cross posted from The Dream Antilles
The “Uncontacted” Village
CNN has reported that an “uncontacted tribe” has been sited in the Peruvian-Brazilian Amazon. The story isn’t really surprising:
Researchers have produced aerial photos of jungle dwellers who they say are among the few remaining peoples on Earth who have had no contact with the outside world.
Taken from a small airplane, the photos show men outside thatched communal huts, necks craned upward, pointing bows toward the air in a remote corner of the Amazonian rainforest.
The National Indian Foundation, a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks “uncontacted tribes” — indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders — and seeks to protect them from encroachment.
More than 100 uncontacted tribes remain worldwide, and about half live in the remote reaches of the Amazonian rainforest in Peru or Brazil, near the recently photographed tribe, according to Survival International, a nonprofit group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people.
Look at the photo and notice the obvious harmony of the tribe with its environment. Do they need our help? Do they need our influence? Do they need us to be flying over them in our airplanes? Do they need us to be driving them from where they are?