cultural and linguistic diversity of Amazonian peoples. Indigenous names, full of meaning and connection to living things, were relegated to the background.
On the other hand, this name tells a story.
It testifies to the clash between two worlds, the difficulty Europeans had in understanding the societies they encountered, and their tendency to translate the unknown through their own references.
The Amazon River has thus become a global symbol, but this symbol is the result of an external gaze projected onto a much more complex reality.
Behind the Name, Very Real Women
However, it would be reductive to consider this name merely as a fanciful invention.
European accounts, though imbued with mythology, are based on observed realities: in some Amazonian societies, women held, and still hold, central roles, sometimes warrior, often political, always structuring.
Among these figures, one group regularly appears in the sources: the Icamiabas.
These women, described as independent and skilled with bow and arrow, would become the heart of a much broader narrative, mixing history, legend, and cultural transmission.
It is this story, between European myth and indigenous reality, that we will explore in the next article:
The Amazons of the Amazon: Myth or Reality?
The River as a Guiding Thread of Amazonian History
The Amazon River is not just a backdrop.
It is the guiding thread of the history of an entire region, connecting peoples, narratives, symbolic objects, and traditions.
It is along its banks that legends are born, but also objects imbued with meaning, passed down from generation to generation. Among them, an ancient talisman holds a special place: the muiraquitã, an object intimately linked to Amazonian women and fertility, which you can discover in
this dedicated article.
Giving Depth to a Name We Believed Immutable
Today, the name "Amazon" is everywhere: in books, maps, political speeches, popular culture. But behind this apparent obviousness lies a history of encounters, projections, and reinterpretations.
Remembering that the Amazon River has not always borne this name is to:
• recognize the richness of the cultures that preceded it;
• understand how narratives shape our perception of the world;
• and restore depth to a territory too often reduced to a simple symbol.
The Amazon River is not just a name. It is a memory in motion.
The Legend of the Icamiabas
Among the stories that the river carries, the legend of the Icamiabas is one of the oldest and most well-known. It speaks of a people of warrior women, established around Lake Yaci-Uaruá and tells how these women lived among themselves, cultivated their territory and only met men once a year, during a ceremony dedicated to the moon.
This myth fascinated European travelers, as it evoked a distant echo of the Amazons of ancient Greece. But in its local context, it is nothing comparable: it expresses an idea of power, autonomy and female sovereignty, which runs through certain regional traditions.
It is during these annual encounters that the talisman that would become one of the strongest symbols of the Amazon appears: the muiraquitã.
Orellana did not initially seek to explore the river: he was only supposed to find provisions for Pizarro's expedition. His descent of the Amazon (1541–1542) was an epic expedition, poorly documented at the time, but which profoundly influenced the mapping and European knowledge of the interior of South America.
The "Amazon" river still bears this name today in reference to these 16th-century accounts.
Also discover the story of the Jesuit missionary Fritz, the 1st cartographer of the Amazon River.
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