One of South America’s few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru. The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land. The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows. More than half the world’s 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. Stephen Corry, the director of the group – which supports tribal people around the world – said such tribes would “soon be made extinct” if their land was not protected.
Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging. The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s Acre region. They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera. “We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,” the group quoted Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an official in the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department, as saying. “This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.” He described the threats to such tribes and their land as “a monumental crime against the natural world” and “further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilised’ ones, treat the world”.
Here’s a link to another great photo of tribal members attempting to shoot down the plane.
Yum Yum Eat Em Up!
They’re just thinking how many meals they could get out of that “bird” if they could bring it down!
Location of next McDonald’s
I think they should round up those characters and throw them in Gitmo for trying to bring down the plane.
Their homes are camouflaged & very pretty!
I’m all for letting people live their lives the way they see fit (in the Amazon rainforest or a compound in Texas) but would modernization be so bad for these folks? Medicine, education, etc?
How come people want to protect these natives’ land, but don’t give two cents worth of thought into the rest of civilizations needs. (Not to say those two are always mutually exclusive) I just don’t see the same folks interested in preserving open land in my neck of the woods for the “locals” to go hunting.
Also, just a side note.. Are we sure these are “humans”? Humanoid, yes. Homo Erectus? Homo Sapien? hmm?
i bet dvorak would eat these people with a nice cachaca. these homes seem completely optimized to disappear under google maps.
Just for a moment put yourself in their place.
Imagine hearing what must sound like something other-worldly.
You go out and look to the sky.
You see this thing that resembles an unbelievably huge bird with people inside circling your family.
1st thought: “What the HELL is THAT THING!!”
2nd thought: “I better kill it before it gets me too!”
3rd thought: “I’m toast”.
7, i was with you until you went into the predictable “what about my right to carry a shotgun to the walmart” angle.
#7, Medicine and education wouldn’t be so bad, but if we brought the good kind of modernization, the bad would come with it. For example, if we immunized them against a preventable disease that killed half the population, we would also give the HFCS-filled Coca-Cola that kills half of them from diabetes. Et cetera.
I lived in American Samoa for two years, and if you really want to see the devastation that Western culture hath wrought, take a trip to Pago Pago. The problem is that they’re just Westernized enough to get our problems (obesity and pollution), but not Westernized enough to find solutions (proper education and health care).
Though I sometimes find “Star Trek” and its spinoffs to be too idealistic, the Prime Directive seems like a very good idea. Even the best intentions can pave the road to Hell.
This is what environmentalists want for everyone else.
I’ll bet they have a Starbuck’s.
Didn’t they recently find a group like this in Harlem? Or Maybe it was Detroit…
13. Pedro- “Where is the amazing civilization that flourished from not being touched by the Europeans???”
“Where are the amazing civilizations that flourished from being conquered by the Europeans???”
Fixed that, no thanks necessary.
#16 – McCullough – “Where are the amazing civilization that flourished from being conquered by the Europeans???”
Looking up “conquered” in the right-wing nutter dictionary…
They live very green lives!!!! I want their carbon credits!!! Oh, wait Al Bore has already SOLD them to China..
Drat!!!!
Entertainment Tonight is parachuting Mary Hart to get their reaction to B. Spears and Anna Nicole Smith.
#19. A great visual!
hmm that view reminds me of Age of Empires for some reason
#16–McCullough: You gave Pedro’s question the opposite effect?==both questions are valid so I don’t know how you perceive an error to be corrected?
But to answer your corrected version–I’d say the most solid example is Japan? Followed by every other country you can think of.
You got me off track though its related==looks like the “Prime Directive” has already been violated. Better go back in time and correct all this.
#23 – bobbo
I guess the big difference was that the Japanese weren’t conquered by the USA in the same sense as the native tribes/civilizations in the Americas were. And the Japanese weren’t robbed of their culture. Sure, you can argue that the American culture was exported to Japan, but it wasn’t really forced down their throats.
#24–Jag==true, but just to argue==didn’t we send a battleship into their harbor and say trade with us or we will start a war? So, we forced our nose into their tent. Japanese self interest followed closely.
Ultimately, we will have a one world culture and all isolated cultures get absorbed==so unless you want people kept like zoo animals in preserves, the whole “protect/honor/respect” a culture is one of the biggest bullshit argumments floating around.
#25 – bobbo
I didn’t think that far back. 😉 Yes, they were forced to open up their country. But I would still claim that it was a softer approach than when the conquistadors swept across the South America or when the tribes were crushed in North America.
I don’t think that there will be one world culture alone. People tend to keep their old traditions while adopting new ones. Just look at the Nordic countries, where you still see old Viking holidays being celebrated along with the Christian holidays… and they were Christianized some 7-800 years ago.
I’d love to learn about the crazy religion they practice.
I like the picture where you can see them shooting at the aircraft. Surely they see aircraft at times. What do they think it is?
How do we know these people are really “uncontacted”. To me that means that they have not seen or use any modern material. Do they even have an old plastic bowl, or any metal blades?
We need to take samples of the foods they eat and grow without disrupting them too much.
Publicity stunt, for a new Mel Gibson movie.
They clearly have WMD’s
They will become extinct?! Huh? Wouldn’t their natural evolution eventually lead to the extinction of their tribal habits? All that has happened here is that they have evolved slower than everyone else. It is not like they are a unique species.
They could start a new Cargo Cult, like the John Frum movement in Vanuatu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frum
#32 – bobbo
Sure, they’re mostly Western, but they do keep their own traditions, food and unwritten laws. As for the world culture… it will be a potpourri of influences. Will it be dominating in our lifetime… nope.
Religion will certainly hang on as best it can. Pay attention to the Vatican… they’re slowly trying to modernize themselves in order to not sound too outdated.
Interesting observation on Italy, France and Spain. I would agree on that they’re similar due to religion and similar languages, but do have some cultural differences.
#1 tom joad
That was the funniest Little Rascals/Our Gang ever! What was it called? Is it on utube?