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.
Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging.
Isn't the real risk that they are living in the stone age?
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."
We're treating them like some rare animal instead of human beings.
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".
I love the quotes around civilized. We're the strange ones getting the most out of natural resources and curing diseases and such. Ah, if we only had the vision to live naked to the elements with our bows and arrows.
2 comments:
I've got to admit, those pictures of the stone agers pointing their primitive weapons at the helicopter are pretty cool. You know that the tribe is going to incorporate some sort of UFO mythology into its oral tradition now and successive generations will think their forebears were loony for seeing mechanical birds in the sky.
I wonder if survivor guilt exists in any species beyond our own. We always seem to feel remorse at the prospect of causing some other lifeform to be eradicated. Not too long ago, big cats ruled the world, then early man moved into their territory and competed for the same food. The cats saw us as food which necessitated an eradication initiative on our part. Fast forward several thousand years and we are sending people to the moon while the big cats live in our zoos. Should we feel guilty for this or is this just survival of the fittest?
I doubt if the cats would have built cheap electronics much less transitioned to an agricultural society. The liberal elite always looks at mankind and feels guilt. Why not pride? We have come so far. Is this not nature? Perhaps this is all nature's master plan and global warming and curing cancer all adds up to our eventual destiny.
We should protect these rain forest people because it is wicked cool to have remote tribes living in primitive societies while we are colonizing the moon, not because civilization belongs in quotes.
I recommend LeTourneau's MOVER OF MEN AND MOUNTAINS on the merits of using heavy equipment and profit motive to move earth, displace people, and create economic development in 'uncivilized' places.
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