Isolated tribes live all over the planet, humans who have NO IDEA what YouTube is, and
have never seen an iPhone, or a metal knife.
How come they're still out there?
Hello everyone, Trace here reporting for DNews.
In late June a previously isolated tribe in Brazil walked out of the Amazon rainforest
and peacefully approached a team of government scientists.
This was the first time in 20 years they'd done so!
The Brazilian Indian Affairs Department or FUNAI, said it wasn't a normal approach and
was worried.
They believe illegal logging forced these people from their ancestral homes.
There are humans all over this planet who still live like our ancient ancestors.
There may be 100 different isolated groups across the Amazon and New Guinea, on islands
off the coast of India, and in Malaysia and central Africa.
Even the most isolated usually make contact with OTHER tribes and some of those secondary
tribes contact the local government regularly.
Not to mention, anthropologists attempt to photograph these people from the air, and
missionaries attempt to evangelize on the ground -- so even if they don't understand
what that giant metal bird is, they know other humans are around.
The largest isolated tribal area on earth is in South America.
The Peruvian and Brazilian governments have laws reserving land for these tribes to live
on.
Brazil used to forcibly assimilate tribes, but now they have a policy of non-interference,
similar to Star Trek's Prime Directive.
Which sounds great on paper, but most reserves end up being ravaged by illegal oil, logging,
mining and drug-trafficking practices, driving the tribes away or killing them.
There are stories of tribes who fight back being killed in all sorts of gruesome ways.
Brazil has confirmed that 67 isolated tribes, and Peru has 15 -- numbering more than 500
people.
The smallest known isolated tribe on our planet is difficult to pinpoint.
There are tribes of only a handful of individuals, down to just one.
A man in his 40s living in the Brazilian state of Rondônia (HONduonia) is the last survivor
of his tribe, the rest likely being killed by modern humans.
No one knows his name or his lost tribe.
[Do we have a source or is this widely reported?
In 2010, he was on the run from locals trying to chase him off his land to develop it.
His huts were bulldozed, and he was alone.
He killed an encroaching man by shooting an arrow into his chest.
Yikes.
He's still out there somewhere].
The most isolated tribe in the world is a tough one to guess, but there are two known
tribes on the Andaman Islands off the coast of India.
The most famous of the two are the Sentinelese who were described in 1290 by Marco Polo,
as "a most violent and cruel generation."
They have no desire to join modern society.
They've fought off National Geographic and police helicopters with bows and arrows, and
kill fisherman who land on their island.
Estimates say there may be as few as 40, but we can't get close enough to tell.
The dangers to these isolated tribes are many, and it's not just loggers with chainsaws or
drug traffickers with guns.
In 1980, a mission trip from Florida set up camp in Colombia near the isolated Nukak tribe
hoping to evangelize them.
Since these tribes are mainly living hunter-gatherer lifestyles the missionaries brought metal
tools to gain their trust.
But because of the Nukak's lack of immunity to modern viruses and bacteria, the missionaries
brought axes, machetes and disease.
They were stricken with respiratory infections and other diseases before being treated.
Most of them now live in poverty in a city near their old land.
A study in Nature[a] of 238 indigenous populations in South America found declines averaged 43-percent
after contact with outsiders.
Even simply contacting the tribes directly completely changes their chosen way of life.
Remember that tribe from the beginning?
A month later, they'd emerged again, with the flu.
Which brings to mind a whole OTHER consideration.
Should we leave these people be?
Or find a way to contact them?
We've got a comments section, so go use it.
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