Call of the jungle

Indians living on the edge of Brazil's Amazon rainforest are to start selling recordings of their traditional chants as mobile phone ringtones.




Xavante songs like "the hunt song" and "the healing dance" will soon be available to people in China and Europe.

Brazilian mobile users can already download the tones for about 70p each.



Some 100 Xavante Indians in the remote Sao Pedro village in Mato Grosso state have reportedly already been profiting from the sales for the past few months.

Gilson Schwartz is co-ordinator of an aid group called Cidade Movel, which helps riverside communities in the Amazon find work that does not involve logging or mining.

"We want to create a business model of social content for the wireless phone industry."
The project has generated tens of thousands of dollars for the Xavante and several other impoverished rural communities where most people live without modern conveniences and economic growth usually depends on mining or logging the forest.

Brazil's four leading cellphones companies offer the ringtones.
Some more info about Xavante you can find here.