Uncontacted tribe found in Brasil

[philaw]

This article is about a Brasilian tribe that was found by an overflying plane. Amazing! The next time they flew over the people had painted themselves red and were brandishing weapons. I think it's brilliant that the Brasilian government tries to leave them alone, but all the same I'd love to stay with an amazon tribe and learn from them. It would be amazing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7426869.stm

 

[spamel]

[SARCASM]Right then, send some white explorers in to give them all diseases they've never encountered before, thus killing off at least 50 percent of the tribe, then introduce modern equipments and materials so that they lose their way of life and hopefully in 50 years or less, there will be another tribe completely vanished off of the face of the planet.[/SARCASM]

 

[featherstick]

The last people on earth outside market capitalism. ****, in a few years we'll look back on these photos and realise this was the apogee of globalisation.

I'm off to light a fire in the back garden.

 

[Wallenstein]

The last people on earth outside market capitalism.

I'm sure that's an Aldi blowpipe one of 'em's holding

 

[Bernie Garland]

[SARCASM]Right then, send some white explorers in to give them all diseases they've never encountered before, thus killing off at least 50 percent of the tribe, then introduce modern equipments and materials so that they lose their way of life and hopefully in 50 years or less, there will be another tribe completely vanished off of the face of the planet.[/SARCASM]

Well said spam.leave them be.

Bernie

 

[philaw]

My wife thought they looked quite funny brandishing spears at helicopters, but to me it's universal sign language for 'get lost.' They'll know about the loggers and the diseases and will be (rightly) afraid of both. I hope they get left alone.

 

[Pict]

What do you think their fireside chats have been like these past few days? I doubt that settlement is still inhabited, most likely they have moved. Tribes who have remained in isolation until now typically are trying to avoid contact. Most have had unfavorable contact at some point in their history and have decided to push farther into the jungle.

Brazil has very strict laws about making contact with indigenous people. Mac

 

[Paddywacker]

Hey all,
This is my first post.
To be honest, I think they should have left them alone and not bothered in taking any pic's to prove there are lost tribes still out there.. we all know there are !
How would I feel if I'd never seen a chopper hovering over me taking pictures ?? Well I'd be pretty scared thats for sure !!

 

[jojo]

Here is the link to the Survival International page relating to these people.
It appears these pictures were taken in an effort to shut up the people who say that there are no tribes left there so we can go in and grab everything we can get our greedy hands on and destroy the land

Their message is pretty clear to me : keep the hell out of here or you'll end up full of arrows.

 

[Pict]

I'm afraid the "just leave them alone" tactic doesn't work well. Contact will be made either by drug runners, illegal loggers, homesteaders, rubber tappers, etc. When that happens it is detrimental to the tribe. First contact is a very complicated process.

Here´s something to think about. This tribe has about 500 people in it. How many more isolated family size groups could hide in the Amazon? Mac

 

[Tengu]

And they probably arent much good at bushcraft...

 

[firecrest]

I'm afraid the "just leave them alone" tactic doesn't work well. Contact will be made either by drug runners, illegal loggers, homesteaders, rubber tappers, etc. When that happens it is detrimental to the tribe. First contact is a very complicated process.

Here´s something to think about. This tribe has about 500 people in it. How many more isolated family size groups could hide in the Amazon? Mac

Yep. Leaving them alone means letting them get shot by illegal loggers unfortunately. They have never seen guns but will charge at them with bows and arrows.

They arent outside the global capitalist system either. we are going to buy their forest home from over their heads in various ornate wooden forms

 

[rancid badger]

I'm afraid the "just leave them alone" tactic doesn't work well. Contact will be made either by drug runners, illegal loggers, homesteaders, rubber tappers, etc. When that happens it is detrimental to the tribe. First contact is a very complicated process.

Here´s something to think about. This tribe has about 500 people in it. How many more isolated family size groups could hide in the Amazon? Mac

Hmm, so if leaving them alone won't work, what now?
R.B.

 

[firecrest]

They are probably as screwed over as the rest of the worlds indiginous peoples. if not more so.

 

[rik_uk3]

And they probably arent much good at bushcraft...

If they are living away from the rest of us, I would have thought their bushcraft skills were pretty well developed?

What we look at as bushcraft skills would be just day to day living skills for them and as we in general embrace new technology, I'm sure they will be over the moon with their first bic lighters and a transistor radio

 

[Nicolas]

I'm not sure they know excactly that by staying as far as possible away from "civilisation" is their only way of survival but I believe their instinct tells them that we are bad bad news and need to be avoided.
The only reason the Brazilian government is leaving them alone is because their is no money to be made, you wait for the first Tourist who wants to see them and who has enough money to spend you see how lighning fast they aprove a Expedition.
I lost all trust in any government a long time ago.

 

[Pict]

Nicholas,

I´m afraid it is far worse then you think. There is an enourmous amount of money to be made in their area. Not from tourist money but in terms of gold and wood exploration.

In Portuguese the words for explore and exploit are the same word. It is difficult in talking to a Brazilian to determine exactly what they are talking about in such discussions. The concept of going into a new area to determine what is there and map etc is very difficult to separate in their minds from going into a new area and simply stripping it of anything useful.

One starategy Brazil has used is to give huge jungle reservations to indian tribes. In many places the indians themselves have sold logging and mining rights, against the law, to illegal operators who then bribe public officials to be able to take the wealth out of the area and get it into the legal system.

There´s just too much money to be made in such areas and the only thing that keeps these places wild is there inherent inaccessability. Without rivers or roads to move timber you can't even log illegally. This tribe will remain in isolation until that happens. Once it does their way of life is doomed.

Typically a tribe will abandon the old ways as soon as a new technology comes along, we all carry a Bic for survival too, right? Back in our own history the fire piston was getting set to be THE way to light fire and then the sulphur match was invented and the rest, as they say, is history.

When the portuguese started to exploit the Brasil wood for dye back in the 1500´s they would gather a group of natives and chop down a few trees with an iron axe. The Indians would react as you would to see a light saber. Then the sales pitch would come. "We´ll be back in a few weeks and if you have a a pile of Pau Brasil here on the beach we will give you one of these (the axe)" They would all labor away with their old methods and make a pile of wood only to be better equipped to chop more once the traders came back.

First contact is a very complicated issue and if anyone has a good solution for it you could probably run for office in Acre State. Mac

 

[Nicolas]

it's not all as bad as you said

I could show you some pictures from Brazil what happens to people that try to enter their territory for personal gain
The pics are very gory so I will of course no post them here, but let's say when they finally found the group in the jungle there was nothing much left of them and they must died uhh.... quit uncomfortable if you know what I mean

but yes of course these people are doomed in the long run.

 

[sandbender]

... but let's say when they finally found the group in the jungle there was nothing much left of them and they must died uhh.... quit uncomfortable if you know what I mean....

So many reasons to avoid contact with the greater world...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7430270.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/430512.stm

http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_namibia1.html

 

[w00dsmoke]

I'm afraid the "just leave them alone" tactic doesn't work well. Contact will be made either by drug runners, illegal loggers, homesteaders, rubber tappers, etc. When that happens it is detrimental to the tribe. First contact is a very complicated process.

Here´s something to think about. This tribe has about 500 people in it. How many more isolated family size groups could hide in the Amazon? Mac

You forgot to mention Western missionaries. I did my dissertation on this very topic during my masters in social anthropology.

Sadly it is often the case that the bearers of prosletyzation are the first regular western contacts for many remote tribes, engaging in a systematic cultural/cosmological deconstruction and cultural assymilation.

The old excuse of planned assymilation/healthcare/education to justify some of it doesn't convince me it's right. Who are we to impose our will/beliefs/cultural values on anyone else? Grrrrrrrrrrr rant over!