This article says there is a previously uncontacted tribe of Amazon Indians near the border between Brazil and Peru:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24880941/?GT1=43001
There’s even a cool picture of some of them taken from the air. Two of them are painted red and are preparing to fire arrows up at the plane from which the picture is taken.
Is it just me or does this look like a hoax? It just seems too much like something from a summer movie to me.
I googled the Survival International people in the article.
They’re real and appear to be at least semi-legitimate, and are Registered charity no. 267444, whatever that means.
We can assume that Reuters probably didn’t attribute false quotes to this organization.
Its pretty widespread if it is. I’ve seen it on a ton of different news outlets (BBC, CNN, various papers). I know the MSM are not exactly on the ball nowadays but I can’t believe they would all fall for this.
But I question what “uncontacted” really means. I suppose they mean “officially uncontacted”, since it’s likely these folks have had some contact with loggers or other folks doing illegal or quasi-legal activities in the region.
Am I going too cynical for thinking that if these people threw together a stone temple and cranked out a crystal skull, they would go from undiscovered to millionaire overnight?
And surely they’ve seen airplanes overhead in the past. Do they always shoot arrows up at them?
Firing arrows at aircraft seems to be the thing to do if you’re an uncontacted tribe and want to be left alone. The Sentinelese did the same thing when rescue & relief helicopters came to visit them after the 2004 tsunami.
I’ve been assuming that these guys were flying very low. Most airplanes wouldn’t normally do that.
In their mind, the technique works. Every time they assume that posture, the planes leave.
They are certainly in at least intermittent contact with other groups that are in touch with the outside world. They are just not in direct contact with missionaries, traders, or government officials.
Colibri is right. The article says there are about 100 uncontacted tribes around the world, so that made me curious what “uncontacted” meant. No surprise, there is a large wikipedia article about uncontacted peoples.
Interestingly, there has been a hoax like this before.
Still interesting though. My questions are
This Daily Mail article goes into significantly more detail than the linked Reuters story. It’s definitely worth a read - very interesting stuff!
Apparently when the plane first flew over the site, none of the villagers were painted. It wasn’t until they returned a few hours later to take photographs that they were pained red and black and brandishing weapons, so I’m guessing that it’s some sort of war paint.
Is it more racist to contact them or not contact them? Is there a consensus in the anthropological community? On one hand, leaving them uncontacted means they’ll never have antibiotics or literacy or the ability to get on in the world. On the other hand, it’s racist to think they need such things when they can obviously survive on their own just fine.
We’re not allowed to contact them until they have warp drive capability.
Yes, I was actually wondering whether there is something like the “Prime Directive” in effect, possibly by the U.N.
Until then we abduct one or two every few months, anal probe them while under one of those drugs that hinders your ability to form memories, return them, and then watch their rumor mill spin while their tribal medical staff recover their memories via hypnosis and find out we’re horrible [del]demons[/del] [del]spirits[/del] [del]bigfoot[/del] [del]the jersey devil[/del] [del]Late Night Talk show hosts[/del] [del]Phyllis Diller[/del] aliens conducting experiments, right?
I’m not certain but I don’t believe so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an order to leave them alone if they make it clear they don’t want to be bothered (except under specific circumstances like disaster relief).
Update to my above post:
I can’t find anything with a cursory search, but glancing did bring up a point that people who make these expiditions probably look at if there isn’t an order, specifically that typical diseases such as the common cold could devastate these tribes with no natural immunity, so there’s got to be at least a little protocol in there somewhere, whether it’s governmental or just within the community I can’t be certain though.
From this AP story yesterday:
Another group of people doomed to eternal hell because they don’t have Jesus as their personal savior. We have to go in immediately.
As has been mentioned, in most cases it is not so much that the groups have not been contacted but rather that they deliberately choose to avoid contact. In such cases I think it is probably best to allow them to make their own decisions on the matter. If they want to get in contact with outsiders, they can.
You really can’t blame them for avoiding contact, considering the often devastating effects of even well-meaning outsiders. Diseases such as colds or flu can cause 50% mortality or more to groups with no immunity. And unless handled carefully, abrupt contact can cause catastrophic cultural collapse. A “better life” due to antibiotics and literacy won’t be available to the generation that makes contact; if it comes it all for the group it will be decades away.
I worked on biological surveys in a natural gas field under exploration in a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon. Since there was the possibility of uncontacted groups in the area, we were required to get immunizations or boosters for just about every conceivable disease. I got shots or pills for 13 different diseases.
One of my field assistants, a man of about 50, was from a group that had been uncontacted until he was about 20. He had some interesting stories to tell.