Posted on 05/30/2008 3:55:58 PM PDT by marthemaria
Dramatic photographs ofpreviously unfound Amazon Indians have highlighted theprecariousness of the few remaining "lost" tribes and thedangers they face from contact with outsiders.
The bow-and-arrow wielding Indians in the pictures releasedon Thursday are likely the remnants of a larger tribe who wereforced deeper into the forest by encroaching settlement,experts said.
Rather than being "lost", they have likely had plenty ofcontact with other indigenous groups over the years, saidThomas Lovejoy, an Amazon expert who is president of The HeinzCenter in Washington.
"I think there is an ethical question whether you can inthe end keep them from any contact and I think the answer tothat is no," Lovejoy said.
"The right answer is to have the kind of contact and changethat the tribes themselves manage the pace of it."
The Brazil-Peru border area is one of the world's lastrefuges for such groups, with more than 50 uncontacted tribesthought to live there out of the estimated 100 worldwide.
They are increasingly at risk from development, especiallyon the Peruvian side which has been slower than Brazil torecognize protected areas for indigenous people.
Jose Carlos Meirelles, an official with Brazil's Indianprotection agency who was on the helicopter that overflew thetribe, said they should be left alone as much as possible.
"While we are getting arrows in the face, it's fine," hetold Brazil's Globo newspaper. "The day that they arewell-behaved, they are finished."
Contact with outsiders has historically been disastrous forBrazil's Indians, who now number about 350,000 compared to upto 5 million when the first Europeans arrived.
"In 508 years of history, out of the thousands of tribesthat exist none have adapted well to society in Brazil," saidSydney Possuelo, a former official with Brazil's Indianprotection agency who founded its isolated tribes department.
CONCERN OVER PERU POLICY
In recent years, though, tribes like the Yanomami havesucceeded in winning greater protection by becoming morepolitically organized and forming links with foreignconservationists.
"It's not about making that decision for them. It's aboutmaking time and space to make that decision themselves," saidDavid Hill of the Survival International group.
More than half of the Murunahua tribe in Peru died of coldsand other illness after they were contacted as a result ofdevelopment for the first time in 1996, Hill said.
Sightings of such tribes are not uncommon, occurring onceevery few years in the Brazil-Peru border area where there areestimated to be more than 50 out of the total global number of100 uncontacted tribes.
In 1998, a 200-strong tribe was discovered by Possueloliving in huts under the forest canopy, also in Acre state nearthe Brazil-Peru border.
In September last year, ecologists looking for illegalloggers in Peru spotted a little-known nomadic tribe deep inthe Amazon.
The sighting underscored worries among rights groups thatoil and gas exploration being pushed by the Peruviangovernment, as well as logging, is putting tribes at risk.
Peru has no equivalent to Brazil's long-standing Indianaffairs department, which has a policy of no contact withunknown tribes.
"There is a lot of logging going on over on the Peruvianside," Hill said. "It's had all kinds of effects on the groupsliving there, particularly on the uncontacted groups -- it'sled to violent conflicts and deaths."
In May, Peru's petroleum agency Perupetro said it wouldexclude areas where isolated tribes live from an auction of oiland gas concessions. Perupetro had been under pressure to limitexploration activities near tribal areas, and had cast doubt onthe existence of isolated groups, angering activists.
That doesn’t make any sense to me from a genetic standpoint or even an evolutionary standpoint.
Even agnostic scientists put man into the Americas about 13-15,000 years ago. That’s a fraction of the time attributed to the development and migration of humans elsewhere.
They had the same forefathers.
We’re on the same page, most definitely. It’s part of how we destroyed the Native Americans in this country. They survived and flourished with what they had around them. We showed up and they ‘needed’ iron pots and guns and cloth and bullets.
It’s fascinating to think that there are civilizations that modernization hasn’t touched. Not because of poverty or corrupt governments or dire circumstances but just because they are living the way they always have, in isolated areas. They have their society, their place in the world, their niche. They are right where they should be. Let’s not introduce them to iPods and modern medicine (both a plus and a minus), to measles and chickenpox and McDonalds, to cars and pollution and greed. Who are we to say they are ‘missing’ anything? Who are we to judge that ‘our’ way of life is so much better? Their biggest stressor is probably whether or not they fill the gamepot that night. In a way, I’m very sad that these pictures were even published. Now they’ll probably be hunted down to be ‘studied’. Ever heard of the Tree People of West Papua, New Guinea? Another ‘lost people’.
Well, that tells us that either Brazil's culture sucks.. or the Indians do.
I’m asking myself that question!!!
I think they think they are part of nature, and must be protected like other animals facing extinction. Which sort of denies their humanity, as far as I’m concerned.
Or maybe they think of them as some sort of mascot??
Those Indians who surrvived the initial epidemics, were genetically hardy with regard to these diseases. They genetically passed this hardiness on their offspring.
The same likely occurred in Europe centuries or millennium before the explorers arrived in the New World. These explorers had already had contracted the diseases and were immune, or were genetically hardy and resistant to them.
Those Indians who survived the initial epidemics, were genetically hardy with regard to these diseases. They genetically passed this hardiness on their offspring.
The same likely occurred in Europe centuries or millennium before the explorers arrived in the New World. These explorers had already had contracted the diseases and were immune, or were genetically hardy and resistant to them.
Which sort of denies their humanity, as far as I’m concerned.
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Like pets to be kept in a tree museum.
Ooh, I had that discussion with a friend. I wondered why living in a small village (with numerous family and friends), walking to school every day on a dusty village road, playing with a few toys and a lot of imagination in the yard and living simply with his **father** was such a terrible existance. So much better off to live with strangers, have MTV and internet and a gajillion plastic toys, sit and play video games and munch on sugary cereal and soda while gaining 50lbs. /s.
I suggest you join their lifestyle, admit that art and literature have meant nothing, that advances in medicine and science are folly, and that people are better off ignorant and struggling for survival without even the benefit of agriculture.
Sure, you'll die way younger than you otherwise would have. You'll eat bugs and worms and stuff, but you'll be happy.
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We? Is this like Queen Victoria's royal "We"?
Sorry, but no one in my family has ever destroyed any Native American.
that there are civilizations that modernization hasn’t touched.
They have their society, their place in the world, their niche. They are right where they should be.
And they lived mean, short, miserable lives and were lucky to live to be 35. There's a reason aboriginals give up the old ways as **soon** as their able. Illness, parasite infestation, deformity, death, and eating slugs is a stinky way to live.
The Native American civilizations never had a Neolithic Revolution, and never domesticated any animals except the dog, which Europeans also had, if you will recall.
And, at any rate, are you forgetting syphilis, which came from the New World.
Who are we to make that choice for them, and to force our romantic vision of innocence upon them?
We're talking about people her, not pets, or insects under a microscope.
**They** are free to choose; not elite pinheads in Ivory Towers. If they choose to reject of life of parasite infestation, disease, deformity, deafness, blindness, death at any early age, and eating slugs for dinner...well...I say, “Good for them!”
Elian was illegitimate and the man who came to pick up up never had a DNA test. This “father” was held out of reach from our courts of law thanks to Bill Clinton.
One word about bringing them in to civilization. Probably can't be done for the adults. The children are another matter, entirely.
The people deserve protection, not for their lifestyle, or even their culture. I mean, come on, lifespans of 30, no toilet paper, etc. Whatever the anthropological knowledge to be obtained, it is not worth the human suffering of living like that. But their lives and health should be protected. This is one case where I could favor some government actions as opposed to keeping them isolated.
But if you would be kind of enough to send links via Freepmail?
But their lives and health should be protected.
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Absolutely! The first people going there should be healthy and carrying bags of immunization serum and needles.
Also,.. their property rights need to be protected, and good and caring lawyers assigned to educate them, and to see that they are not exploited.
At a minimum we should have installed bubbles over every American Indian community to protect them from our horrible diseases because they were all healthy and carbon conscious and just how we should live today.
I'm not sure how the weak and frail fit into the survival of the species under that scenario, but I have a hunch.
Even in the New World white mortality from these diseases was high, though not as high as the Indians'. Word of a small pox outbreak was feared nearly as much as rumor of Indian raids. It meant that some people were going to die.
“Not an entirely bad thing when you consider some of the native practices such as the Aztec tendency towards human sacrifice and cannibalism”
There was a glorified painting of Aztecs with a good looking aztec babe in front of a temple hanging on the wall of a Mexican joint I had dinner in last night.
I shocked my GF’s 12 year old when I said the painting probably depicted a scene just before they cut the woman’s heart out.
Actually it did. There were a heck of a lot more AmerIndians living in North America in the 1400's then there were in the 1600's.
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